Mahalo Baritone U320B: A Review

HoldinCoffee

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The Mahalo baritone, U320B is an inexpensive baritone. The tuners are comprised of black plastic knobs with gold painted metal posts. It has a black Nubone nut and Nubone compensated saddle. The strings came GCEA with wound G and C strings. Although the product description listed an arched back, this one had a flat back. The uke itself is laminate with a mahogany veneer. Fretboard is rosewood.

This one has plenty of gouges and scratches on the back and side. A piece of the soundhole decale is missing and there's what looks to be an air bubble under the MAHALO decal on the headstock. The action is too high to be considered "easily playable" out of the box, but the frets are smooth and comfortable and those tuners stay in tune surprisingly well. But the intonation is noticably off, and a chromatic tuner verified an average of 20 cents off per fret.

Soundwise it BOOMS deeply and the sustain is amazingly long. The notes seem to ring forever and a day. I put it down an hour ago and I think I can still hear it from the other room.

I plan to change out the E and A strings, and the saddle needs to be shaved down a bit. Hopefully that will be enough to fix the intonation. If not, I've been wanting to try the paperclip theory and this may be a good opportunity.

As far as cheap instruments go, I would not recommend this as a
'good player right out of the box'. But its cheap. So, if you want a cheap baritone to practice your Mr Fix-It skills on, there's a LOT of room for improvement here, and the U320B might be just what your looking for.
 
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