Ukes That Look Like Guitars (Kiwaya K-Wave and More)

FromTheWayside

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Hi Everyone -

So I recently stumbled on this picture:

normal_Zooey_Deschanel_006_large.jpg


I'm not terribly familiar with the artist, but I am drooling over the uke. A little research confirmed that the uke was a Kiwaya K-Wave Tele, but that finding left me with more questions that my research was unable to answer.

- Are these ukes any good?
- Do they come in tenor size (I only found references to soprano and concert size)?
- How hard are these to come by? (eBay turned up nothing and a quick Google Shopping search turned up bupkis.)
- How does everyone feel about guitar-shaped ukes? Does it propagate the stereotype that the uke is just a, "toy guitar?"

Thanks everyone, and happy strumming! :cool:
 
I saw that on ukuleleporn.com. I love that blog!

Additionally, I shy away from the ukes that specifically ape guitars. It doesn't jive with my philosophy of the uke being a different instrument, and presenting it in such a fashion.
 
I own one of these. Mine looks like a Les Paul. It's been a real boost to my music activities. The look and the sound of the uke helped me get a gig where I played 11 shows at the 2010 Winter Olympics. I've attached a video that shows the uke fed through a Fender can amp with distortion turned on.



If you look through my Youtube channel, you'll find many videos where I'm playing this uke both amplified and by itself. Hopefully, that might give you an idea of the sound of it and whether or not it's to your liking.

As to the sound, I would have to say that it's not bad but not great. However, you can definitely work with it. There's a surprising variety of textures you can get out of it. When amplified, it's pretty solid but a little tricky to manage. If you have the wrong amp, it may sound very trebly or mid-rangy. It takes distortion very well but can easily feedback if the volume is pushed too far.

I still like the uke a lot because it has really enhanced my performance and it has gotten me some very nice gigs. It depends on what you want to use the uke for. As an accompanying uke, it's a fine uke just as long as you know how to work with it. If your primary interest is in playing solo uke pieces, I would probably get a different uke.

I bought my uke from an ebay seller almost two years ago now. I can't remember their name off hand. I was led to the uke by a friend of mine who had bought one of the Strat models.
 
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As you can see in my signature, I own a Kiwaya K-Wave Tele uke. Mine is a concert size, and I bought it used on eBay several months ago.

I absolutely love mine! I've never tried it plugged in, as I don't yet have an amp. I have mine tuned low G, and I think it sounds great acoustically. Apparently other posters were unimpressed with the ones they tried, but I'm more than satisfied. Mine is wine red with a black pick guard, and came to me in a cool tweed hard-shell case.

Perhaps the folks that didn't like theirs actually tried a Mahalo Telecaster-style uke. I've heard they're not as good as the Kiwaya.

I think you can still find these, if you look hard enough. Have you tried Elderly Instruments online?

Good luck with your search!
 
Meh.

Not into the Tele looking uke, despite my admiration of the Fender guitar, especially in paisley.
 
I have played Telecasters for about 15 years, and these have no appeal to me. Like someone said, the uke is a different instrument.
 
If I was going to grab a Tele or Les Paul-esque ukulele, I'd make sure it was electric, like my dream uke. Otherwise, they just look kind of odd.
 
I did more thinking on the issue of whether or not this makes the uke seem like a toy guitar. In practice, that's not what I've encountered. It quite went the other way. I've had many comments from formerly skeptical people that told me they now realized the ukulele is a real instrument. I've even gotten some guitar players to learn to play the ukulele.

I play both the guitar and the uke in my gigs, switching depending on the song. I found that I'm starting to borrow techniques learned from one instrument and transferring them to the other. I guess, in the end, I care only about the song and the music, and whichever instrument delivers that in a better and more fun way is the one I'd choose for any given performance.
 
I saw that on ukuleleporn.com. I love that blog!

Additionally, I shy away from the ukes that specifically ape guitars. It doesn't jive with my philosophy of the uke being a different instrument, and presenting it in such a fashion.

I could see that. I think it looks cute, but it doesn't really do much for the, "uke is its own instrument," argument.

I used to own one of those. I found the acoustic tone to be rather "meh". Plugged in was okay. I think they're more of a novelty than a quality instrument.

Did you have a K-Wave? Or a Mahalo? I have heard pretty good things about the K-Wave, but not so much about the Mahalo.

