Here are a few photos I took this morning after an hour of practice in front of the fire. Maybe I'll get around to making a recording - if I do, I'll post it to this thread.
While I was agonizing over whether or not to make the purchase, I had a hard time finding reviews of the newest American made Martins (like the 2K), so hopefully this thread will serve as an accidental mini-review. (Before anybody helps me out, I did see all of Petey's reviews. In fact, I've probably watched them all more than once!)
I've had the instrument over a month now. I've lost a lot of sleep the past few weeks because I only tend to get quality time alone with it after the rest of the family goes to bed. After I start playing it is easy to lose track of the time.
The Martin has made me much more critical of the intonation on my other (cheap-ish) ukuleles. In fact, it has made me obsessed with intonation in general because the Martin's intonation, like any uke I guess, isn't perfect. It is the best I've seen, though. I've been going to music shops around town and playing all their ukes with my tuner on the headstock, seeing how good or bad everything is. Getting the Martin sort of opened my eyes in that regard, and I realized I've been giving ukes a bit of a pass on certain intonation issues because they make up for it in charm.
None of the shops I've been to around here have many "good" ukuleles on display. The best I've encountered, intonation-wise, were a cheap Cordoba concert ($90 in a cardboard box with a tuner and some other cheap add on) and a $300 Gold Tone soprano that was quiet as a mouse but intonated almost perfectly. I know this is an issue that could be corrected by a luthier in the case of most decent ukuleles, and I've attacked my Kala with files and sandpaper over the last few weeks. It is tricky, and I've basically ruined the nut at this point, but I'll purchase a bunch of nut and bridge blanks and keep studying everything I can find and eventually the banged up Kala will intonate perfectly.
Speaking of intonation, my Martin's intonation issues changed quite a bit when I switched from Martin strings to a set of Acquila Nylguts. Which is mostly to say that they got (a lot) worse.
Is this common in solid wood instruments? I know that Acquilas typically result in different tensions than fluorocarbons (at least I think I know; they certainly feel like they are pulling harder). I strung the Acquilas a few hours before my dad came over with his own ukulele, and the problems were so immediate (and so frightening for me) that I took them off right away and put Martins back on.
It still has the lovely tone that caught my attention when I was looking at all the instruments at the shop in NY. I've still yet to play anything else that comes close to competing in terms of loudness or complexity of tone, but that's because I'm so new to this.
This January I'm going on a road trip with my dad and we're planning to visit The Uke Republic outside of Atlanta. I'll finally be in a shop that puts the uke first! And I assume I'll finally start getting a feel for the full range of complexity that's out there.
In the meantime, I'm so glad I made the leap. It's been just about the most fulfilling material acquisition of my life.
Time to throw another log on the fire!
While I was agonizing over whether or not to make the purchase, I had a hard time finding reviews of the newest American made Martins (like the 2K), so hopefully this thread will serve as an accidental mini-review. (Before anybody helps me out, I did see all of Petey's reviews. In fact, I've probably watched them all more than once!)
I've had the instrument over a month now. I've lost a lot of sleep the past few weeks because I only tend to get quality time alone with it after the rest of the family goes to bed. After I start playing it is easy to lose track of the time.
The Martin has made me much more critical of the intonation on my other (cheap-ish) ukuleles. In fact, it has made me obsessed with intonation in general because the Martin's intonation, like any uke I guess, isn't perfect. It is the best I've seen, though. I've been going to music shops around town and playing all their ukes with my tuner on the headstock, seeing how good or bad everything is. Getting the Martin sort of opened my eyes in that regard, and I realized I've been giving ukes a bit of a pass on certain intonation issues because they make up for it in charm.
None of the shops I've been to around here have many "good" ukuleles on display. The best I've encountered, intonation-wise, were a cheap Cordoba concert ($90 in a cardboard box with a tuner and some other cheap add on) and a $300 Gold Tone soprano that was quiet as a mouse but intonated almost perfectly. I know this is an issue that could be corrected by a luthier in the case of most decent ukuleles, and I've attacked my Kala with files and sandpaper over the last few weeks. It is tricky, and I've basically ruined the nut at this point, but I'll purchase a bunch of nut and bridge blanks and keep studying everything I can find and eventually the banged up Kala will intonate perfectly.
Speaking of intonation, my Martin's intonation issues changed quite a bit when I switched from Martin strings to a set of Acquila Nylguts. Which is mostly to say that they got (a lot) worse.
Is this common in solid wood instruments? I know that Acquilas typically result in different tensions than fluorocarbons (at least I think I know; they certainly feel like they are pulling harder). I strung the Acquilas a few hours before my dad came over with his own ukulele, and the problems were so immediate (and so frightening for me) that I took them off right away and put Martins back on.
It still has the lovely tone that caught my attention when I was looking at all the instruments at the shop in NY. I've still yet to play anything else that comes close to competing in terms of loudness or complexity of tone, but that's because I'm so new to this.
This January I'm going on a road trip with my dad and we're planning to visit The Uke Republic outside of Atlanta. I'll finally be in a shop that puts the uke first! And I assume I'll finally start getting a feel for the full range of complexity that's out there.
In the meantime, I'm so glad I made the leap. It's been just about the most fulfilling material acquisition of my life.
Time to throw another log on the fire!
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