I'm not sure if I'm qualified to review Ukuleles. But I figured, it's really just about sharing your experiences, hey? So why not. I know especially that the Fender Ukuleles got a bit of a bad rep from other Ukulele sites (namely Ukulele Hunt), and so I thought I would share my experience with it, and maybe change some minds about it.
To begin with, I should mention that Ukulele Hunt was the first resource I spent time investigating when I first got into Uke-ing. Except I bought my Fender Pa'ina *before* looking things up. I mainly bought it for the novelty of having an Uke with the Fender Telecaster headstock. I thought that was ridiculously cool at the time. I bought the Pa'ina especially for the electronics, and for the fact that it was made from solid mahogany, which I also thought was pretty incredible at the time.
Anyway, after I bought it, I discovered Ukulele Hunt, and the negative reviews it got on the site. I was of course quite dismayed at having spent $300 on an Uke that most people found to be sub-standard for the price range. Because of this, my attitude toward my Uke was actually pretty bad, especially after I left it in the car once and one of the main complaints against the Uke happened to me: the bridge broke off.
I was really pissed at the time because it was a week before I was to leave to live in British Columbia (on a small island, devoid of many modern comforts like a decent music store, called Thetis) for two months. I needed my Uke because one of my work responsibilities during this two month period was basically performing on the Uke every day.
Thankfully, the store that I bought it from was quick with the repairs - I got it back a day before I flew out. And Fender paid for the repairs too. The guy told me that he also used better glue than Fender did on the repair job, so it should be much stronger.
Anyway, my attitude toward the Uke changed over this past two months I had been using it daily. The sound was great with the Aquila (Low-G) strings that I put on it. It carried over the 30-40 kids that were singing along with me. So that was a huge plus. I recorded one of my last singing sessions with the kids, and it was pretty clearly visible. So I was really impressed with that.
Another thing that stuck out to me was how strong it was. I actually dropped it on concrete when I didn't secure my strap on properly one time. That fall resulted in a pretty visible crack in the back, but otherwise, it held together. I'm not going to have it repaired because it seems to me pretty cosmetic. I'll have to check how it sounds with the massive crack plugged in though. That'll be the only thing that'll change my mind about repairing it, as I still have to perform with this uke for another 8 months before I can replace it.
One really major plus that someone else pointed out to me about it (online forums), was its intonation. The guy was very impressed at how accurate Fender's intonation was right up to the 14th fret. I certainly never had problems, even though I didn't really have to worry about intonation much as I don't perform much with other instruments. But I did check it with an electronic tuner, and the intonation really was spot on.
I've grown really fond of this Uke, and even though I'm seeking to replace it as my main performance Uke, I will certainly continue using it for my own pleasure. I'm not going to try to put in to numbers what I think about this Uke, because my review is purely subjective. Again this is but a narrative of my experience with this Uke.. Which is basically to say that I've really loved using it so far, and will enjoy doing so until I am able to graduate to a higher end uke.
To begin with, I should mention that Ukulele Hunt was the first resource I spent time investigating when I first got into Uke-ing. Except I bought my Fender Pa'ina *before* looking things up. I mainly bought it for the novelty of having an Uke with the Fender Telecaster headstock. I thought that was ridiculously cool at the time. I bought the Pa'ina especially for the electronics, and for the fact that it was made from solid mahogany, which I also thought was pretty incredible at the time.
Anyway, after I bought it, I discovered Ukulele Hunt, and the negative reviews it got on the site. I was of course quite dismayed at having spent $300 on an Uke that most people found to be sub-standard for the price range. Because of this, my attitude toward my Uke was actually pretty bad, especially after I left it in the car once and one of the main complaints against the Uke happened to me: the bridge broke off.
I was really pissed at the time because it was a week before I was to leave to live in British Columbia (on a small island, devoid of many modern comforts like a decent music store, called Thetis) for two months. I needed my Uke because one of my work responsibilities during this two month period was basically performing on the Uke every day.
Thankfully, the store that I bought it from was quick with the repairs - I got it back a day before I flew out. And Fender paid for the repairs too. The guy told me that he also used better glue than Fender did on the repair job, so it should be much stronger.
Anyway, my attitude toward the Uke changed over this past two months I had been using it daily. The sound was great with the Aquila (Low-G) strings that I put on it. It carried over the 30-40 kids that were singing along with me. So that was a huge plus. I recorded one of my last singing sessions with the kids, and it was pretty clearly visible. So I was really impressed with that.
Another thing that stuck out to me was how strong it was. I actually dropped it on concrete when I didn't secure my strap on properly one time. That fall resulted in a pretty visible crack in the back, but otherwise, it held together. I'm not going to have it repaired because it seems to me pretty cosmetic. I'll have to check how it sounds with the massive crack plugged in though. That'll be the only thing that'll change my mind about repairing it, as I still have to perform with this uke for another 8 months before I can replace it.
One really major plus that someone else pointed out to me about it (online forums), was its intonation. The guy was very impressed at how accurate Fender's intonation was right up to the 14th fret. I certainly never had problems, even though I didn't really have to worry about intonation much as I don't perform much with other instruments. But I did check it with an electronic tuner, and the intonation really was spot on.
I've grown really fond of this Uke, and even though I'm seeking to replace it as my main performance Uke, I will certainly continue using it for my own pleasure. I'm not going to try to put in to numbers what I think about this Uke, because my review is purely subjective. Again this is but a narrative of my experience with this Uke.. Which is basically to say that I've really loved using it so far, and will enjoy doing so until I am able to graduate to a higher end uke.
