Best ukulele for beginners...Wirecutter

I think that is interesting that when I first got interested in ukuleles I never once came across Donner ukuleles in my research. Then for four years I never heard once about a Donner ukulele, until just recently in this article. Now I see Amazon adds for them everywhere. They are really pushing them.
 
If you are seeing Amazon ads, it is because you looked them up on Amazon and your cookies are resulting in those ads popping up!
Yep, except I have been looking at a lot of other ukuleles too. A lot more than I have looked at the Donner. I'm getting pop ups of some of those as well, but the Donner is showing up ten times more often than the Kalas and the others that I've been looking at. It is interesting how Amazon reads me and what they put in front of me as a result. They must have a lot of Donners to get rid of.
 
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... It is interesting how Amazon reads me and what they put in front of me as a result...

Amazon will track and record your searches and what you are interested in, and if you are logged in to your Amazon account, this info is SAVED into your account, and if you are NOT logged in to Amazon, they still track and record your habits, with a combination of browser cookies, HTML Canvas fingerprinting, and/or 'hidden' 1-pixel images, just like 99% of the internet nowadays, of which the most penetrating offenders are also Google, Yahoo, Facebook...

If you wish to avoid being tracked, there are standard countermeasures you can take by installing 3-4 different add-ons into your web browser, but most people do not realize just how all of this works, and thus they are tracked, profiled and their habits are for sale to advertising networks, and other 3rd-parties unknown.

These tracking and profiling functions are all documented either in the 'Terms Of Service' and 'Privacy Policy' documents that are presented when you create an account, but NOBODY ever reads them and just ticks the box 'I Agree' because they just dont know any better...

Welcome to INTERNET 2017, where INTERNET watches you! :)

"If the service is FREE, then YOU are the product being sold!" - which applies to all Google services, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc...
 
Amazon will track and record your searches and what you are interested in, and if you are logged in to your Amazon account, this info is SAVED into your account, and if you are NOT logged in to Amazon, they still track and record your habits, with a combination of browser cookies, HTML Canvas fingerprinting, and/or 'hidden' 1-pixel images, just like 99% of the internet nowadays, of which the most penetrating offenders are also Google, Yahoo, Facebook...

If you wish to avoid being tracked, there are standard countermeasures you can take by installing 3-4 different add-ons into your web browser, but most people do not realize just how all of this works, and thus they are tracked, profiled and their habits are for sale to advertising networks, and other 3rd-parties unknown.

These tracking and profiling functions are all documented either in the 'Terms Of Service' and 'Privacy Policy' documents that are presented when you create an account, but NOBODY ever reads them and just ticks the box 'I Agree' because they just dont know any better...

Welcome to INTERNET 2017, where INTERNET watches you! :)

"If the service is FREE, then YOU are the product being sold!" - which applies to all Google services, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc...

I have an account, but I don't log into it to look at things. I don't buy hardly anything from them, and I don't care if they are tracking me when I look at things on their site. I'm not a private person. But what I'm saying is that I've looked at twenty or thirty different ukuleles on Amazon the last month or so. They can't put them all up there, so their algorithm has to pick what I have the highest probability of buying. I think that it is interesting that I'm getting mostly Donner popups, and not very many of the other brands, particularly Kala. I am looking at Kalas a lot more than Donners. In fact, I think that I only went to their site to look at a Donner when I read that article and not since. So evidently they aren't interested in what I'm looking at the most. Anyway, it is just conversation, because it does not annoy me. It makes me curious, how they pick what they think they can entice me to buy. It certainly is not a Donner Ukulele. So that is why I think that they are pushing them, and their algorithm is programed to push them. If they were pushing what I'm looking at the most, they would be putting a Kala KA-SEM in their popups that they send me.
 
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Regardless of the testers or the choice of instruments, I feel like the credibility of the whole thing is reduced simply by the fact that it seems to be an advertisement for amazon.
 
I consider the article to be valid as far as it goes, but there are a lot of Uke makers and woods and strings and other variables, plus each Uke is bound to be a little different. For them to pick three Ukes and say "Best" is a little silly.

