Chinese east start ukulele?

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It does have six tuners on it. It's not a true tenor but in between at 16". That explains why the string spacing on mine was so wonky because they used a six string rear trapeze with 4 strings.


I have that exact same one with a checkered hard shell case. I was one of the lucky ones who got a fairly decent one. Still, I had to change the bridge location for better intonation. The rear trapeze had to be replaced because it was for a six string,. It needed a total setup costing 100 dollars. The pickups are okay but if I was going to play it, I'd upgrade them.

The exchange it comes to around 240.00 dollars US. It says it's been setup. I'd ask about the rear trapeze and if the spacing between the strings are the same. Mine wasn't hence the change I did. With shipping and setup I probably have well over 4 bills into mine. I don't play it so will either sell it or donate to our local group to be used in a fundraiser of some sort.
 
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Thanks for the responses and the links.

but what is it?
 
That's not exactly what we bought, which was an archtop jazz 4 string ukulele, those photos sure look like a mini 6 string archtop jazz guitar. I'm guessing East-Start may have decided to make a small guitar since so many of the parts on the ukuleles we bought were for a 6 string. If I were you, I'd click the "ask a question" and find out more about it, why it has 6 strings that are spaced like a guitar, where a 6 string ukulele has 2 G strings and 2 A strings. Also he says it's tenor, but have him measure from the nut to saddle/bridge to verify, tenor is 17" (431.8mm) and the tip to tip length should be around 26" (660.4mm).
 
I asked a few questions and the seller got quite agitated and defensive - he's a Jazz Guitarist since over 50 years and believes because his Luthier and the chinese webpage told him its a Tenor ukulele strung with Aquila strings, it must be right.

I left him in Peace and believe these Instruments in question are not worth to be considered.
 
Yeah, if a seller gets agitated, it's not worth it. Ha, a jazz guitarist for 50 years would know the differences of a four string uke and 6 string mini guitar.

If you're interested in one I'll put mine up for sale. Otherwise there are a lot of electric ukes for a decent price. They really do have a wide margin of quality. What they considered red was actually brown lol. I got lucky; others not so much. It was a fun experience though buying with the group.
 
chefuke said:
I asked a few questions and the seller got quite agitated and defensive - he's a Jazz Guitarist since over 50 years and believes because his Luthier and the chinese webpage told him its a Tenor ukulele strung with Aquila strings, it must be right.

I left him in Peace and believe these Instruments in question are not worth to be considered.
Click to expand...

Also, I noticed the description says Aquila strings, and as far as I know, Aquila does NOT make steel strings, which is what is shown in the pictures, and what is required to make a sound with magnetic pickups. Non-metal strings will not make ANY sound with magnetic pickups.

If the seller got agitated when you asked for clarification, and persisted with incorrect information, then is seems that he has at best been woefully misinformed, and possibly willfully ignorant.

Were it me, I'd pass on this one, based upon all the above, unless you want a steel string guitalele, which is what this seems to be...
 
Definitely agree with Pat and Booli. The details that the seller listed in the link are a straight copy/paste from the East-Start web site, which absolutely has wrong information. I told Simon, the East-Start person who handled our order, that they have incorrect information on their site and he acknowledged it. Run away, very fast.

Mine actually worked pretty well. I changed the tailpiece to a four string type, the knobs to Strat style, rotated the pickup switch to be logical by flip forward for the front pickup, middle for both, back for the rear pickup, and adjusted the bridge slightly, but I found that I had no occasion to play it, so I ended up selling it. This is the true color of what was red on their web site.

Alida knobs.jpg
 
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Interesting that the seller has precisely zero feedback after seven listings. I tend to be influenced by the feedback the seller has received, the only good thing you could say about this guy is that he hasn't received any negative feedback.
 
Thank you all for your opinions! All very interesting stuff.
 
kohanmike said:
Definitely agree with Pat and Booli. The details that the seller listed in the link are a straight copy/paste from the East-Start web site, which absolutely has wrong information. I told Simon, the East-Start person who handled our order, that they have incorrect information on their site and he acknowledged it. Run away, very fast.

Mine actually worked pretty well. I changed the tailpiece to a four string type, the knobs to Strat style, rotated the pickup switch to be logical by flip forward for the front pickup, middle for both, back for the rear pickup, and adjusted the bridge slightly, but I found that I had no occasion to play it, so I ended up selling it. This is the true color of what was red on their web site.

Alida knobs.jpg
Click to expand...

Wow! Yours surely looks cool!
 
chefuke said:
Wow! Yours surely looks cool!
Click to expand...

Thanks. That's what attracted me to it, and that I have an archtop jazz guitar that I thought would be cute together. Didn't work out that way, sold the Alida and the Ibanez is sitting in a closet waiting for my nephew when he gets an occasional jazz gig.

Ibanez AF-85 VS.jpg
 
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Same here. the double Cutaway Alida was going to be a mini twin to my '62 Gibson Es330. But their red (brown) was not the same as the 330's cherry red.
 

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