A few weeks ago I bought a Makala Waterman from Omega Music here in the UK. On the whole it was very good (and service from Omega was excellent, as it always is) and looked to fit the bill for a basic uke I could travel and hike with, but there seemed to be room for improvement.
First to go were the strings. I was trying out a set of Aquila Lava strings on my main soprano so took the old Living Water fluorocarbon strings from that and put them on the Waterman. Even though they're far from fresh the difference was marked: gone was the slightly woolly strumming, replaced with clear, more precise and pleasing tones. Fluorocarbon strings seem like a good fit.
The only other thing I wasn't so keen on were the tuners. The Waterman is strongly inspired by the Maccaferri Islander, but unlike the original it has geared tuners. My preference is for friction pegs; and as it happens a set of adequate ones can be had very cheaply, which is just as well as it would be entirely possible to spend far more on the tuners than on the ukulele itself. My Waterman is the transparent version, giving the unexpected benefit of allowing a good look inside the headstock. There are solid tubes moulded through it, meaning that friction tuners should not crush the plastic of the headstock when tightened.
A very quick and easy job to change them over, resulting in a much better looking soprano which suits my preferences more exactly. You can see the before and after in the pictures below:
First to go were the strings. I was trying out a set of Aquila Lava strings on my main soprano so took the old Living Water fluorocarbon strings from that and put them on the Waterman. Even though they're far from fresh the difference was marked: gone was the slightly woolly strumming, replaced with clear, more precise and pleasing tones. Fluorocarbon strings seem like a good fit.
The only other thing I wasn't so keen on were the tuners. The Waterman is strongly inspired by the Maccaferri Islander, but unlike the original it has geared tuners. My preference is for friction pegs; and as it happens a set of adequate ones can be had very cheaply, which is just as well as it would be entirely possible to spend far more on the tuners than on the ukulele itself. My Waterman is the transparent version, giving the unexpected benefit of allowing a good look inside the headstock. There are solid tubes moulded through it, meaning that friction tuners should not crush the plastic of the headstock when tightened.
A very quick and easy job to change them over, resulting in a much better looking soprano which suits my preferences more exactly. You can see the before and after in the pictures below:
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