I read Barry's review of the Caramel CC-102 and found it fair, but he shouldn't judge Caramel as a whole brand on one example of the cheapest uke's they make. I mean, what can you expect for $40? That's like complaining that all Chevys are trash because the Vega you bought fell apart six months after the warranty ran out.

I have a Caramel CC-100 ($55) with the older 'tribal flames' rosette and would like to replace it with another that has the newer leaf and vine rosette, but after a local shop $15 setup and some EJ99's it sounds so good I'm afraid that a new one might not sound as good. I have a CT-100 (Tenor $65) and a CB-103 (Bari $75) that came nicely set up and almost perfectly intoned. (I'm a sucker for Zebrawood.) I had to file the fret ends a bit and change strings, but for under $100 I don't consider that a deal breaker.

Last January I bought a "good" Ohana Cedar and solid Rosewood TK-50G from Mim. Is it better than my Caramels, yes, prettier and easy to play, but is it worth 5x the cost of my CT-100? No. Am I concerned, not even a little. The Caramels got me playing and I learned to appreciate my TK-50G. I just need to learn how to make it sound as good as possible, and finger pick, and read music, and ....

The best Uke is the one you can afford and make music with. :music:
 
From someone who is still somewhat of a beginner on a ukulele, with 40 years of guitar background, I've owned the first two ukuleles listed, the Donner and the Cordoba. The Cordoba was one of my earliest purchases after playing it. The Donner was bought on a whim after hearing about it.

I own a lot of ukuleles, some great, some good, some not-so-good. Some expensive, some cheap. Waterman, Kala, Lanikai, Caramel, Mitchell, Pono, Bruce Wei, Cordoba, Kanilea, Kamaka, Mya-Moe - you get the idea.

I found both the Donner and the Cordoba 15CM to be very playable, stay in tune, reasonable action, and nice tone. They were both good enough to get a lot of early playing time and to get passed on to my daughter and my niece, who were very appreciative. The Cordobas (my 15CM and 35TS-CE) both had high nuts which needed some light work. I'm not an expert but some inexpensive files from Harbor Freight, a little time watching youtube videos, and a nervous 20 minutes of work had both Cordobas playing much easier.

As far as other inexpensive beginner instruments go, I think the Kala KA-S and the Caramel CT400 were more than decent instruments. The Soprano is smaller than I prefer to play, and the Caramel was surprisingly nice to play, but not as good as my Lanikai Monkey-Pod (a gift). Those both got relegated to the wall once I settled in on playing Tenors and picked up some good ones.

As for getting a sub-$100 setup uke at a brick and mortar store, I don't know any around here that will do that, nor do the better online stores sell ukuleles for under a hundred bucks with free setup.

Admittedly, once I purchased my Pono (nevermind the Kanile'a or Mya-Moe) my 'beginner' ukuleles got zero playing time. I was happy to pass them on, and if the girls get the bug, I will be happy to pass on even better ones (since I rarely play anything other than my top half-dozen). I'll probably give them the Fluke and the Pono - very good ukuleles I picked up for very reasonable $$. (Alright, the Pono was not inexpensive, but as good as it is, it deserves more playing time)

That said, the Donner and the Cordoba were a great start for me, and were inexpensive enough to take the original dive and decide if I was going to stick with it. My daughter and niece play the heck out of theirs. Are there better ones? Perhaps, depending on the individual. Are they good beginner ukuleles, inexpensive, easy to access no matter where you live, and likely to be playable, hold a tune, and have reasonable action? I'd have to say so, from my experience. Plus, you don't have to worry about pampering them.

I'd have no problem recommending a Kala KA-S Soprano (~$70), Donner DUC-1 Concert (~$65), or Caramel CT400 Tenor (~$60) to a beginner with a small budget. As long as they don't mind waiting weeks for the Caramel. Throw in a Snark Tuner and you're off to a great start.
 
I read Barry's review of the Caramel CC-102 and found it fair, but he shouldn't judge Caramel as a whole brand on one example of the cheapest uke's they make.

