Spooner, did your uke arrive yet? I received mine yesterday.
Well after waiting all day on Saturday...no...it didn't arrive.
The USPS here in NYC sucks donkey kongs. If you've ever seen Seinfeld..let me tell you...Newman is every postal employee in NYC!!!!
They claimed to have delivered it on Sunday...LIES!!!!!!!!!!
They claimed to have left a note...LIES!!!!!!!!
However, I picked it up today!!
I got home, opened her up and found everything to be intact.
She arrived safely without any damage.
Chuck put in a care/maintenance/feeding manual, extra strings, saddles and MISI pick up info.
Of course the MBU tshirt was thrown in and is AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!
He also included the headstock sketch that outlined which materials were used where.
That was pretty awesome!
The uke.....
Aesthetically... exquisite!
Everything lines up so nicely. All of the joints, butts and so forth are really outstanding.
I've seen a number of customs and production ukes that show some flaws around the first fret (where the board meets the neck). The build on this thing is just too much for words!
The abalone on this thing is on steroids!
It shines even in the dark!
The curl of the wood..if you move/tilt it just so it looks as if a sea of beautiful curly koa is rolling in to shore!
The shape of everything, the material....stupendous!
I changed the strings immediately. It was strung up with low wound G . I do not like wound strings on any of my ukes.
Personally, I do not like the sound of streaky strings on an ukulele.
That's for guitars.
While, I like low G, I prefer high G. My Makani has low G and I am going to keep it that way.
Sometimes I am in the mood for low G..but more often than not it's the high road for me and I plan on playing this one until there is no fret board left.
The sound....
The sound is VERY nice.
There is a nice balance of highs and lows.
The sustain is good.
The volume is very good.
The action is excellent.
Overall..this is quite possibly the best ukulele I have ever heard.
It definitely has a Hawaiian sound.
I like Aquillas on this. I am sure if I put Worths on it, the sound would get that "angelic" sound but I would lose out
on the nice vibrating lows that this one has.
Worths do not have a great bass response but their highs are great!
I like a perfect balance and this one has it!
One thing to note also is that I can get different tones out of this depending on how I strum.
I can get a more bass mellow sound and I can get a more of a high treble sound depending on how I strum.
That's a GOOD thing!
Jokingly, I emailed Chuck and told him that I might have to return it because it wouldn't stay in tune and we need to figure out why lol. He replied telling me because the strings were new lolol. I guess people have contacted him and said this sort of thing seriously lol.
Again...a big MAHALO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
to Chuck for such a fine crafted, amazing, stupendous, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious ukulele!!! This puts an end to UAS for me!!! Really...I mean it this time.
My next vids will feature the Spoonah-lele!!! Keep an eye on my YouTube channel thingie.