Kala KA-PU-SSFM (better late than never eh?)

Inksplosive AL

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 6, 2013
Messages
1,628
Reaction score
2
Location
Stratford, Connecticut
A search brings up a review of the acacia pocket ukulele and nothing else for me so I wanted to share my observations abd figured this was the place.

Some notes on my new to me Kala KA-PU-SSFM. No longer available yet described as a solid spruce ukulele with a maple veneer in the Kala catalog PDF from 2012 http://kalaukulele.com/Support/Uke_Catalog2012LR.pdf Scroll to page 9. Sold as a solid spruce top ukulele with flamed maple back and sides by many as seen in Elderly's old ad http://elderly.com/new_instruments/items/KPSFM.htm.

On inspection from the inside my KA-PU-SSFM it has no spruce on the sides and appears to be solid maple but the top and bottom have a very thin layer of spruce under the maple. This layer of spruce can be seen on the outer edge of the instrument.

Is it solid wood or is it a laminate? Kala calls it a maple veneer yet the maple it at least 4X the thickness of the spruce. Very interesting little guy. He needs and will soon receive one of mah ghetto bachyad setupsis.

I'm impressed with the friction tuners as they appear to be the same as the decent set of GOTOH deluxe tuners I just upgraded my pineapple flea with.

Anyone with a Kala pocket ukulele want to share thoughts on tunings strings etc? I have an extra set of Aquila reds I might break down and put on it just to see what they sound like.

~peace~
 
I've got mine in D tuning (ADF#B). I found that sounds the best to me. I also have a Bruce Wei pocket uke and comparing the two, the BW is lighter and has more volume. I've got worth Browns on them right now but may switch to worth clears on the kala pocket just to brighten it up. It came with aquilas but I'm not a big fan of those strings so I took them off almost immediately. Definitely cute and fun to play....I love my pocket ukes
 
Have a Kala -SSTU pocket traveler. It's a neat little instrument. Have mine tuned CGDA, but to do so I had to experiment with a lot of loose strings - the C and G are wound strings and the D and A are of unknown size Nygut-type stock.

Am planning to install an under-the-saddle/bridge pickup in the next month or so. Just got the pickup hardware in the mail yesterday. Just have to get another drill bit to do the job right. Have no idea what expect sound-wise, but it should be a fun project.
 
Top Bottom