If you have the money, you would really love Joel Eckhaus' Les Paul and Telecaster models

http://www.earnestinstruments.com/ukuleles.html

They are really fine instruments and play surprisingly well acoustically

Those look amazing, but I don't have $600 floating around. If someone wants to donate one to me, I would be eternally grateful, though. Also, it looks like they are only available in concert size, which is a bummer to me (I would prefer tenor).

As you can see in my signature, I own a Kiwaya K-Wave Tele uke. Mine is a concert size, and I bought it used on eBay several months ago.

I absolutely love mine! I've never tried it plugged in, as I don't yet have an amp. I have mine tuned low G, and I think it sounds great acoustically. Apparently other posters were unimpressed with the ones they tried, but I'm more than satisfied. Mine is wine red with a black pick guard, and came to me in a cool tweed hard-shell case.

Perhaps the folks that didn't like theirs actually tried a Mahalo Telecaster-style uke. I've heard they're not as good as the Kiwaya.

I think you can still find these, if you look hard enough. Have you tried Elderly Instruments online?

Good luck with your search!

Hmm...good to know. This makes me that much more determined to find one...as I recall, a guitar shop near my house had one for sale. Road trip time! Sadly, a search of Elderly Instruments turned up nothing. Where have all of these ukes gone?

Meh.

Not into the Tele looking uke, despite my admiration of the Fender guitar, especially in paisley.

Yeah, not everyone's cup of tea.

I have played Telecasters for about 15 years, and these have no appeal to me. Like someone said, the uke is a different instrument.

I could definitely understand that mentality.

If I was going to grab a Tele or Les Paul-esque ukulele, I'd make sure it was electric, like my dream uke. Otherwise, they just look kind of odd.

That does seem like a cool uke. The only thing that would bug me about it is that it probably wouldn't sound like a uke. It seems logical that as the ukes have equipment like steel strings and solid bodies they become more like guitars (especially in their tone). I wouldn't mind having one, but as a uke player it's not my first priority to get one. Does anyone have a sound sample of that particular uke?

I did more thinking on the issue of whether or not this makes the uke seem like a toy guitar. In practice, that's not what I've encountered. It quite went the other way. I've had many comments from formerly skeptical people that told me they now realized the ukulele is a real instrument. I've even gotten some guitar players to learn to play the ukulele.

I play both the guitar and the uke in my gigs, switching depending on the song. I found that I'm starting to borrow techniques learned from one instrument and transferring them to the other. I guess, in the end, I care only about the song and the music, and whichever instrument delivers that in a better and more fun way is the one I'd choose for any given performance.

That's a good insight. I could definitely see how playing guitar would feed into playing the uke and vice versa. Out of curiosity, what sort of uke do you play?
 
I own one of these. Mine looks like a Les Paul. It's been a real boost to my music activities. The look and the sound of the uke helped me get a gig where I played 11 shows at the 2010 Winter Olympics. I've attached a video that shows the uke fed through a Fender can amp with distortion turned on.



If you look through my Youtube channel, you'll find many videos where I'm playing this uke both amplified and by itself. Hopefully, that might give you an idea of the sound of it and whether or not it's to your liking.

As to the sound, I would have to say that it's not bad but not great. However, you can definitely work with it. There's a surprising variety of textures you can get out of it. When amplified, it's pretty solid but a little tricky to manage. If you have the wrong amp, it may sound very trebly or mid-rangy. It takes distortion very well but can easily feedback if the volume is pushed too far.

I still like the uke a lot because it has really enhanced my performance and it has gotten me some very nice gigs. It depends on what you want to use the uke for. As an accompanying uke, it's a fine uke just as long as you know how to work with it. If your primary interest is in playing solo uke pieces, I would probably get a different uke.

I bought my uke from an ebay seller almost two years ago now. I can't remember their name off hand. I was led to the uke by a friend of mine who had bought one of the Strat models.


Cool vid! The uke isn't exactly as crunchy as an electric guitar, but I wasn't expecting it to be.

When you say the uke can be hard to manage, what do you mean? Out of curiosity, does the uke have any on-board volume / tone controls? I don't see any in the vid. When you say solo uke pieces, do you mean playing just the uke? No singing or any other instruments?

Thanks again for your input!
 
I own one of these. Mine looks like a Les Paul. It's been a real boost to my music activities. The look and the sound of the uke helped me get a gig where I played 11 shows at the 2010 Winter Olympics. I've attached a video that shows the uke fed through a Fender can amp with distortion turned on.



