I was lucky enough to be able to try a few Les Stansell Baritones during the Baritone Retreat and picked up this beauty.
Les has taken the flamenco/spanish guitar design and over the years perfected a Baritone spec for it.
He uses top quality woods from local sources (spec below for mine).
The uke is light, loud, with excellent response to the lightest of touches to the strings.
Due to the Flamenco heritage and Les' preference to focus on the playability, the string tension is on the lower side and the action is low.
This makes it really smooth to fret. The sustain is excellent.
The uke vibrates up and down the neck when played and feels very very alive. The comparison that comes to my mind between this uke and other ukes is that this is closer to a jazz dancer whereas most other ukes I tried are closer to ballet dancers.
There are some ukes that help you relax, wind down and go to sleep and there are ukes that you like waking up to play. As relaxing as this uke is, I would love to wake up to play it.
Spec:
Oregon Port Orford Cedar Top/Neck/Bracing
Napa Valley Black Walnut Back/Sides/Rosette/Faceplates
Oregon Myrtle Binding
Ebony Fingerboard/Bridge
Pegheds Tuners
Bone Nut and Saddle
Shellac Finish
I was initially putting off doing this NUD, since I did not have a sound sample.. but then I found this gem by Kenneth (That is not me, I wish I played that well.. taken around the same time I was sampling ukes). The uke played by Kenneth is NOT the uke I picked but I have played that uke as well, they do have different personalities but for the purpose of this NUD it is representative enough.
Les himself is part of a local band (Redwood Highway) and we thoroughly enjoyed their performances! More videos from him (needless to say includes his baritones) Amy from the band jammed with Kimo and the combination of a violin and baritone was very pleasing!
[video]https://www.youtube.com/user/stansellguitars/videos[/video]
Rest of the gallery: https://kerneltime.smugmug.com/Ukulele/Les-Stansell/n-6knNkF/i-XLcZjg2
Les has taken the flamenco/spanish guitar design and over the years perfected a Baritone spec for it.
He uses top quality woods from local sources (spec below for mine).
The uke is light, loud, with excellent response to the lightest of touches to the strings.
Due to the Flamenco heritage and Les' preference to focus on the playability, the string tension is on the lower side and the action is low.
This makes it really smooth to fret. The sustain is excellent.
The uke vibrates up and down the neck when played and feels very very alive. The comparison that comes to my mind between this uke and other ukes is that this is closer to a jazz dancer whereas most other ukes I tried are closer to ballet dancers.
There are some ukes that help you relax, wind down and go to sleep and there are ukes that you like waking up to play. As relaxing as this uke is, I would love to wake up to play it.
Spec:
Oregon Port Orford Cedar Top/Neck/Bracing
Napa Valley Black Walnut Back/Sides/Rosette/Faceplates
Oregon Myrtle Binding
Ebony Fingerboard/Bridge
Pegheds Tuners
Bone Nut and Saddle
Shellac Finish
I was initially putting off doing this NUD, since I did not have a sound sample.. but then I found this gem by Kenneth (That is not me, I wish I played that well.. taken around the same time I was sampling ukes). The uke played by Kenneth is NOT the uke I picked but I have played that uke as well, they do have different personalities but for the purpose of this NUD it is representative enough.
Les himself is part of a local band (Redwood Highway) and we thoroughly enjoyed their performances! More videos from him (needless to say includes his baritones) Amy from the band jammed with Kimo and the combination of a violin and baritone was very pleasing!
[video]https://www.youtube.com/user/stansellguitars/videos[/video]
Rest of the gallery: https://kerneltime.smugmug.com/Ukulele/Les-Stansell/n-6knNkF/i-XLcZjg2
Last edited:
