igorthebarbarian
Well-known member
I just received a new Risa solid concert "stick". And in a whopping 10-day turn-around from ordering it online from ukulele.de in Germany to delivered in AZ - that's fast! Plus the exchange rate is down a bit so it's a good time to buy.
I really like the solid feel of it. It sounds great through my Honeytone amp. It is great for practicing at night, which is the only free time I really have. It doesn't wake up the neighbors either when unplugged.
The pickup is nice. I had an Eleuke before and this is much better than that one was.
The action is nice and low with the zero fret up top.
I thought it would be weird to not have a headstock but it's really no different/ you don't really miss it or even notice it after a little while.
Mine shipped with Aquila strings, which I thought was odd. I swapped them out quickly and easily for Worth CM strings fluorocarbons. I much prefer Worths and am now waiting for them to settle in. It was a fairly easy process, especially if you change them out one string at a time (also a good idea for banjo ukes with the floating bridge). The break angles didn't seem too extreme when tightening up the strings, which was surprising since I was worried about that initially.
When I usually use Worth strings though, I almost always (dumbly) just blindly cut them in half and string them up. However, on this Risa concert stick, I think they might have been too short on the E & A strings, due to the long angle-break to the tuner peg from the wrap-bar. So that is a warning for anyone to watch out for. I'm not sure I could string up two concert sticks with one set of Worths... maybe a soprano would be ok though. So maybe I'll have to go with Martin fluorocarbons in the future or Living Waters. Does anyone else have experience with that potential problem? I much rather prefer re-entrant fluorocarbons (Worth, Living Waters, Martin, etc) over Aquila but that's a separate subject
Re-stringing it up challenged my knot-making ability for the headstock! It's a bit of a tight fit up there but it's not too difficult. I basically double-knotted at the end and passed them through. Although I do have a little bit of the tip-end sticking out through the hole on the under-side. I need some smaller scissors to trim them (maybe nose-hair trimmer scissors!) since it's a small delicate space there.
The tuners are nice quality. Solid. The 4:1 ratio is a good compromise between frictions and geared tuners.
The bag it comes in is decent. The strap, however, is pretty flimsy/cheap-feeling, but should do the job.
It's a good-looking uke, but it is an odd-looking uke. I like the size and the feel. It'll be great for travel and for sitting on the couch playing. As I mentioned in a separate post, I'm now in an apartment so this is perfect for quiet practice at night.
Overall I really like it and would consider getting a tenor 'stick' now (tuned down to either re-entrant Bb with normal strings, or dGBE re-entrant with those specific strings). Or maybe the full-on electric kidney-bean one and try to tune DGBE (not sure what strings that would use). Damn you UAS!
I really like the solid feel of it. It sounds great through my Honeytone amp. It is great for practicing at night, which is the only free time I really have. It doesn't wake up the neighbors either when unplugged.
The pickup is nice. I had an Eleuke before and this is much better than that one was.
The action is nice and low with the zero fret up top.
I thought it would be weird to not have a headstock but it's really no different/ you don't really miss it or even notice it after a little while.
Mine shipped with Aquila strings, which I thought was odd. I swapped them out quickly and easily for Worth CM strings fluorocarbons. I much prefer Worths and am now waiting for them to settle in. It was a fairly easy process, especially if you change them out one string at a time (also a good idea for banjo ukes with the floating bridge). The break angles didn't seem too extreme when tightening up the strings, which was surprising since I was worried about that initially.
When I usually use Worth strings though, I almost always (dumbly) just blindly cut them in half and string them up. However, on this Risa concert stick, I think they might have been too short on the E & A strings, due to the long angle-break to the tuner peg from the wrap-bar. So that is a warning for anyone to watch out for. I'm not sure I could string up two concert sticks with one set of Worths... maybe a soprano would be ok though. So maybe I'll have to go with Martin fluorocarbons in the future or Living Waters. Does anyone else have experience with that potential problem? I much rather prefer re-entrant fluorocarbons (Worth, Living Waters, Martin, etc) over Aquila but that's a separate subject
Re-stringing it up challenged my knot-making ability for the headstock! It's a bit of a tight fit up there but it's not too difficult. I basically double-knotted at the end and passed them through. Although I do have a little bit of the tip-end sticking out through the hole on the under-side. I need some smaller scissors to trim them (maybe nose-hair trimmer scissors!) since it's a small delicate space there.
The tuners are nice quality. Solid. The 4:1 ratio is a good compromise between frictions and geared tuners.
The bag it comes in is decent. The strap, however, is pretty flimsy/cheap-feeling, but should do the job.
It's a good-looking uke, but it is an odd-looking uke. I like the size and the feel. It'll be great for travel and for sitting on the couch playing. As I mentioned in a separate post, I'm now in an apartment so this is perfect for quiet practice at night.
Overall I really like it and would consider getting a tenor 'stick' now (tuned down to either re-entrant Bb with normal strings, or dGBE re-entrant with those specific strings). Or maybe the full-on electric kidney-bean one and try to tune DGBE (not sure what strings that would use). Damn you UAS!
Last edited:
