Can we talk plastic ukes again? Or very cheap laminates perhaps?

Folks, I am sure this same thread has been posted before, so I apologize for beating an already beaten horse.

I did do a search, incidentally, prior to posting this.

I don't want to own a boatload of ukuleles. I keep all possessions to a minimum as much as possible.

Under the right circumstances I'd be overjoyed to own 300 ukuleles, but that's not the world I live in.

At any rate, the one type of uke I feel I lack is something very inexpensive yet durable. A beater. One that can sit in the car at times, go from hot and humid climes to cold and dry.

I'm looking for a soprano specifically.

This would really need to be cheap, cheap, cheap. As in, I would love to keep it under $50.

I am thinking plastic because if I was, say, at the beach and it managed to get a bit wet, it would likely still be fine.

I am okay with a cheap laminate wood soprano as well, but it may live pretty rough. And I think this is where plastic may take the lead.

I have poked around online and looked at some options, but would love to hear from people in the know, actual owners, those with experience with different possible instruments that fit this bill.

I really prefer the classic "figure 8" shape, but I'm not totally married to that at the exclusion of all else.

Just cheap, durable, something with decent intonation and ability to hold tune, hopefully some volume...

Can anyone make recommendations on this for me? It may be several weeks before I could pull this off anyway, but I envision a day when I will be spending a lot of time outdoors around the ocean and I'd like to have something I can toss in the car, throw over my shoulder, pull out whilst sitting in the sand...something that would be okay with some saltwater air, or even be fine if it started to get rained on a little.

I appreciate any input, advice, suggestions, etc.

The ukes I already own are far from expensive or precious, but they are precious to me and I want to protect them because it would be difficult to replace them.

Thanks again, and sorry again if this has come up a million times...

PS-- So far, from my searches, the Kala /Makala Waterman is the frontrunner. How do you all feel about these? those who own or have played them?

I know you said $50, but these are just too cool:
http://www.outdoorukulele.com/collections/ukuleles

We have a Makala Waterman and an BugsGear soprano, both solid color plastic. With the original strings there is not a lot of difference. The strings feel the same on both ukes, and I have not taken time to change them yet. The BugsGear has been played a little more and is a little louder I think. Both seem to have OK intonation, fine for open position chording and lower fret runs. Things are a little off above the 7th fret, but not that bad really. I like the BugsGear case a little better than the Waterman bag. You can order a case similar to the BugsGear for around $5 so it's not a deal breaker. Neither of these will be mistaken for a ukulele made of wood, but they are rather resilient to unfriendly conditions. One local music shop has a clear Waterman that sounds better than either of these two, but the strings are definitely different.

I hope that helps.

I seem to recall that prior to the Waterman, the Woodi and BugsGear plastic ukes, that this forum was simply ga-ga over the Makala Dolphins and Sharks ukes.

Wood neck, wood top and molded ABS plastic back/sides. Can be had for $50 including expert setup from Uke Republic still as of now.

http://cargo.ukerepublic.com/

Aside from that, if your budget was closer to $200, I'd say to get a soprano Flea:

http://www.magicfluke.com/The-Flea-Ukulele-s/1513.htm

I have a concert and 2 tenor Flea ukes as well as a tenor Fluke with a solid koa top. The fit and finish is perfect. All locally sourced by MFC and made-in-MAINLAND-USA...

I would caution you to AVOID the $20 Vorson plastic concert ukes, which I posted a thread about in the beginning of Dec 2015. I bought one. Intonation is great, and it 'sounds like a ukulele' but even with the lightest/thinnest/least-tension fluoro strings (WORTH CL) there is flex in the neck when you simply PLUCK the string that causes the initial sound of the note to ring about 10 cents sharp, and then 10 cents flat, and then after 2-3 oscillations like this, just before the note dies out from the 8 seconds of sustain, it rings true to pitch. Most folks simply lack the acute hearing perception to notice this, but it bugs me to no end, and I cannot play it.

orange. plastic. wallhanger.

