Ukes to Avoid

whoopee01

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In the interest of finding good cheap and cheerful Ukuleles I have been on a mission to buy one of two of the very cheapest and at £9 I bought a brand new Mahalo, brilliant for the money, good quality finish and as a beginner instrument sounded fine too. At £15 I bought a colourful makala, very good quality, lovely sound and I use it almost as much as my Pono. By far the worst Ukulele I have bought is the Vintage VUK15N, it's horrible, cheap, poory finsihed and sounds like a toy and worst of all cost me nearly £20, very expensive kindling. The Two Tix at around £25 is a great little Uke, lovely sound, really well finsihed and a mellow sound, the only down side to this is the fret board finish does wear after a lot of use. So top of my cheap and cheerful Ukulele table so far is the Makala and right at the bottom, not worth the disapointment is the terrible cheap and nasty Vintage VUK15N.
 
It's interesting - at the very cheap end you get pretty massive variations in quality (well, except for Makala which are pretty good all round)

I also started with a Mahalo basic model and a Vintage VUK15. in my case, the Mahalo was totall unplayable. The fingerboard was painted black (painted with what looked like poster paint) that didnt quite go to the edges. Bridge was also loose, and there was a chip in the top. Intonation off and impossible to completely tune.

My Vintage on the other hand was flawlessly finished. Terrible fingerboard, but everything else was ok, and more importantly the intonation and action were reasonable. Still a very cheap uke and rather nasty sounding, but would still pick it up above the Mahalo!

I think the lesson here is - when they are this cheap, you could get a good one or a bad one.
 
There is an ebay seller who, also has a website, and they do Ukuleles from £6.69! http://www.karacha.com/Ukulele My daughter needs some ukes for a school art project and I had been wondering about these as they are unlikely to be played, just painted. Of course it would be nice if they could be played but for that price I think it would be a lot to ask. Their ebay listing is here http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110462990411&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT and it is interesting that they have 100% pos feedback on nearly 6000 sales.
If I get some I will post how I get on.

Ian.
 
I bought a vintage sammo a few weeks back, solid Koa and had been refinished, cost me £70 with shipping and it sound horrendous compared to my makala. Never going down the vintage uke route again!
 
think the vintage ref in the first two posts are referring to vintage the brand, as opposed to vintage old!:eek:
 
Try the Stagg US 10 from Normans in the UK. Nice soundind cheap ukulele.
Re string it with worth or aquila strings. Warning.... The much better looking Stagg US 40 might disapoint you. I have tried a lot of instruments and I choose to busk with a US 10 ..... cheap and cheerfull.
I also own some really excellent high end ukuleles.
Best wishes
 
think the vintage ref in the first two posts are referring to vintage the brand, as opposed to vintage old!:eek:
I gathered that :p but i was speaking about less known vintage brands such as sammo!
 
One of these days I'm going to get one of those super-cheap First Act ukes at Toys R Us. I'm sure they're godawful.
 
One of these days I'm going to get one of those super-cheap First Act ukes at Toys R Us. I'm sure they're godawful.

There ara some intonation problems with these ukes but they can be made playable by moving the bridge so that the distance from the nut to the 12th fret is the same as from the 12th nut to the bridge......

My most dissapointing Uke is a Martin SO!!!!!!!
 
Mahalos are inconsistent. Some are pretty good for $20-30, and others are really awful. If you're really in the market for a Mahalo instead of a Makala, play a few and pick the best one. They're all different.

The cheap Hilo ukes in Guitar Center and many other music stores are usually unplayable and about $15 too expensive for a wall-hanging.

Any of the tourist-trap souvenir ukes should be avoided if you actually plan on playing them.

And Antonio Tsai should probably be on this list, based on the horror stories.
 
sorry dude - my mistake.
No worries! just trying to express my view that if it sounds too good to be true then its practically always not ('cept the eleuke at £65 :drool: and possibly the Bruko)
 
My most dissapointing Uke is a Martin SO!!!!!!!

Interesting you should say that. I was fondling one of the two Martins on display at a local store yesterday while my husband was testing out an amp and am overwhelmingly unimpressed.
 
I am suprised you don't like the Martin SO. I have one and I think it is pretty good.
 
If I were looking for an extreme budget uke I would go Makala. Their quality and customer satisfaction have been demonstrated to be consistently high for the price. I wouldn't bother with any of the other brands in that range simply because Makala is a proven good, safe bet.

I wouldn't hesitate to gig with a Makala soprano with a set of Aquila strings on it. In fact, I have done it. :cool:

In that price range you are very unlikely to find anything better, and if you do it is very likely to be a stroke of good luck, as the other bargain basement brands receive variable reviews.

If you want better than Makala then you're looking up stepping up a price band.

YMMV.

As far as ukes to avoid... that's more difficult to say. Quality control of the mass-volume stuff that gets branded with the same names as cheap guitars and amps etc is very unreliable. You may find a good one, but you're likely to find junk.

I think the punchline is that pinching every last penny to find the cheapest possible uke is likely to yield disappointing results. There are bargains to be had from respectable factory-made brands such as Kala, Mainland, Lanikai, Ohana etc. They specialise in ukes, rather than just shifting any music related product they can put their name on.

Instead of shooting for the extreme cheapskate uke bracket, save for another month or two to afford one of those brands listed above (or similar) and you will be a happy bunny.
 
If I were looking for an extreme budget uke I would go Makala. Their quality and customer satisfaction have been demonstrated to be consistently high for the price. I wouldn't bother with any of the other brands in that range simply because Makala is a proven good, safe bet.

I wouldn't hesitate to gig with a Makala soprano with a set of Aquila strings on it. In fact, I have done it. :cool:

In that price range you are very unlikely to find anything better, and if you do it is very likely to be a stroke of good luck, as the other bargain basement brands receive variable reviews.

If you want better than Makala then you're looking up stepping up a price band.

YMMV.

As far as ukes to avoid... that's more difficult to say. Quality control of the mass-volume stuff that gets branded with the same names as cheap guitars and amps etc is very unreliable. You may find a good one, but you're likely to find junk.

I think the punchline is that pinching every last penny to find the cheapest possible uke is likely to yield disappointing results. There are bargains to be had from respectable factory-made brands such as Kala, Mainland, Lanikai, Ohana etc. They specialise in ukes, rather than just shifting any music related product they can put their name on.

Instead of shooting for the extreme cheapskate uke bracket, save for another month or two to afford one of those brands listed above (or similar) and you will be a happy bunny.

I have to agree with you Buddhuu. The brands you mentioned are some great mid range ukes that are pressing the envelope when it comes to quality and sound. Kala is raising the bar for the import line. Never heard anything bad about mainland and everyone that I know that has one loves it. Lanikais seem to be hit or miss but more often one gets a hit with them.

Your advise to save up just a little more money is right on. I started on a cheap $45 OU2 b/c i couldn't bring my self to pay $300 for a Mele or $600ish for a kamaka. I regretted buying that cheap uke. I am so glad that I eventually decided to pick up the uke again and buy a "real" ukulele.
 
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