The Ugly Truth

MGM

MGM

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Hey its a great movie but here are the 12 ukes in the blind test

1 Kala mango tenor laminate
2 Ohana laminate maple sides and solid sprucetop
3 Makala tenor all laminate
4 Pono pto
5 Kala flame maple tenor laminate with solid sprucetop
6 Lanikai solid mango tenor
7 Ohana solid rosewood with cedartop
8 Kala travel thinbody tenor mahogany lamninate with sprucetop
9 Ohana mahogany laminate with solid mahogany top Tk-20
10 Kala solid rosewood with cedartop tenor
11 Kanilea K-1 Koa tenor
12 New Kala all laminate flame mahogany with pickup
 
Nearly everyone liked 11 the most! It's good that we actually chose a great one lol! I want one now!!
 
haha I liked #6, solid mango lanikai!!! I almost bought that uke!!! I think i like my kala solid lacewood w/sprucetop better (glad that wasnt an option so I didnt have to choose one over mine!)
 
There was a couple of people who liked number 3, it makes me lol! It just shows that you cant judge a uke by its cover!
 
ukerazy said:
There was a couple of people who liked number 3, it makes me lol! It just shows that you cant judge a uke by its cover!
Click to expand...
I know! This is one I was wanting to get as my first uke. I'm so getting it now as my second. :D
 
Melissa82 said:
I know! This is one I was wanting to get as my first uke. I'm so getting it now as my second. :D
Click to expand...

A good bit cheaper than the rest of them too ey? To be fair though i didn't think any of them sounded really bad, I do want that kanilea though! UAS!!
 
Most of us could hear the quality sound of Kanile'a, and at least I got half right in one try. :D #2 was a surprise, so was #5 for me, too bad they're the wrong shape. ;)
 
MGM said:
Hey its a great movie but here are the 12 ukes in the blind test

1 Kala mango tenor laminate
2 Ohana laminate maple sides and solid sprucetop
3 Makala tenor all laminate
4 Pono pto
5 Kala flame maple tenor laminate with solid sprucetop
6 Lanikai solid mango tenor
7 Ohana solid rosewood with cedartop
8 Kala travel thinbody tenor mahogany lamninate with sprucetop
9 Ohana mahogany laminate with solid mahogany top Tk-20
10 Kala solid rosewood with cedartop tenor
11 Kanilea K-1 Koa tenor
12 New Kala all laminate flame mahogany with pickup
Click to expand...

Mike, I think this makes a good point about the sound of a ukulele being the most important part, but since you played them all...which was the most "playable" to your way of thinking. By the way, I thought they all sounded very good, and I didn't hear much difference in the high and low end ukes, which did surprise me! Have we been following the wrong UAS path?!?
 
Awesome, very interesting...

I bet the good folks at Kanile'a just breathed a sigh of relief :p
 
Fascinating! I wonder if we'd have judged differently if we'd been in the room, with our blindfolds on. I mean how much does the transmission homogenise the sound? Was it logic which won out in the end?
I'm going to listen to them again now. Thanks MGM this was fun and enlightening. :)
 
It's beginning to seem as if I'd be ahead to just shop price. Apparantly my ears aren't going to tell me anything worthwhile! :eek:

Given the superior durability of laminates, I think I'll stay with those and save some $$$$. I may opt for solid tops, but I can't see buying high-end solid wood ukes if I can't hear the difference.

Thanks, MGM, for a very enlightening lesson!
 
As I think about it, I'm not feeling as bad as I did about my lack of ability to identify these ukes by ear.

The reality is that nobody, not even the winner, identified them by ear. Most of us were flinging out pure guesses. After a couple of good hints from MGM we were able to apply some logic and narrow it down.

Bottom line is, I've still got UAS, but I've been cured of my uke snobbery. :D
 
Spot on mailman. I'd love to see (or hear!) MGM do the 30 sopranos blind test. This has been illuminating.
 
Just goes to show that a talented player can make any 'ukulele sound good.
 
Phew! All are revealed. :D

My 2 guesses were 6 and 7 out of 12, which I'm pretty happy about, since I don't really have much of any experience with solid tops or tenors, and I did make guesses based on what I heard. Anyway, this was a really cool contest, thanks for hosting it.

What I've learned from MGM's experiment:-
- For both solid rosewood with cedar top ukes, I rated them both down (one as a lam and one as a solid top). I'm now suspecting that there's something about the way cedar sounds that I don't like. Or is there something about mixed wood (even when they're both solids) that make it sound different somehow?
- I thought the New Kala all laminate flame mahogany with pickup was a solid! Is it because it's a new model? :D I want one now.
- At least, I guessed the other 3 solids - Pono, Lanikai and Kanilea -correctly. So, there is something to solids (or, at least these three) that made my inexperienced ears think they were solids. But the solid tops and laminates are a hit or miss.

Definitely up for a soprano challenge, if MGM finds the time to do one. :D
 
Last edited:
Great idea for a contest, in my opinion. Although I did have trouble with a few, I'm not ready to write off solid woods. That being said, the ukulele I play the most is a laminate. But it did make a very good point that a well-made laminate can hold it's own.
 
Well at least I picked the Kanilea and don't have to sacrifice a soprano to Pele.

:biglaugh: :nana:

:cool:
 
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