If you look through my Youtube channel, you'll find many videos where I'm playing this uke both amplified and by itself. Hopefully, that might give you an idea of the sound of it and whether or not it's to your liking.

As to the sound, I would have to say that it's not bad but not great. However, you can definitely work with it. There's a surprising variety of textures you can get out of it. When amplified, it's pretty solid but a little tricky to manage. If you have the wrong amp, it may sound very trebly or mid-rangy. It takes distortion very well but can easily feedback if the volume is pushed too far.

I still like the uke a lot because it has really enhanced my performance and it has gotten me some very nice gigs. It depends on what you want to use the uke for. As an accompanying uke, it's a fine uke just as long as you know how to work with it. If your primary interest is in playing solo uke pieces, I would probably get a different uke.

I bought my uke from an ebay seller almost two years ago now. I can't remember their name off hand. I was led to the uke by a friend of mine who had bought one of the Strat models.


Cool vid! The ukes doesn't sound as crunchy or full as an electric, but I didn't expect it too. Out of curiosity, what do you mean, "hard to handle?" Also, what do you mean by "solo pieces?" Are we talking songs that call for uke alone, or uke and other instruments? Thanks again for your insight.
 
Cool vid! The ukes doesn't sound as crunchy or full as an electric, but I didn't expect it too. Out of curiosity, what do you mean, "hard to handle?" Also, what do you mean by "solo pieces?" Are we talking songs that call for uke alone, or uke and other instruments? Thanks again for your insight.

This K-Wave Les Paul concert-size model is the main one I play. By hard to handle,...well, I'll give you some examples.

As an acoustic instrument, it can have kind of a plunky tone. It doesn't have the warmth and beauty of tone as some of the finer ukes. However, I found that over time and lots of playing the sound really opened up well. Also, if you vary your touch and play very sensitively, you can get quite a variety of tones out of it. Sometimes I play this with a pick and sometimes with fingers. By varying how you play it, you can get a very aggressive crunch sound to a delicate fingerpicking sound and many places in between.

As an amplified instrument, it's tricky. First of all, as you observed, it has no separate volume and tone control. The signal basically goes into an amp "hot." Many amps and Dis too will make this uke sound very mid-rangey or trebly, to the point of being annoying. Sometimes i found I had to turn the highs and the mids all the way down and turn the lows all the way up. This produces a warm tone. Oddly enough, I found that the Fender portable Can Amp actually takes the uke very well. I usually have to keep volume low, around 4 or 5, and keep the tone at minimum. The Fender also has a high gain / distortion button. That's what you heard on my video. I keep the volume low here around 2 to 3. At 3, it will feed back. This can enhance the sound when you're playing. When you're not playing though, this may result in annoying feed back coming from the amp. So, if I use distortion, I'll turn it off in between songs.

By solo pieces, I meant instrumental pieces where the uke is played alone. Like, if you were to play a complex solo piece, you might want to use a different uke. My K-Wave can sound pretty good but you really have to work for it. For a tough instrumental, I'd rather play something that responded easily to the touch. Since I don't play these kind of pieces, I'm all right with my K-Wave.
 
I have a K-Wave that looks exactly like the one in the first picture. I love it. It has a buttery smooth action and the tone is surprisingly good for the size of the body unplugged. It is a concert scale. It is the uke my wife would gravitate towards when she wanted to try a song. She liked the ease of playing and the feel of the neck. I moved to Europe this year and left it behind and it is missed.
 
That does seem like a cool uke. The only thing that would bug me about it is that it probably wouldn't sound like a uke. It seems logical that as the ukes have equipment like steel strings and solid bodies they become more like guitars (especially in their tone). I wouldn't mind having one, but as a uke player it's not my first priority to get one. Does anyone have a sound sample of that particular uke?

Well, it doesn't really sound uke-ish. It sounds how it looks, really, but I'm good with that -- I'd like having extremes, from plain ol' acoustic and full-on electric. On the other hand, there is always the EleUke, which sounds more like a ukulele.
 
As you can see in my signature, I own a Kiwaya K-Wave Tele uke. Mine is a concert size, and I bought it used on eBay several months ago.

I absolutely love mine! I've never tried it plugged in, as I don't yet have an amp. I have mine tuned low G, and I think it sounds great acoustically. Apparently other posters were unimpressed with the ones they tried, but I'm more than satisfied. Mine is wine red with a black pick guard, and came to me in a cool tweed hard-shell case.

Perhaps the folks that didn't like theirs actually tried a Mahalo Telecaster-style uke. I've heard they're not as good as the Kiwaya.

I think you can still find these, if you look hard enough. Have you tried Elderly Instruments online?

Good luck with your search!


Got to play Mailman's at the UWC today. Very, very nice uke. Beautiful to look at as well.

He has now played it amplified (I had my Honeytone amp with me) and it sounded really good either way.
 
Got to play Mailman's at the UWC today. Very, very nice uke. Beautiful to look at as well.

He has now played it amplified (I had my Honeytone amp with me) and it sounded really good either way.

Oh man I was I was at the UWC. Trying out each other's ukes. Sounds like great fun!
 
This K-Wave Les Paul concert-size model is the main one I play. By hard to handle,...well, I'll give you some examples.

As an acoustic instrument, it can have kind of a plunky tone. It doesn't have the warmth and beauty of tone as some of the finer ukes. However, I found that over time and lots of playing the sound really opened up well. Also, if you vary your touch and play very sensitively, you can get quite a variety of tones out of it. Sometimes I play this with a pick and sometimes with fingers. By varying how you play it, you can get a very aggressive crunch sound to a delicate fingerpicking sound and many places in between.

As an amplified instrument, it's tricky. First of all, as you observed, it has no separate volume and tone control. The signal basically goes into an amp "hot." Many amps and Dis too will make this uke sound very mid-rangey or trebly, to the point of being annoying. Sometimes i found I had to turn the highs and the mids all the way down and turn the lows all the way up. This produces a warm tone. Oddly enough, I found that the Fender portable Can Amp actually takes the uke very well. I usually have to keep volume low, around 4 or 5, and keep the tone at minimum. The Fender also has a high gain / distortion button. That's what you heard on my video. I keep the volume low here around 2 to 3. At 3, it will feed back. This can enhance the sound when you're playing. When you're not playing though, this may result in annoying feed back coming from the amp. So, if I use distortion, I'll turn it off in between songs.

By solo pieces, I meant instrumental pieces where the uke is played alone. Like, if you were to play a complex solo piece, you might want to use a different uke. My K-Wave can sound pretty good but you really have to work for it. For a tough instrumental, I'd rather play something that responded easily to the touch. Since I don't play these kind of pieces, I'm all right with my K-Wave.

Do you happen to know if it's a solid body or a laminate? Or what it's made out of? If I had to guess, I would assume that the uke is probably a laminate, no? I do like the prospect of getting a bunch of different sounds from it. Then again, I dunno if I'm even good enough to be able to pull that many sounds out of the uke. More practice, I suppose?

I think the fact that it goes well with a portable can amp is just peachy. A portable instrument with a portable amp is a great combination. I guess the take home message is that you need an amp with a tone control? As someone who dabbles in guitar playing, I know what it's like to have gnarly feedback, and it's not fun.

I see what you mean; thanks for explaining what you meant by solo pieces. I wonder if a tululele (by Earnest ukuleles) would have the same problem?
 
Oh man I was I was at the UWC. Trying out each other's ukes. Sounds like great fun!

I totally agree!

Got to play Mailman's at the UWC today. Very, very nice uke. Beautiful to look at as well.

He has now played it amplified (I had my Honeytone amp with me) and it sounded really good either way.

Cool beans. Now I'm even more motivated to try one of these out.

Well, it doesn't really sound uke-ish. It sounds how it looks, really, but I'm good with that -- I'd like having extremes, from plain ol' acoustic and full-on electric. On the other hand, there is always the EleUke, which sounds more like a ukulele.

I guess if you slap steel strings on a piece of wood and use electronics that like that of a guitar...you're going to end up with something a lot like a guitar. The uke in that video looks bad ass, but honestly if I had the $800 it would cost to get a uke that like, I would probably get a solid-body acoustic electric. The possibilities with effects and everything else are great, but I dunno...I have a guitar, so at that point, why not just play that?

I have a K-Wave that looks exactly like the one in the first picture. I love it. It has a buttery smooth action and the tone is surprisingly good for the size of the body unplugged. It is a concert scale. It is the uke my wife would gravitate towards when she wanted to try a song. She liked the ease of playing and the feel of the neck. I moved to Europe this year and left it behind and it is missed.

Aww! What a shame! Why leave such a great instrument behind?
 
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