Alulu Curley Acacia Solid Wood Uke

Alulu Curly Acacia Solid Wood Uke

Just a quick review as a first post. I read the forum before joining and before purchasing the Alulu Solid Wood Curly Acacia Tenor uke with case for about $210 including shipping.

I'm a fairly new uke player and don't have much to compare it to. I have a Kala Soprano laminate so that's the comparison I guess.

I do have guitars and mandolins so I have some stringed instrument experience.

As some others have mentioned, I found the Alulu to be a little heavier than I had expected and not as loud as I had expected.

It's not that it's really "heavy". It's just heavier than I was expecting from a solid wood uke. I guess that's based on mandolins and guitars and comparing laminate with solid wood.

There's not really much to complain about here however. A comparable Kala would have been about $400 vs $210.

I ordered the uke on Thursday and got it Tuesday (from Taiwan).

The finish is beautiful. The nut action is good. The bridge is a little high but with nylon strings it's not much of an issue and I haven't changed anything.

There's not enough excess material in the saddle to take anything off and I'm not going to unglue the bridge.

The construction quality/detail is excellent as far as I can tell.

The sound is nice and even though I thought it was a little quiet it's not excessively so. I'm also (kind of) comparing it to my laminate soprano. I think it will probably open up a bit as well as I play it more.

It came with Aquilla strings (high g) and I switched the high g out to a (red) Aquilla low G.

The case is very nice as well.

My main purpose in posting this review is just to alleviate any concern that anyone may have about ordering from ebay and wondering if the prices are too good to be true.

I can't imagine that I would be getting any more (quality) by ordered a comparable Kala at twice the price.

I'm sure a custom or higher end uke would beat this one but I seriously doubt if I'll be upgrading. I'm not a professional musician and my musical interests aren't limited to ukuleles so this one is more than enough for me.

I've been curious about the Alulu ukes I've been seeing on eBay. I had a custom gypsy tenor uke made by Bruce Wei Arts and it's also heavy and does not have great projection or sustain. Guess I'll refrain from going Alulu. (BTW, the abbreviation for ukulele is uke, not uku.)

"Uku" is "flea" in Hawaiian.

Aloha and welcome to UU. Glad you joined in.

Any chances of a couple pictures?

Enjoy and keep us posted

Hey seattle, I'm glad you're enjoying your Alulu. They're nice, cheap fancy starter solid wood ukes to play around with. They definitely didn't sound good enough for me to want to gig with it but it was great for quiet practices at home. I however sold it (along with many of my other ukuleles) for a custom ukulele.

P.S. Their guitarleles are great though. Those sounded amazing.

What is a guitarlele? I saw that wording in some of the ebay ads and just though it was "Chinglish" for ukulele.

seattle said:

What is a guitarlele? I saw that wording in some of the ebay ads and just though it was "Chinglish" for ukulele.

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It is a small guitar...not to be confused with a six-string ukulele. The former has six individual strings, tuned ADGCA; the latter also has six strings, but the A and C strings are doubled. The doubled strings are, typically, tuned an octave apart.

I've had a very different experience with Alulu.

Last year my wife surprised me with a tenor as Christmas present. I'm not positive of the price, but I've inferred that it was in the ~$180 range. First impression was that I was very impressed with the intonation. Tone was better than expected. At that price, I would have expected a fiberboard case, but it was similar to a musician's friend case. The top is very thick, and it's quiet, but that's ok for me. The finish is applied heavily, but at this price, that's ok. But...

The action was outrageously high. More the 1/4" above the 12th fret. To bring it down to a reasonable height, the top of the saddle would need to be level with the bridge. So it's beyond adjustment. It can be played comfortably to the 3rd fret. But if I try to play something like Jake's "Missing Three" or Aldrine's version of "One Note Samba" barring at the 8th or 10th fret is problematic.

But the biggest problem is that the top started cracking within the first three weeks. I live in San Diego, humidity is pretty high (35%-60% last year), we seldom use the furnace, and the uke was humidified with readings consistently in the 45-50% range. It arrived at the first of the year. By the third week of January there dimples on each side of the bridge, and a 3-4" crease along the grain about 1.5" from the bridge on one side and a smaller one on the other side. I think it was built without a patch under the bridge, but I could be wrong about that. In any event, a top that starts caving that quickly was an obvious concern, so my wife contacted taisamlu to see what could be done to make thing right and was told nothing was wrong with the uke. So she posted a negative rating on Ebay. Taisamlu responded with, "Buyer asked unreasonable refund.The luthier solved the top problem.won't carve." That's just a lie. I never took the top to a luthier because we didn't see any reason to invest money repairing the top when the action couldn't be fixed without replacing the bridge.

So, I suspect that if you get a well-constructed Alulu, you'll get a decent sounding uke that's a good value. But the build quality is inconsistent at best, and the seller can't be trusted.

Your mileage may vary.

seattle said:

What is a guitarlele? I saw that wording in some of the ebay ads and just though it was "Chinglish" for ukulele.

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AKA kiku.

http://forum.ukuleleunderground.com/showthread.php?117400-New-Kinnard-Kiku-quot-Inisheer-Air-quot

Congratulations on your purchase and welcome to UU. Would like to hear sound samples of your particular uke. And pics too!

RickOlson said:

But the biggest problem is that the top started cracking within the first three weeks. I live in San Diego, humidity is pretty high (35%-60% last year), we seldom use the furnace, and the uke was humidified with readings consistently in the 45-50% range.

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Hi RickOlson, thank you for sharing this is super important!

I am also thinking about Alulu "Brazilian" (really? I think it is Vietnamese! I looked on Internet for real Brazilian guitars and even furniture: Alulu version is not "Brazilian") rosewood (for $500) or about cheaper Koa (for $90 auction), too much thinking

Here is what I think is the main point: they build in an area where it is simply impossible to reach 6% dryness of the wood before starting to build from it; tropical zone; they do not publish for example "we build ukuleles from wood naturally dried in our warehouse during 3-4 years"; and so on. I just don't believe Ukulele built in 65% humidity environment will survive 45%... but yours started cracking in 3 weeks?

And also: top wood is heavy and thick? Red flag! They know they have problem of cracking and they workaround and make things even worse!!!

Bout pricing. Alulu (Taisamlu) have super nice looking golden Hawaiian Koa tenor for $365, but of course I'd prefer amazingly looking Kanile'a K-1 bought at HMS with full setup.

P.S. Thank you for pointing that it is heavier, it is super important and explains a lot.

Funtick, This is your first post. You don't actually own an Alulu ukulele yet your making pronouncements on them.

I have 3 Alulu ukuleles. None have cracked and its drier where I am than San Diego. They aren't perfect instruments but good value for money.

I really don't understand why you were so concerned about Alulu's to reply to an old thread and bag them.

I have 4 Alulus --- time since purchase in round numbers: 36 months, 22 months, 17 months, 3 months. 2 of them are 8 string tenors, 1 is 8 string baritone, 1 is pineapple tenor. all are acacia. None of them have cracked or malfunctioned in any way. In each I messaged Taisamlu, via Ebay, before purchase to specify desired string heights above frets 1 & 12. For the pineapple tenor I requested low G.

All my messages were quickly answered. All my requests were complied with. They have all opened up beautifully. The 8 string ukes have more than adequate cutting power with small groups. The pineapple started out too quiet. I switched the strings to Oasis clear fluorocarbons so now it's okay in a small group.

My best ukes are from HMS -- I play them mostly at home. The Alulus I play anywhere -- they draw lots of compliments. YMMV.