jehicks87
Well-known member
Hey all. This is my first review... I'm kind of free-handing it, so bare with me.
MP CONCERT CEDAR TOP/MYRTLEWOOD BACK AND SIDES
Today I got a little gift in the mail today. My MP Concert Uke arrived! I would say "finally," but even over here the shipping was much speedier than I assumed it would be.
I don't have a camera yet, so you'll have to go to Mike's page at www.mpukuleles.com/For_Sale.html and scroll to #091 to see pictures. I can be pretty descriptive, so I will walk you through my first impressions.
When I opened the box, I fell in love. There she was, my new baby, all cozied up inside her gig-bag. I brought here out and looked her over really quickly. Now, I hear alot of people claiming that "the pictures don't do (their uke) justice..." I am not going to say that. I will say she is an absolutely stunning instrument, but there is a bit less grain-flection (yes, I made up a word) in real life than she shows in the pictures. I was expecting her to look slightly different, but I am not upset at all. She is pretty, and not just because she's mine.
When I got back to my room, I tuned her up and played a bit on her. I would like to say that the sound... ooooooh the sound. It is exactly what I want every ukulele in the world to sound like. She absolutely sings. It's miraculous. As with most concerts, the lower you go on the fretboard the less sustain she shows, but chord-ists will love a wood combo like this from MP.
The workmanship, I will not say is flawless, but I cannot find much to complain about. A few things I will point out though, in the essence of fairness.
The only place there is any excess glue is where the fretboard meets the soundboard. A tiny amount of glue must have squeezed out from between the two and left a residue when it dried or was wiped up. Not a big deal.
There is one small part of the maple binding that shows some separation from the maple binding. If you look for it, you should be able to find it. If you don't look for it, it would be hard to spot.
I found the same thing with two frets. Two frets either were not completely seated prior to shipping, or the humidity fluctuations she incurred in transit popped them ever-so-slightly out. I did not notice any buzzing or anything of the sort when I played her, so I am going to say it is not an issue in playability, but perhaps cosmetically (again, if you are looking for it.)
The Neck is flawless. The neck is fantastic. The neck was made for my hands. Chunky, which I love, with a flat spot running the middle. SOOOO easy to barre the frets with a neck like this.
The Fretboard, however, I found to be a bit too thick for my tastes. It juts higher from the soundboard than I have seen before, but I admittedly have not seen many higher-end or handmade ukes. The fretboard is smooth, though, and very easy to play on. I just kept hitting my finger when strumming more noticeably than I have before. I'd like to point out, I do not consider this a design flaw, or even a "quirk." I consider it something that MP Ukes may simply have that I have not come across yet. I don't even dislike it, but I am not "in love" with the fretboard thickness.
...Everything else, though. Yes. I am in love with this uke. She is beautiful, if understated, well-put-together, if imperfect, and she has a set of golden lungs on her that I really just cannot get past.
The price... the price was very, very right.
The man... Mike is one of the absolute best people I have ever done business with. I mean that in all sincerity.
If this Uke were stolen would you buy another one like it? I would. And I would have it sent to the State Penitentiary so I could play it will serving my life sentence for hunting down and hurting very badly the person who stole my uke in the first place.
Caveat:
I hope this review was entertaining and informative. I hope, also, that it was not too colored for a valuable opinion to be taken from it. I reported the imperfections I found, as well as the good, and derived an over-all impression and judgment based on my findings. I suggest that anyone interested contact Mike at MP, though not because I own one of his instruments. I suggest so because I feel that his instruments are very, very fine quality. I certainly am happy I did.
MP CONCERT CEDAR TOP/MYRTLEWOOD BACK AND SIDES
Today I got a little gift in the mail today. My MP Concert Uke arrived! I would say "finally," but even over here the shipping was much speedier than I assumed it would be.
I don't have a camera yet, so you'll have to go to Mike's page at www.mpukuleles.com/For_Sale.html and scroll to #091 to see pictures. I can be pretty descriptive, so I will walk you through my first impressions.
When I opened the box, I fell in love. There she was, my new baby, all cozied up inside her gig-bag. I brought here out and looked her over really quickly. Now, I hear alot of people claiming that "the pictures don't do (their uke) justice..." I am not going to say that. I will say she is an absolutely stunning instrument, but there is a bit less grain-flection (yes, I made up a word) in real life than she shows in the pictures. I was expecting her to look slightly different, but I am not upset at all. She is pretty, and not just because she's mine.
When I got back to my room, I tuned her up and played a bit on her. I would like to say that the sound... ooooooh the sound. It is exactly what I want every ukulele in the world to sound like. She absolutely sings. It's miraculous. As with most concerts, the lower you go on the fretboard the less sustain she shows, but chord-ists will love a wood combo like this from MP.
The workmanship, I will not say is flawless, but I cannot find much to complain about. A few things I will point out though, in the essence of fairness.
The only place there is any excess glue is where the fretboard meets the soundboard. A tiny amount of glue must have squeezed out from between the two and left a residue when it dried or was wiped up. Not a big deal.
There is one small part of the maple binding that shows some separation from the maple binding. If you look for it, you should be able to find it. If you don't look for it, it would be hard to spot.
I found the same thing with two frets. Two frets either were not completely seated prior to shipping, or the humidity fluctuations she incurred in transit popped them ever-so-slightly out. I did not notice any buzzing or anything of the sort when I played her, so I am going to say it is not an issue in playability, but perhaps cosmetically (again, if you are looking for it.)
The Neck is flawless. The neck is fantastic. The neck was made for my hands. Chunky, which I love, with a flat spot running the middle. SOOOO easy to barre the frets with a neck like this.
The Fretboard, however, I found to be a bit too thick for my tastes. It juts higher from the soundboard than I have seen before, but I admittedly have not seen many higher-end or handmade ukes. The fretboard is smooth, though, and very easy to play on. I just kept hitting my finger when strumming more noticeably than I have before. I'd like to point out, I do not consider this a design flaw, or even a "quirk." I consider it something that MP Ukes may simply have that I have not come across yet. I don't even dislike it, but I am not "in love" with the fretboard thickness.
...Everything else, though. Yes. I am in love with this uke. She is beautiful, if understated, well-put-together, if imperfect, and she has a set of golden lungs on her that I really just cannot get past.
The price... the price was very, very right.
The man... Mike is one of the absolute best people I have ever done business with. I mean that in all sincerity.
If this Uke were stolen would you buy another one like it? I would. And I would have it sent to the State Penitentiary so I could play it will serving my life sentence for hunting down and hurting very badly the person who stole my uke in the first place.
Caveat:
I hope this review was entertaining and informative. I hope, also, that it was not too colored for a valuable opinion to be taken from it. I reported the imperfections I found, as well as the good, and derived an over-all impression and judgment based on my findings. I suggest that anyone interested contact Mike at MP, though not because I own one of his instruments. I suggest so because I feel that his instruments are very, very fine quality. I certainly am happy I did.
