4 solid mahogany sopranos...

Oh well........there goes another one of my preconceived notions. Saw the word Kiwaya in the mix, had to be the best. It did sound the best up on the higher frets. But for pure soprano bark and tone, the Ohana SK 38 with Aquilas. "sam13" will bash me for that choice......don't care.
 
Have to agree on the Ohana. But: to my untrained ears the differences between sopranos soundwise are marginal. The way they feel, look, balance, play, the build quality etcetera is what makes the difference.
 
Thanks for sharing this. I had no preconceived notion of what any of the brands would sound like, but liked the Kiwaya best.
 
Thanks for sharing this. I had no preconceived notion of what any of the brands would sound like, but liked the Kiwaya best.

An unbiased and excellent choice. Lol

I also liked the Kiwaya the best. Although my choice s biased.

They all sounded very good.
 
Good video thank you for posting. I like it when the same strings are used since that can cause a big difference in sounds uke-to-uke.
 
I came into this thinking i will probably like the kiwaya best so i listened to the video with the monitor off and guess what? I liked the kiwaya the best, hahahaha... Great comparison, thanks for doing it.
 
It's hard to tell . . .

But I think I like the first one the most. Moreover, I was surprised the Ohana didn't sound terrible. I got a cheap Ohana (I think it's an SK-10 or sump'n like that) and it's pretty bad (it looks great, though).

In fact, based on this YouTube video, I'm going to say my favorites are #1, #2, #4, and then #3.

#1 had the most girth and 3D color (which is an absolutely stupid claim to make based on a YouTube video).

#3 just sounded wimpy to me: not enough low end response or volume.

In fact, I think I'm biased against the Ohana because of my experience with my crappy Ohana, and for this, the Ohana just might be my second favorite of the four.

I have zero experience with the other three brands. I heard of Kiwaya, but the other two I haven't.

Again, it's hard to tell without actually playing them myself.

Thanks for sharing anyway.
 
Fun comparo, thangs for sharing. I thought they all sounded good, a bit different sure, but all nice. I wonder if the Hamon, which sounded the most mellow to me, might have more "bark" with something other than Worth Browns (or whatever is on there). I only ask as many people do like some bite in their sopranos. ;-)
 
thank you for your attention and your comments, yes the Hamano is very mellow, also with worth clear, did not try with aquila strings...
I would say that the Ohanas sound roots, the Hamano is sweet, the Kiwaya is profond and punchy...
I live very much the sk-28, but also the sk-38 which sounds very Martin-vintage-like (I have had one, unfortunatly sold now...), the Hamano is very elegant and the Kiwaya is probably the best sounding and polyvalent.
others interesting differences, the width nut :
Ohanas : 33 mm
Hamano : 35 mm
Kiwaya : 36 mm
 
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Listening to this I put any bias aside from having recently purchased the Concert scale version of Ohana's 38 series (the CK-38) when listening to all 4 models in this video. Even still, to my ears the Ohana SK-38 just has that "Soprano tone" that is pleasurable to listen to. Interestingly enough, before I committed to the purchase of the Ohana CK-38, I made it it a point to compare it to the Kiwaya KTC-2 which was very nice in it's own right, but didn't ascend to where the Ohana was, for me.
 
Taking into account that I am just listening to this with headphones over the internet like most are, I have now listened to this video many more times here and coming across it in search results on YT. It's funny how when I had a particular song in my head that I felt different about the ukulele that appealed to me more with the strings it was set up with. Initially the Sk-38 with the Aquillas was the one that appealed to me the most, but the last several views it's the Kiwaya strung with the Worth's tone that I am gravitating to, seemingly it has a bit more definition/clarity.
 
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