Were I to be buying a uke to take abuse, that was NOT a Fluke or Flea, likely it would be the ODU or OUTDOOR UKULELE, IIRC the Tenor was $150 and soprano $99.

http://www.outdoorukulele.com/

Other than that I'd be looking at the EKOA Blackbird Clara uke which is made from all natural flax plant fibers that are molded into shape similar to the carbon-fiber protective monocoque 'cockpit' shell of 'Formula 1' race cars, but then your low budget is lost since IIRC the Clara is ~$1,300.

https://www.blackbirdguitar.com/collections/ukuleles/products/clara-concert-ukulele

Fellow brother BazMaz has video reviews of most of these ukes on his site - http://gotaukulele.com

Fellow UU brother Petey Forrest, Peter Mack, Ukester Brown have video reviews of the ODU, and both Peter Mack and Ukester Brown have video reviews also of the Woodi, Korala Explorer and BugGear plastic ukes, all on YOUTUBE, which should be easy to find but sadly I do not have the links.

Hope this helps! :music:

I have an Outdoor Ukulele made in Bend, Oregon. It is definitely rugged. I have a tenor and the sound is amazing. Intonation is very good which is nice because there's not much one can do to fix that. The action is sub-optimal - at the 10 fret you can park a bus under the strings. The plastic edges need attention - out of the box it will eat up Aquila Red strings as fast as you can put them on. The nut and frets are unforgiving. If I were to do this again, and I do recommend them, I'd get a natural finish - unpainted.

Mine has a piezo button pickup that is useless and there is something in the jack, wire, or button that buzzes. It picks up noise from moving your hand as you strum and fret the strings and feedback is significant. This doesn't matter too much to me because for my needs I wouldn't want this amplified anyway.

I like it because it fills a niche nicely, and acoustically it sounds great and projects well. And I don't mind passing it around for others to play with.

I bought my kid a Mitchell uke from Guitar Center -- it's their proprietary brand, I'm not sure who really makes them. It was $30. It's plastic w a laminate top. With new strings it sounds decent. And for $8 you can get the 2 year protection plan which supposedly means they'll replace the instrument if anything happens to it, including life. So far my 3 year old hasn't been able to scratch it despite her best efforts. It might be worth playing one if you're near to a Guitar Center.

My Kala Waterman has very poor intonation, starting in the third fret already. There is a recent thread about this, and most people who have commented encountered the same problem. I'd honestly rule it out. For me, it felt like a complete waste of money. The Bugsgear plastic uke and the Outdoor one both seem to have been received favorably by those who have them, but I have no experience with either.

I have a Waterman that I keep under an awning in my backyard. I like it but my all time favorite beater uke is a Lanikai LU11 soprano with low G stings.
I did have to sand down the saddle a little bit to improve the action and intonation.
It sounds and plays as good a some $1000.00 ukes I've tried.

dkp said:

I have an Outdoor Ukulele made in Bend, Oregon. It is definitely rugged. I have a tenor and the sound is amazing. Intonation is very good which is nice because there's not much one can do to fix that. The action is sub-optimal - at the 10 fret you can park a bus under the strings.

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My vote is for an Outdoor Ukulele, too--although I haven't played the Bugsgear (Mim sells those). The Outdoor soprano can be purchased for $99, the tenor for $149 (if memory serves). Kala donated 30 Waterman ukuleles to my middle school program (very grateful for it and have posted about that), but you get what you pay for with the extra cost of the Outdoor Ukulele.

As for the set-up, I like the Outdoor Ukuele a lot...but I don't have any issues with the action. At the 10th fret I am reading .08 inches, at the 12th fret I am reading somewhere between .08 and .09 inches (I bought a String Action Ruler based on the recommendation of Barry Maz). dkp, perhaps you have a faulty model and should contact Outdoor Ukulele for customer service? They have been great.

There was an earlier, crowdfunded version of the Outdoor Ukulele that was available--the company went back to the drawing board for the current models.

I have been dragging the tenor Oudoor Ukulele (it is "rawhide" or "natural") this summer on our family's various camping and outdoor activities. I'm not sure the family is always glad that I have it.

Good cheap Soprano? Caramel CS-100 zebra wood laminate is about $45 delivered to the US. (Amazon or E-Bay) Comes with a pickup and tuner, not sure how waterproof it is but cheap to replace, but may need some bridge and nut work to be really good. Caramel is getting better about their setups though.

Rob Uker said:

It sounds and plays as good a some $1000.00 ukes I've tried.

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Would you mind recording it?