No - I don't judge the whole brand - there is an intro / explanation on my blog about what my reviews mean - they are ONLY my views on the one in front of me. It's the same reason I get frustrated when people pick them apart - almost like they want me to ignore the issues I am seeing before me and either lie or... I dunno...

All they ever can be is one persons opinion of one particular example.
 
Regardless of the testers or the choice of instruments, I feel like the credibility of the whole thing is reduced simply by the fact that it seems to be an advertisement for amazon.


That's the way I see it too. THere are some brands that you dont see on Amazon and for that reason they dont make the list for testing. Perhaps the article would be better titled "Best Ukuleles You Can Buy On Amazon"...
 
I'd never seen many of these brand
names before.

Article looks like Amazon spam to me.

I do not trust it.
 
I have, nor have I ever had, any desire whatever to buy a uke off Amazon. However, I feel like I need to walk into these discussions because many times I am asked by beginners "Will you sell me a uke/Where can I get a uke?"
I would never tell a beginner to buy a uke off Amazon.
See, what it boils down to, to me, is that a beginner doesn't know that her uke needs to be set up, let alone be able to do it herself. I've been playing for several years, and I still don't own a fret file.
I see so many poorly set up ukes, that I'm considering buying some files and learning to do setups from You Tube, or my luthier, who is weary of doing them, keeps him away from building.
 
I will be able to comment more tomorrow after 10 more of the Enya ukuleles arrive, but perhaps we have a first vendor that can be trusted to have every ukulele set up correctly from Amazon? If memory serves, The Ukulele Site was once on Amazon.

I also wanted to say that I never intended for this thread to have such a long life (I would rather keep reading new entries on the "How did the ukulele find you" thread). It was an article that surfaced somewhere, and in particular I found it amazing that Donner was listed just after hearing about it for the first time from Got a Ukulele. I never meant for this to be an anti (or pro) Amazon thread, and honestly, didn't even pay attention to that aspect when I posted the original post!
 
Sorry 'bout that Choirguy....some of us can't help but hijack a thread now and then.
 
You can, but there is a risk in doing so. While some UU members are focused on the quality of the instrument for the beginner (and yes, I have seen the suggestion of a Kamaka as a first instrument), one of the more common bits of advice is to buy a ukulele from a dealer that sets up the instrument for a common string action, rather than getting a ukulele from a big vendor.

Higher action means harder to play. Higher action due to a high nut means that beginner chords on the first fret are harder to play. And theoretically, an instrument that is set up right should play more closely in tune.

So the suggestion to not buy from eBay or Amazon as a first instrument is generally good advice. That said, Mim's store front is via eBay...and she is one of the best out there.

Just be sure to call her. Should would rather avoid ebay fees, and she might throw in a case or something and it's a win win for both.
 
I haven't heard of the brands, but it's not Amazon spam--the Wirecutter is well regarded. This might not be their area of expertise, they might be wrong, but they aren't scammers.
 
A buddy came over yesterday with two uke he bought. One was 27.00 the other 31.00. I'm used to hi end uke but these were wonderful, spot on action and intonation.https://m.banggood.com/Deviser-Ukul...chhttps://m.banggood.com/search/ukuleles.html
 
Kaka is the same company as Enya. Not sure what to make of the Deviser...the audio sample wouldn't make me want to buy one. They are saying it is solid spruce and rosewood. That's can't be at $34.
 
Hello, this my first post and I purchased the Donner DUC1 from amazon. Pretty much what RLLink stated were my reasons. I wanted to try a ukulele but did not want to spend a lot on something that might be a short term adventure. I have had the Donner for about a month and have enjoyed playing it. I am still learning to strum and learn the chords but it has been a good investment at this point.

Hi, You can buy ukulele books too while you are learning, Amazon and other uke market have books, Just follow the book as me, I was purchased 3 months ago and I am enjoying now like a pro. I got the uke by reading here Best ukulele they wrote good, I was satisfied.

Also another destination is this Best ukulele for beginners

You may be satisfy to read the guides and find something helpful
 
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