My first uke - Kala Acacia concert (KA-ASAC-C)

Here it is! It arrived Tuesday and the nice UPS guy placed it safely on the front porch, as requested. After a long, difficult day, I barely had time to open and strum it that night, and perhaps that is why I was initially unimpressed with it. Coming from the guitar, I definitely had some misperceptions about it. I couldn't get a consistently good tone out of it but I attribute that to operator inexperience. Yesterday I spent a good amount of time reading some of my Jumpin Jim books (Tips n' Tunes, the 60s book and the country book - highly recommended!) and practiced my chords and some simple tunes I know. I also tried my hand at some fingerstyle with Mark Nelson's book and didn't go to bed until midnight last night!

As for the uke itself, it has a very sweet tone, but not quiet. Not as sparkly as a koa, and not as loud as a mahogany, but somewhere in between. This all depends of course on what fingers I use to strum, and where I place my hand along the fingerboard to do the strumming. I discovered a whole range of dynamic capabilities in this way. For example, I can coax a louder, brighter strum by using my thumb, which surprised me. The fingerboard inlays are delight to look at and the quality of the wood and construction is impressive. It's got a lovely satin finish and I think you will agree the patterning is quite striking. The intonation is spot on, and while I had to retune it several times initially, it pretty much stays in tune now. The little Kala digital clip on tuner is excellent, by the way. I absolutely love this little uke! It's as if it is teaching me how to be a better player.



I'll have more to say later but just wanted to get this up. I took some pics below and some time soon I'd like to try to make an audio recording and post that so folks can hear it. I can only insert five images here but there are 10 more on my album entitled "My First Uke," if you want to go there and look. Happy strumming!

Very pretty! I have the tenor version myself. I really like the color of the wood. It reminds me of a Buckskin horse. I like the way the binding compliments the darker streaks in the grain. The only thing I am not wild about (and this is very minor) is the design of the inlays. Of course, mine were the earlier asymmetrical ones. I like yours better. But I wish they had used the same design they have on their cedar-topped ukes. I like my tenor, but don't play it that much, as I have decided since buying it that I really prefer sopranos. I wouldn't mind someday having the soprano version.

I have the same ukulele. My first as well. I posted a review ages ago. I grew up with an acacia tree, so just staring at the grain makes me smile.

Enjoy!

Very nice uke!!! You should have lots of fun playing!!! Congrats!!

Congrats on your recent acquisition.

Beautiful to look and and to hold and play, I'm sure.

Thanks for sharing your joy and pride of ownership with us.

Keep uke'in' (as if you needed that encouragement!),