Ukulele size buying advice

Yeah, before you buy a new one, take the Lanikai in for a setup and new strings. The resulting sound and playability may give you more info in your search for just the right uke.
 
As to friction tuners, you can tighten the screws on them to make them hold better, but then they are difficult to turn. I don't like them.
 
I usually recommend a concert scale for newbies, & I still do, but in your case, you have basically found out what you like. :)

I spent most of my first year on a Kala KA-SLNG long neck mahogany laminate uke, it was perfect for me starting out, & I still have & use it 2 years later.

But if you want to spend more money, my best uke is a long neck concert solid acacia Opio, & they do a lovely soprano long neck.

If you want to hear how it sounds, there are videos of it on the internet, as well as one of our members' video, available in another thread.

P.S. You can put a low G on a long neck, no problem, to increases your finger picking opportunities.

Thanks. I was wondering about low G as well. I'm shopping for a soprano.
 
As to friction tuners, you can tighten the screws on them to make them hold better, but then they are difficult to turn. I don't like them.

I don’t use friction tuners (I don’t play the quality of instrument that might have them) but do appreciate the problem. An acquaintance had to give up playing a nice Soprano of theirs because their arthritic fingers couldn’t manage the buttons.

As a tool to help I’ve wondered what might be about to help and came across this : https://www.ebay.com/itm/VIOLIN-PEG...091703?hash=item4b31cd65b7:g:1qQAAOSwmrlU0cDR .
It seems a bit on the expensive side to me but perhaps there are functionally similar but more affordable items available that might help. Worth a search?
 
You can buy peg winders for about £4.

Just had a quick look online & found this one, £1.99.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Adagio-Guitar-Peg-Winder/dp/B001O4KFHO

Here's a selection of what is available.
https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers...ng-Winders/zgbs/musical-instruments/486419011

I had wondered about those but decided that they might too readily put too much tension on the strings.

I searched a bit further and found this on another forum:

TV makes a fair point about people with arthritis or weak hands - for these the geared pegs sound useful. It is also possible (and cheaper) to make a simple accessory peg turner to help: get a piece of wooden dowel about 120mm x long by 15mm and cut a slot in one end big enough to fit over the head of the peg. You may need to taper the the end of the dowel to fit between the pegs. It helps, too, to wind a bit of gaffer tape round the end to close of the sides of the slot, so that the peg turner can't slip off the peg. (Response # 19, https://www.abrsm.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=60262&page=2 )

I guess a bit of semi flattened pipe could work in a similar way ........ providing it actually works there’s nothing quite so pleasing as a low cost solution.
 
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After much thought, I have decided to go with a Koaloha KCM-00. This will be the only ukulele I will buy for at least a year or two, so I figured I'd splurge on a high end one. Bought it from the Ukulele Site and am anxiously awaiting It! It would cost me over $100 to get the LU-21C setup around here, and that is considerably more than what it cost for the uke itself, so didn't really want to do that.

A couple questions, though:

1. I did not opt to have the friction tuners upgraded to the Gotoh UPT tuners. Is that a mistake? Seeing so many bad things about friction tuners is making me wonder if I should email them and pay to upgrade the tuners after all. Or should the Koaloha friction tuners be sufficient?

2. I did not request a low G, but am wondering if I should ask for it prior to them setting it up and shipping it. I do plan on doing a lot of fingerpicking, is a low G recommended for that? Would give more notes to work with. How is low G for strumming and for chord melody arrangements? I am tempted to go for it, but want to make sure it will work for all styles of playing. Is changing it as simple as changing out the string? Or is it kind of one or the other?

Thanks for the input.
 
Hey Shroomshade, congratulations to your purchase! I think you made a great decision. With a KoAloha, you won't have to upgrade ever (unless you want to experience different sizes and tonewoods).

As for the friction tuners, there are many who like them and who will tell you that they work just fine. With some fiddling, you will probably be able to achieve satisfying intonation. Personally, I would never want an instrument with friction tuners again, when I have better stability and accuracy with Gotoh or other geared tuners. But as indicated, many folks will dissagree. After all, friction tuners are the most traditional ones.

Similar points can be made in the reentrant vs. linear debate: High G is more traditional, but as you mentioned, you'll have a wider range with a low G. I prefer the latter, especially for fingerpicking. What I would do is keep the instrument reentrant to see how it works for you, but order a low G string along with it (Fremont Soloist, Thomastik Infeld, or a linear set from Worth, if you prefer all non-wound strings). In my exprience, the setup will work for both settings. The only thing you might have to do is widen the nut slot a bit if the string you are using is notably fatter.

Good luck with your endeavour!
 
Good choice, re tuners, some like them, but most seem to change them, I have some on one of my ukes, & whilst it is a little bit awkward getting them into tune, because I'm used to geared, it's OK, & they hold well enough.

Low G - definately - nearly all my ukes are, as I prefer to pick melody lines. :)
 
As to friction tuners, you can tighten the screws on them to make them hold better, but then they are difficult to turn. I don't like them.

Poor quality friction pegs do that - good quality ones dont - good quality ones turn like butter when at tension. This is the sort of generalisation that puts people off friction pegs. It's just not true though.
 
As to friction tuners, you can tighten the screws on them to make them hold better, but then they are difficult to turn. I don't like them.

Jan, thanks for sharing your experience on that, from what I read here you are far from alone in struggling with them and as I mentioned in a different post an aquatintance had to give up using a Uke with friction legs because they were so difficult to use - they suffer from arthritis though.

Friction pegs have been working for some people in some form for many decades. There might be a ‘knack to it’ but I guess it’s also like Baz (above) seems to say in that good ones work well, the problem is that what’s typically supplied isn’t of that superior quality required for easy use.

I find this comparison and explanation by Baz helpful: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2vG3zNQCa8g . If I remeber correctly Baz swapped out the as supplied tuning pegs on an Ohana too - not a particularly cheap Uke - because he didn’t feel that they worked well enough.

I hope that the above has been helpful.
 
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Congratulations! That is an amazing uke! You will never need to upgrade from a quality uke standpoint (although we always NEED another uke... lol)

1. I did not opt to have the friction tuners upgraded to the Gotoh UPT tuners. Is that a mistake? Seeing so many bad things about friction tuners is making me wonder if I should email them and pay to upgrade the tuners after all. Or should the Koaloha friction tuners be sufficient?

KoAloha friction pegs are good, quality pegs. I really like UPTs but never found the need to upgrade the original ones that came on my KoAloha. They were easy to tune and held their pitch without issue.

2. I did not request a low G, but am wondering if I should ask for it prior to them setting it up and shipping it. I do plan on doing a lot of fingerpicking, is a low G recommended for that? Would give more notes to work with. How is low G for strumming and for chord melody arrangements? I am tempted to go for it, but want to make sure it will work for all styles of playing. Is changing it as simple as changing out the string? Or is it kind of one or the other?

There is no right or wrong, only different. You can find strumming, chord melody, fingerpicking music for both. Low G does give you more notes, but high G gives you two high strings, which tend to be the strings that carry the melody. It is all personal preference. I mainly play chord melody and fingerpicking and am pretty much a high G player. The best part is it is a simple change to go from one to the other. To this point, when I have used a Freemont Soloist for low G I didn't have to make any adjustments to the nut. So I was able to put it straight on and change it back whenever I wanted.

Happy Strumming!
 
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