Bringing a bit of life to a solid mahogany concert

raffrox

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I've had a Pono Pro MCPC (solid mahogany concert) for a little while and have really enjoyed it. I then recently got a ten year old Pono solid koa tenor (PKT-2E) and it's resonance and richness is making me fall out of love with the MCPC :(

I know I am comparing different sizes, different tonewoods and even different age uke's but I'd love to liven up the MCPC a bit. It is just a bit restrained. low in volume and not that resonant in comparison.

The koa tenor has D'Addario titanium's on it while the mahogany concert has Martin M600's on it. I have a set of D'Dadario's coming in the mail for the concert to see if that makes a difference.

Other than that would anything set up related help and those that have the MCPC or other model solid mahogany Pono concerts have any suggestions/thoughts?

Thanks heaps :)
 
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You have pretty much accurately diagnosed the issue......concert vs tenor. Because of the bigger body size and longer scale length a tenor will "usually not always" be more resonant. You are doing the right thing by experimenting with strings, that is the only way to change the sound of a uke. But it can only do so much, you can't fight physics. Good luck, I am currently struggling with a uke to find the right strings so I feel your pain
 
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Thanks Dave. The strings arrived last night so I'll put them on to see if they make a difference. I just thought I'd check if anything set up related would help.

Cheers.
 
Yes to your own diagnosis and to Dave's: like others here (including myself), you are discovering that you are more of a Tenor person. A concert is great to begin with because it is somewhere in between a Soprano and a Tenor as two extremes, but often, players will be torn towards one of them.

One set of string that has brought to life most ukes for me is Worth Brown.
 
Thanks ubulele and Rakelele.

I really appreciate your thoughts. So far the D'addario's are giving me a better response. I would be keep to try some different tunings as well though. Thanks again.
 
You may want to try different tunings also. Try tuning it up or down a step (or half step). It changes the sound, the sustain, the resonance and the feeling on the fingers. Changing the tunings has liven up my Ukes more than once.
 
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