What to buy

Two choices what are your recommendations.....Islander Asram-4-t or Opio spruce/acacia tenor?

I've had my Islander FMSRAM 4T for a little less than a month. I've a relative beginner, but I do like it. I especially like the arm bevel. Very comfortable. I prefer satin finish over gloss, so that's another plus. The cutaway and slot head are also nice. Mine is new, won it in a prize raffle at a uke festival, but it's a discontinued model with a solid spruce top and flame maple back & sides. The current ASARM is all solid acacia, so I can't comment on the tone. My every day concert uke is a mahogany laminate, so it's nice to have the variety of the spruce top for the tenor.

Ubulele is right...responses will be skewed towards Opio. I have a tenor and love it. There is nothing out there that sounds like an KoAloha. That said, you should try to play one to know if you love that sound. Some people prefer other sounds!

How come we don't see more Islanders for sale. HMS used to sell them? Just curious. I haven't thought about the brand in a long time until this post. Never played one but import brand from Kanilea?

M3Ukulele said:

How come we don't see more Islanders for sale. HMS used to sell them? Just curious. I haven't thought about the brand in a long time until this post. Never played one but import brand from Kanilea?

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Great point. HMS is a huge Kanilea dealer and at one time they carrred a lot of Islanders. I have an Islander AS-4 and it is a very good instrument. That being said the Koaloha would be my pick over these to brands. I have owned two and they are a great instrument, tone, volume, sustain they have it all. A lifetime guarantee that goes with the instrument and not just the buyer is icing on the cake.

I played some laminate Islanders a while back, but not all solid ones. They felt great to play, and I imagine an all solid one would sound great. Having said that, I loved playing the Opio that I played, so I don't really know. I don't think you will do well either way.

Hi folks, regarding the Islander ASARM...Islander’s website had a recent notification that they were discontinuing this model. When I spoke with HMS about this, they said there have been problems with this model and even though they had some in stock they didn’t have them on their Website. Anyone know what the problem(s) are? Frank

I get the impression Islander is offering less solid wood models from what I recall from a few years back. Maybe to better promote the new lower priced Kanilea models?