Lacole
Well-known member
Inspiring! Thanks.
In Praise of Cheap Ukes
- Thread starter pdxuke
- Start date
Gmontema
Well-known member
It is nice to know that good looks, great tone, playability and fun don’t have to cost an arm and a leg!
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Peter Frary
Well-known member
Yes, I've owned a few cheap 'uku: Takamine G series tenor, Lainikai, Cordoba, etc., and I found the wonderful thing about them is the joy of giving them away to students in need of an 'uku!
Jan D
Well-known member
I love my $50 Flight Travel Soprano (the TUS-35 model).
Graham Greenbag
Well-known member
I’ve got a couple of old Mahalo U30’s with Friction Tuners. Second hand they each cost me about the same as a couple of packets of good strings, after purchase I set them up and fitted Aquilas. Perhaps I was lucky and got a get a couple of particularly good ones, I doubt that good luck though and I’ve been rather surprised and delighted with the results. Those U30’s ended up being very playable and sounding good, IMHO such affordable music making is what Ukes are all about.
It’s amazing what a good set-up and suitable strings will do for a Uke's sound. I’ve transformed many a Uke through such simple work; I’ve found a few no hopers too but success rates are about 90% and I’m happy with that rate. Initial price is not really a guide as to what will turn out to be a good-um, pick the model with care and you’ll certainly load the dice in your favour.
It’s amazing what a good set-up and suitable strings will do for a Uke's sound. I’ve transformed many a Uke through such simple work; I’ve found a few no hopers too but success rates are about 90% and I’m happy with that rate. Initial price is not really a guide as to what will turn out to be a good-um, pick the model with care and you’ll certainly load the dice in your favour.
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Fraukester
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I love my makala dolphin and Flight Travel Sakura ukes!
don_b
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cordoba protege u1 concert ukulele
Sporky
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OU2T is what I got last year to try ukulele and the rest is history!
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Heck yeah cheap uke love! I'm noodling with my 65$ Aklot concert, my first uke. It's been sitting for at least two months in the closet- pulled it out and it was just barely out of tune! A real charmer of a burner uke.
Kiwaya makes great cheap ukuleles, if you can buy them at the regular retail price. 8000 yen is about US$70. Unfortunately, they don't have distributors in many countries, so foreign retailers have to pay to import them in small quantities and pass the (large) cost on to consumers.
