3 Barks Compared - Can You Tell Which is Which?

SweetWaterBlue

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 30, 2009
Messages
2,330
Reaction score
250
Location
Smyrna, Georgia
A lot is written about the "bark" some soprano ukes have when playing old songs. I thought it would be interesting to compare 3 of my ukes when playing Five Foot Two and see how many of you can tell which is which, and which sound you like more. The three ukes are my Kala laminate tenor, my Ohana SK-35G, and my Concert Flea. No electronic effects - recorded at the same time with the same recording setup.

http://www.box.net/shared/u9jvrz4lnm/1/35759#/shared/u9jvrz4lnm/1/35759252/397558372/1

What do you think?
 
Last edited:
1. Ohana sk-35g
2. kala ka-tg
3. Flea

Thats my guess anyway. I like the first one best and the last one least.
 
1. Flea
2. Kala KA-TG
3. Ohana SK-35G
 
ohana, kala, flea
 
1. Ohana sk-35g
2. kala ka-tg
3. Flea

Yea, I had to be different from SailQwest.
 
Last edited:
Okay, I'll make a guess.

Kala
Ohana
Flea
 
Ohana
Kala
Flea
The last 2 are similar and more harp-like
The first has more of a bark and sounds like a soprano to me.
 
1. Ohana
2. Flea
3. Kala
 
1. Ohana
2. Flea
3. Kala

Finally, a winner! As you said they are Ohana, Flea, and the Kala tenor.

The waveform shows the Flea to be slightly louder, but also with more low overtones, which I guess are near its resonant frequency. The Ohana doesn't have as much sustain on most notes, but deifintely cuts through with its high bark and higher resonant frequency. The sustain seems to show up on the waveforms as a fat area on some of the chord progressions. I was a bit surprised at the performance of the tenor. It was not as loud as I remembered it being before I got the Flea and the Ohana, but it is a laminate after all, and has a pretty sound to it. It is also possible that I did not control the mic to soundhole distance well enough, since I play the Flea and Ohana on my chest. My favorite is the Ohana, but I like bark right now.

Its interesting how few people can pick out which is which in a blind taste test. Maybe I should do a fingerpicking example.
 
Last edited:
Its interesting how few people can pick out which is which in a blind taste test. Maybe I should do a fingerpicking example.

Yeah, and its not just limited to ukuleles. On a banjo forum I frequent there is post after post about the differences in tonewoods, parts (bridges, tailpieces, heads, strings) and setups and yet whenever someone makes a post such as yours most people can't tell the difference.

So many of us, myself included, got the Flea and tenor Kala mixed up. Those low overtones on the Flea really threw me off, but I haven't listened to a lot of sound samples of them.

I too really like a lot of "bark." It was the number one quality I was looking for when I bought my last uke. It was between the Ohana sk-35g and the Kala solid mhogany concert. It came down to the videos MGM has on his youtube account. To my ears the Kala sounded like it had a little more bark so thats what I went with, but yours sounds pretty good too. I'd really like to be able to play both of those models side b side.
 
Banjo - I tried to do a sound analysis with Audacity of the sound sample posted on YT of the vintage Martin, Martin S0, Kiwaya, and the 5K, but even though he says he did no electronic shaping, all the waveforms are quite distinctily clipped at exactly the same height, indicating his equipment was being over driven somewhere. It was ok for tone analysis, but worthless for volume analysis.
 
I'd have said Ohana, Kala, Flea... but we know now that I'd have been wrong! They all sound great, you're a great player, I'd say my favourite though was the first one, the Soprano. To me it just sounded a bit more old timey... like really relaxed but punchy at the same time if that makes any sense? I must also just compliment your voice, you really do have such a drawing, comforting voice... really interesting! Do you have any more recordings/videos up on the net at all? I think I'll go learn that song now, not heard it before! Any tips on a good tab?...
 
That was fun, thanks for posting that!

As a Flea owner, my first thought was the last was the Flea! I was wrong!

Thanks again, very cool.
Cheers,
Skottoman
 
I'd have said Ohana, Kala, Flea... but we know now that I'd have been wrong! They all sound great, you're a great player, I'd say my favourite though was the first one, the Soprano. To me it just sounded a bit more old timey... like really relaxed but punchy at the same time if that makes any sense? I must also just compliment your voice, you really do have such a drawing, comforting voice... really interesting! Do you have any more recordings/videos up on the net at all? I think I'll go learn that song now, not heard it before! Any tips on a good tab?...

Wow!.. Thank you. I don't like the sound of my voice, so I am glad someone does. I have several YouTube videos up under my old screen name Smyrna5. Just click on my red YouTube Channel link below. Unfortunately, SweetWaterBlue was taken by the beer of the same name. My early videos are pretty bad. A link the Five Foot Two chords I am playing is below, but there are many others.

http://www.alligatorboogaloo.com/uke/tabs/030104.html

Marc O has a much more jazzy version I can't play yet here:

http://www.jazzukes.com/arrangements.html

and I believe Dominator also has some tabs for one played up the neck.

And, last but not least, this one has pushed many over the edge towards getting a Flea and playing that song. Listen for the fat overtones:

http://www.youtube.com/watch#playnext=1&playnext_from=TL&videos=0MF4tZLE8AY&v=plouyGNtsqg
 
Last edited:
Wow!.. Thank you. I don't like the sound of my voice, so I am glad someone does.

Well you've done well to put videos up of yourself singing if you don't like your voice! :) I think you have a really honest, wise voice! Some good videos up there, only had a qick glance at the moment but my particular favourite is Folshom Prison Blues! Good work and keep posting videos! Thanks for the tabs too!...
 
Top Bottom