Samick UK-70B Baritone Ukulele ("Greg Bennett design")

Who is this Greg Bennett anyway? Sounds like a tennis player to me?

In medias res... apart from playing other kinds of uke scales I really love playing my baritone ukes lately (a Pono Mahogany and a Pono Mango bari).

By chance I came across this YouTube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyxkYiuGW-8

As you can see, the lady in the video plays a Samick UK-70B Bariton Ukulele (design by Greg Bennett).

I was surprised by the sweet sound it produces. Listen for yourselves dudes!
What do you think?

From my early days of uke playing I own the concert version of this uke (it's called Samick UK-70) and I'm not so happy with it since it doesn't project so well. So I built in a pickup - the saddle was already prepared for this purpose - and it sounds acceptable when amplified!

Do you know anything about these ukes? They are laminates I assume? They are really cheap and I think the bari sounds pretty nice. What do you think?

Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts!

http://www.gregbennettguitars.com/

Click the tab that says "Greg Bennett"

I've never played a Samick baritone, but I own a Mahalo baritone and that sounds pretty sweet. I think that says more about baritones in general than Mahalo or Samick.

I have a Samick acoustic guitar which is my main instrument (although I haven't picked it up in forever...it seems so big now). I didn't know that they made ukuleles but it wouldn't surprise me if they are really nice instruments.

I watched the video and I'm sorry, I just HAVE to do it:

Young lady, please buy a tuner, they're really cheap, and work really well.

I feel better now.

Jimmy

jimmybookout said:

I watched the video and I'm sorry, I just HAVE to do it:

Young lady, please buy a tuner, they're really cheap, and work really well.

I feel better now.

Jimmy

Click to expand...

Hahaha! I hadn`t even noticed.

What's funny is at the start of the video, the uke sounded in tune. I think the strings are not settled into place and the intonation is off. When she played "G" and "Em" at the beginning, the uke was in tune. After that, with each chord, it got progressively worse.

Pippin said:

What's funny is at the start of the video, the uke sounded in tune. I think the strings are not settled into place and the intonation is off. When she played "G" and "Em" at the beginning, the uke was in tune. After that, with each chord, it got progressively worse.

Click to expand...

I noticed that also. By the end of the video, my dogs were howling (and they're used to my playing)!

Jimmy