Dead Man Rhymin
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(This is my first post here, so Hi all! Long story short, I've played guitar for about 5 years, but starting fairly late in life didn't make it easy. Then I decided to try a uke and fell totally in love with my inexpensive, solid mahogany concert by Ortega. What was a struggle with a steel-string acoustic guitar is now sheer joy, everything sounds sweet and I can do so much more! Next, of course, the UAS. I wanted to try something different - different size, different woods, different finish... and now I think I have a problem.)
I've just bought a 5-string tenor, Kala KA ATP CTG 5 (cedar top, acacia laminate back and sides). Not on a whim - I spent days searching for and comparing sound samples, reading up etc. I picked it because I did want something completely different from my concert, but also because I wanted something maybe a little closer to my cedar-top Spanish guitar, which was half the price of this uke but sounds really warm and gentle when strummed.
But the uke does not sound like the online samples at all, indeed it sounds quite bad to my ears. I knew it would be loud, which it is, but it is also rather heavy and dull and one-dimensional. This for a uke that is often reviewed as "sounds better than it looks" (and it certainly looks gorgeous). Some observations:
- I hated the wound low g from the get-go, really don't like that metallic twang, so I replaced it with an Aquila red. Now it's worse. That irritating high-pitched buzz you'll hear in my sample is not fret buzz, it is the two G strings hitting against each other (I think).
- The uke feels harder to play than I expected. It is my first tenor, but I do play a classical guitar (not very well, but I do) and I had tried out a random tenor uke at a store - just to try it for size. It played as easily as my concert does. This one I find a struggle to play cleanly, I have to press the strings much harder than is comfortable for me (you'll hear it in the sample).
- It is loud but also pretty "flat", like there is no dynamic range. If I try to play gently, it's as if the strings didn't vibrate enough, all I get is the noise of fingers sweeping across the strings.
- When I try chucking, there is this irritating, sticky, kind-of swishy noise; not sure if it's the strings or the high-gloss finish. I suspect the latter; the noise is really unpleasant, you'll hear it.
- Build-wise, the Kala seems spotless. The setup seems perfect, the intonation is good-to-great, there is nothing obviously wrong with it... it just does not sound right to me :-o
I bought it online at a well-known and reputable place, which I am not naming here only because I do not want to shed any bad light on the guys, they are fantastic. But, I've had the Kala for 3 weeks now and it's too late to return it for no cause.
Essentially, I don't know which of the following is true:
- the uke sounds pretty much the way it is supposed to sound, and if I don't like it, maybe I can sell it
- the uke is *not* supposed to sound like this and I should try to return it.
Can anyone help me figure out which it is? Here is a sample, warts and all:
https://soundcloud.com/deadmanrhymin/kala-ka-atp-ctg-5-sound-sample/s-qZKpo
Bonus question: if all I do is strum, should I even be buying a tenor? Most tenor sound samples I find are fingerpicked. Are tenors in general suitable for light-to-heavy strumming?
Any advice will be much appreciated!
(And, of course, I had to make a typo in the subject line. Apologies!)
I've just bought a 5-string tenor, Kala KA ATP CTG 5 (cedar top, acacia laminate back and sides). Not on a whim - I spent days searching for and comparing sound samples, reading up etc. I picked it because I did want something completely different from my concert, but also because I wanted something maybe a little closer to my cedar-top Spanish guitar, which was half the price of this uke but sounds really warm and gentle when strummed.
But the uke does not sound like the online samples at all, indeed it sounds quite bad to my ears. I knew it would be loud, which it is, but it is also rather heavy and dull and one-dimensional. This for a uke that is often reviewed as "sounds better than it looks" (and it certainly looks gorgeous). Some observations:
- I hated the wound low g from the get-go, really don't like that metallic twang, so I replaced it with an Aquila red. Now it's worse. That irritating high-pitched buzz you'll hear in my sample is not fret buzz, it is the two G strings hitting against each other (I think).
- The uke feels harder to play than I expected. It is my first tenor, but I do play a classical guitar (not very well, but I do) and I had tried out a random tenor uke at a store - just to try it for size. It played as easily as my concert does. This one I find a struggle to play cleanly, I have to press the strings much harder than is comfortable for me (you'll hear it in the sample).
- It is loud but also pretty "flat", like there is no dynamic range. If I try to play gently, it's as if the strings didn't vibrate enough, all I get is the noise of fingers sweeping across the strings.
- When I try chucking, there is this irritating, sticky, kind-of swishy noise; not sure if it's the strings or the high-gloss finish. I suspect the latter; the noise is really unpleasant, you'll hear it.
- Build-wise, the Kala seems spotless. The setup seems perfect, the intonation is good-to-great, there is nothing obviously wrong with it... it just does not sound right to me :-o
I bought it online at a well-known and reputable place, which I am not naming here only because I do not want to shed any bad light on the guys, they are fantastic. But, I've had the Kala for 3 weeks now and it's too late to return it for no cause.
Essentially, I don't know which of the following is true:
- the uke sounds pretty much the way it is supposed to sound, and if I don't like it, maybe I can sell it
- the uke is *not* supposed to sound like this and I should try to return it.
Can anyone help me figure out which it is? Here is a sample, warts and all:
https://soundcloud.com/deadmanrhymin/kala-ka-atp-ctg-5-sound-sample/s-qZKpo
Bonus question: if all I do is strum, should I even be buying a tenor? Most tenor sound samples I find are fingerpicked. Are tenors in general suitable for light-to-heavy strumming?
Any advice will be much appreciated!
(And, of course, I had to make a typo in the subject line. Apologies!)
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