NUD Pono Nui Baritone

It's been a while since I've been this excited about a new 'ukulele'. As some of you know, I get through a lot of ukes and to be honest I've enjoyed every bit of the journey. I've only truly fallen in love with two so far - my Kamaka HF2D+ and my modern Martin style 3m. Well I'm in love with this.

It's a Pono Nui Baritone BN10. For anyone that doesn't know it is a tenor guitar size instrument but braced for nylon strings. The first thing I thought when I took it out of the case was 'wow!' It is fairly bling free but all that acacia striping on such a big body looks lovely. The second thing I noticed is, boy, this thing is big!

I believe it has 23 inch scale. It is still lighter in weight than most guitars though and feels comfortable on my lap. The bound fretboard is smooth as can be and the radius fretboard feels nice. I had to get used to making sure I didn't press to hard on the first string and bend it at first.

Some stretches are a bit tough on it but you just have to alter your style slightly.

And the sound...

Oh. My. Goodness.

It's beautiful. Sustain that goes on forever, a deep wide sound, almost with it's own natural reverb.

The strings it came with sounded good but I wanted to try my favourite combination - smooth wound 3rd and 4th from Southcoast and Martin 1st and 2nd (I used Baritone strings in this case.) I prefer then thinner baritone strings to what it came with. Intonation is still as good and it sings beautifully.

The tuning I love the most is CFAD or CFAC for slack key. It's so deep and mellow.

Have I eulogised enough? I really do love this ukulele. 'Ukulele??' Whatever it is, it's a keeper.

Matt
Ps. Thank you to the Southern Ukulele Store from whom I bought this one. As always - brilliant.

Congratulations Matt, I'm glad to hear that you, too, love your Baritone Nui! I have one of the first ones that were being made and find it awesome. Mine is tuned to DGBE and sounds like a fully grown Guitar, even without those two extra Bass strings.

Have fun exploring the possibilities of this unusual instrument!

Congratulations! I got one of these back when Pono first introduced them as nylon string tenor guitars with "Chicago" tuning. Like Pono does now, I prefer to think of them as large baritone ukuleles. It sounds like yours is as nice an instrument as mine. I'm sure you're going to enjoy exploring its voice and its capabilities. Please post a bigger photo though! A nui instrument deserves a nui picture.

Congrats on your new acquisition!

I want to get one of these too, eventually...

Glad to hear that you are so happy with yours.

Incidentally, on my cheapie $83 Makala MK-B baritone, I currently have Worth CF strings on it, tuned re-entrant, CFAD, and I really love the sound and feel in this tuning, so I can empathize a bit as far as the tuning goes...

Thanks for sharing!

Camsuke said:

Congratulations Matt, these are very interesting instruments, any chance of a sound sample? I'd love to hear it.

Click to expand...

Here are a couple of sound samples from HMS:

All Accacia (BN-10D):
https://vimeo.com/81702431

Spruce (BN-30D):
https://vimeo.com/112487559

Spruce sunburst (BN-30D SB):
https://vimeo.com/122080108

Spruce amplified at NAMM:
https://vimeo.com/117699799

Congrats. Think those Nui's are such great values!

Rakelele said:

Here are a couple of sound samples from HMS:

All Accacia (BN-10D):
https://vimeo.com/81702431

Spruce (BN-30D):
https://vimeo.com/112487559

Spruce sunburst (BN-30D SB):
https://vimeo.com/122080108

Spruce amplified at NAMM:
https://vimeo.com/117699799

Click to expand...

Thanks Rakelele and thanks everyone. My playing will never be close to Coreys so these are better demos than I could ever do.

Congrats on your nui! I was looking for one of these a while back but was hoping to find one used but no one was parting with theirs, I settled on a Taylor GSmini instead, wanting a bigger sound than my Baris were giving me.. The mini sounds great but ukes are still my fave. I guess I had to get over my hankering for steel and my curiousity for 6 strings too. I think it's out of my system now and I doubt I'll hang onto the Taylor guitar. I think I see a Nui in my future.

Congratulations! Sounds like challenging good fun!

i will admit to being intimidated by the size. great sound quality on the clips. like a guitar and nothing wrong with that.
what would you say the scale possibilities are for the baritone? i wonder how you get to 23". just thinking aloud.

Congrats on new purchase! Looks like a beauty. Play it everyday!