I received the brown burst tenor uke yesterday that I won from an eBay auction early last week, it arrived much sooner than I expected. It's darker than I expected, the neck is slightly narrower than my other ukes and the shape is different than I'm used to, with a narrower upper bout, but it's built well by Bruce Wei Arts (I even emailed him if it's one of his or one he puts up on consignment, he said it's his).
It's all solid acacia koa cutaway, solid maple neck, solid ziricote headplate, solid ebony bridge, solid rosewood fretboard. It came with Aquila labelled strings, but when I tuned and played it for about a half an hour, the E string popped at about the 4th fret, making me skeptical they are real Aquila. Luckily I had a set of D'Addario Titaniums, which are slightly brighter than the stock strings. I still have to install strap buttons, and maybe a preamp/tuner & pickup, which I have.
I have to put it through it's paces the next few days. I'm not totally convinced I'm going to keep it, but if I decide not to, I'm going to donate it to the UCLA/Mattel Children's Wing music therapy program along with the five ukes our group will deliver that we donated to by way of The Ukulele Kids Club.
It's all solid acacia koa cutaway, solid maple neck, solid ziricote headplate, solid ebony bridge, solid rosewood fretboard. It came with Aquila labelled strings, but when I tuned and played it for about a half an hour, the E string popped at about the 4th fret, making me skeptical they are real Aquila. Luckily I had a set of D'Addario Titaniums, which are slightly brighter than the stock strings. I still have to install strap buttons, and maybe a preamp/tuner & pickup, which I have.
I have to put it through it's paces the next few days. I'm not totally convinced I'm going to keep it, but if I decide not to, I'm going to donate it to the UCLA/Mattel Children's Wing music therapy program along with the five ukes our group will deliver that we donated to by way of The Ukulele Kids Club.
