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Hey all,
Just received this baritone today! I'm in Australia and had it sent to Sydney from a Canberra music store. $280 with shipping free and it arrived in 4 days (I've seen that it is even cheaper from Elderly, or in America generally.) Solid mahogany top, back, sides, neck with rosewood fingerboard and bone nut and saddle. Sealed geared tuners.
This baritone came strung with D'addario strings and as I was carrying it home from the post office the D string totally unraveled and snapped, which was totally shocking and means I haven't really been able to play properly, so I can't give an extensive review on sound yet (I'm having it strung with Aquilas later in the week, so I'll update.)
But anyway, first impressions are that the wood is extremely beautiful with a high gloss finish. From what I can tell the mahogany is either American or Honduras? The top is beautiful with that solid wood luminescence in different light, with an almost cross-hatch grain to the wood. It seems very well built, though a little top heavy in the neck/headstock area. Fretboard is very smooth and well finished. The frets are also well finished though not as smooth on the edges as my Lanikai - that being said, they are by no means rough. Nothing that you could nick yourself on.
My only complaint is that there is a ding in the back (very small, and probably during shipping) and a few smears of glue around the tailpiece and edge of the fretboard (near the soundhole) though there are no huge obvious blobs, and this isn't particularly noticeable. The company I bought it from has offered to replace the strings free of charge and were very nice to deal with.
As far as sound (so far, with incomplete strings) - the G string rings and rings forever. The B and E are quite plinky, though I'm not sure if this is the ukulele or the D'addario strings, which are settling and which I've never used before. They feel slack compared to the Aquilas on my tenor which is another reason I'm changing them.
Anyway - overall a very beautiful, well-made instrument, and I'll update when I've played it a lot!
Just received this baritone today! I'm in Australia and had it sent to Sydney from a Canberra music store. $280 with shipping free and it arrived in 4 days (I've seen that it is even cheaper from Elderly, or in America generally.) Solid mahogany top, back, sides, neck with rosewood fingerboard and bone nut and saddle. Sealed geared tuners.
This baritone came strung with D'addario strings and as I was carrying it home from the post office the D string totally unraveled and snapped, which was totally shocking and means I haven't really been able to play properly, so I can't give an extensive review on sound yet (I'm having it strung with Aquilas later in the week, so I'll update.)
But anyway, first impressions are that the wood is extremely beautiful with a high gloss finish. From what I can tell the mahogany is either American or Honduras? The top is beautiful with that solid wood luminescence in different light, with an almost cross-hatch grain to the wood. It seems very well built, though a little top heavy in the neck/headstock area. Fretboard is very smooth and well finished. The frets are also well finished though not as smooth on the edges as my Lanikai - that being said, they are by no means rough. Nothing that you could nick yourself on.
My only complaint is that there is a ding in the back (very small, and probably during shipping) and a few smears of glue around the tailpiece and edge of the fretboard (near the soundhole) though there are no huge obvious blobs, and this isn't particularly noticeable. The company I bought it from has offered to replace the strings free of charge and were very nice to deal with.
As far as sound (so far, with incomplete strings) - the G string rings and rings forever. The B and E are quite plinky, though I'm not sure if this is the ukulele or the D'addario strings, which are settling and which I've never used before. They feel slack compared to the Aquilas on my tenor which is another reason I'm changing them.
Anyway - overall a very beautiful, well-made instrument, and I'll update when I've played it a lot!