Griffis, here's the thread about the Waterman intonation issues that I had mentioned: http://forum.ukuleleunderground.com/showthread.php?120866-Kala-Waterman-Intonation-Issues

This is one of the threads about cheap ukes that may interest you.

http://forum.ukuleleunderground.com/showthread.php?47595-cheapo-ukes/page5&highlight=cheap+ukes

Soundbored said:

I know you said $50, but these are just too cool:
http://www.outdoorukulele.com/collections/ukuleles

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I agree. Love the looks of those and would love to have one, but while I think the price is incredibly fair, really it is more than I want to pay (or could easily afford) and it is enough that it kind of defeats my purposes. Someday I'd dig one though! I learned about these on this very forum. Possibly from you even.

pbagley said:

We have a Makala Waterman and an BugsGear soprano...

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I leaned about the BugsGear on this forum as well. I have looked into them a bit, but should investigate more. They look to be fun, decently-engineered little instruments, and thank you for your input.

One aspect of this is it is very likely I won't be able to try any of these in person, and I don't like to buy online without having some firsthand experience with a brand or model, but sometimes this can't be helped and I've been fortunate to have not been burned too often just buying online.

I live in Oklahoma for the time being, so shops that carry much by way of ukes are scarce, as you may imagine.

Booli said:

...if your budget was closer to $200, I'd say to get a soprano Flea...

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I actually have owned a couple of Fleas and a Fluke. I have a lot of respect for Jim and that company. I was a very active early poster on the FMM bulletin board back around 2000-2003. I do like these instruments but they are a bit out of my range at the moment and they are, to me, really too nice for what I need a beater for.

To give you an idea of what a cheapskate I am, my current uke stable consists of a Gretsch laminate soprano (which I love) that cost $109 new, a used Mitchell concert uke (cost me $65) a cigar box uke a friend made me as a gift and a nice but inexpensive baritone that same friend gave me for free. So I have under $200 invested in all my players put together. I plan to get nice cases for them, but I have to be very judicious about spending and acquiring anything.

There was a time in my life when I owned 15 ukuleles, some very nice, even custom builds, as well as a host of vintage or luthier-built electric and acoustic guitars and electric basses, but those days are over for me, in part because a flood destroyed all my instruments a few years back, in part because all I play now are acoustic ukes and in part because my economic circumstances have changed a great deal, for the worse unfortunately, over the past several years.

I would caution you to AVOID the $20 Vorson plastic concert ukes, which I posted a thread about in the beginning of Dec 2015...

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This is very good intel and I appreciate it. that is one brand/model that I have come across in my research, and I believe I even stumbled upon your thread from last December you mentioned.

I sincerely appreciate everyone's thoughts and contributions to this thread.

I would take a look at what is on offer on ebay, if you are comfortable with doing so. I know people occasionally have bad experiences but over the years I've managed to pick up a few bargains. I think it's a good way to go when you're working to a tight budget (I usually am for most things ) and there always seem to be plenty of "only-played-a-couple-of-times" entry-level Kalas and the like up for grabs. You might need to adjust the action and change the strings... but then you're good to go.

Does a makala dolphin count as a plastic uke? I think the back/side is plastic now.
If you're in europe, maybe check out alic too.

I have the Korala version of the Vorson Booli is talking about here...I must say I'm really happy with it. It's been my beater for 4 months and it's been dropped, dragged and played on and with by a 1 year old. That's tough !
http://forum.ukuleleunderground.com/showthread.php?120346-Why-I-love-my-plastic-uke&highlight=korala

I'll try intonation on mine tomorrow, with a Snark. It hasnt been a top priority with this uke. Will report back!

I have two Waterman's both strung with Martin flurocarbons. The stiffer tension helps with driving the top and better intonation. As a matter of fact almost all my plastic ukes are strung with fluros except for my Flamingo and Lisa ukes; they have Aquilas.

I don't work for or have any affiliation with CME other than being a happy customer.

With that being said, there is a used Makala shark up for sale for $25.99 and they do set-up the instruments before they're shipped. I love the Makala dolphins/sharks and think this might be a wonderful deal for you given your financial/durability/playability requirements.

Link (I apologize if giving a link is against the rules. I'm honestly just trying to help):

http://www.chicagomusicexchange.com/products/makala-shark-composite-soprano-ukulele-blue-used