Guilele / Guitalele

bsfloyd

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Hello gang! Still kinda on the fence, but I'm thinking about picking up a guilele, or guitalele, or guitarlele, or what ever your choice of verbiage is. I'm looking at something in a 17" scale, but don't want to X out a 20" scale just yet (thinking of the Cordoba Mini here).

I'm looking at the Kala KA-GL, the Yamaha GL-1, and the Cordoba (GP-100, I think?). Any of you folks have any experience with these? Did I miss any other offerings? Really looking for a comfy neck, good intonation, and decent tone (as far as laminates can get). Or, should I skip these all and go for the solid top Cordoba Mini 20" scale? I really wanted to stay with a 17"-ish scale, but if the Mini is that much better then so be it.

Thanks!
 
I had the Kala and sold it for the Cordoba Mini. The Kala was a nicely put together instrument but the Mini blows it away as far as I'm concerned. Not just the extra scale length but a super comfy neck profile, very light and resonant build and decent string spacing at the nut. The Mini is on of my favourites.
 
I had the Kala and sold it for the Cordoba Mini. The Kala was a nicely put together instrument but the Mini blows it away as far as I'm concerned. Not just the extra scale length but a super comfy neck profile, very light and resonant build and decent string spacing at the nut. The Mini is on of my favourites.

Thanks PJ! Do you recall, is the Kala had a slightly narrower nut width over the Mini? I know the Mini has about a 50mm nut width, which I was hoping for slightly narrower. I do have a Cordoba C7 width the standard classical 52mm nut width, but I was hoping for a bit more narrow for this short scale instrument.
 
Yes, Kala has a narrower nut than the Mini. I found a wide nut to be far more comfortable on a short scale because there's less room between frets so the extra width made a big difference. Just a personal preference - if you want narrower then the Kala is the one. Have you checked out the Noah guitalele? All solid monkeypod (I think) with a 19" scale so falls between standard guitaleles and the Mini.
 
Yes, Kala has a narrower nut than the Mini. I found a wide nut to be far more comfortable on a short scale because there's less room between frets so the extra width made a big difference. Just a personal preference - if you want narrower then the Kala is the one. Have you checked out the Noah guitalele? All solid monkeypod (I think) with a 19" scale so falls between standard guitaleles and the Mini.

Thanks for the added info! I don't think Noah instruments are available here in the states (?).
 
Bill1 and Jim Hanks - thank for the suggestions. I wanted to stay with nylon strings as I prefer the tone of nylon over steel. I will surely look into these more. The Cordoba seems quite promising...
 
I have the Kala and the Cordoba Mini. I prefer the latter: more room for my fingers, closer to the feel and sound of a classical guitar.
Here's how the Kala sounds:

And the Cordoba:
 
After some intensive searching, I would say that the specs you're asking for would mostly be found in the Kala model: it has a regular tenor scale (17") and a slightly narrower nut (48 mm), but not as narrow as the Yamaha (43 mm). Quite logically though, a larger body and longer scale such as the Cordoba Mini will probably produce a fuller sound.

Personally, I'd wait for the KoAloha D-VI Guitalele to come out in the Opio line, which should be happening soon. That model has a regular tenor scale and a nut width of about 50 mm (2"), along with the full KoAloha sound.
 
Thanks for the added replies! The sound comparison video helped. I found the Kala to sound more ukulele and the Cordoba to sound more classical guitar.

This is the first I heard of the new Opio. I think this is worth waiting for, thanks for the heads up!
 
Thanks for the video, Rakelele. Sounds nice!
 
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