A little question concerning the sound between a custom uke and a classical uke

laurent93

Member
Joined
Jun 2, 2010
Messages
13
Reaction score
0
Hi,

I have never hear the sound of a custom uke, and i wanna know if it exists a real difference of sound between a custom uke and a classical uke ?

for example : a kamaka HF3 and a custom kamaka's ukulele, bought a lot more expensive.

a custom uke will sound better? or just look better?

thanks, a lot.
 
A custom uke is just a uke that someone built instead of an ukulele that is mass produced. Does it sound better? It depends on how well the person built it.
 
Only YOUR ears can tell you. Don't rely on what other people say they hear.

My hobby is building ukes, but one of my personal favourites is my Kala slimline soprano.
 
I believe it is important for anyone considering ordering a custom uke from a builder, to have heard a number of that builders instruments. A good builder should be fairly consistent in how their instruments sound. That said some of the many variables that you get to choose in a custom instrument are choice of woods, choice of decoration, scale length, width of neck at nut, string spacing, action height, neck shape, number of frets to body, total number of frets as well as custom features like cutaways or side sound ports. Needless to say, to get the full value from a custom instrument, the customer needs to have a good idea of what works best for them.

Brad
 
A production instrument and we'll use your example, Kamaka HF-3 is just what it is, an instrument built and made to sell where as a custom is designed and built (using the same specs) for an individual. The customer and luthier decide on the tonewoods to be used as well as other aesthetics such as a cutaway, inlays, headstocks, fret markers, electronics and tuners. The quality/grade of the wood is also a factor. Is there a difference in sound and tone. There probably will be. Instruments built from the same batch of wood will have slightly different sound and tone quality.
 
If you're asking if a custom will sound "better" than a non-custom uke (whatever that means), the short answer is no. Think of instruments as having different voices. Your Kamaka may sound different from my LoPrinizi, which sounds different from someone's Moore Bettah and someone else's laminate Kala. Is one "better" sounding than the other? The best one is the one that gives you the sound that you're looking for. If you're looking for the sound of a laminate (which most people probably aren't) the Moore Bettah will fall short.

The advantage to a custom instrument is that a) you can order exactly what you want, which may not be available off the shelf, and b) that you can end up with a unique instrument in all the world, which is pretty cool if you think about it. But none of those things will make you a better player, and if it doesn't make the sound you want, it isn't the right instrument for the job, no matter how custom it is.
 
Having handled several custom ukes and production ("classical" in the OP), my personal opinion is that there is most definitely a difference in sound quality provide that the custom builder is one who has a reputation of building great sounding ukes.

Of the custom builders ukes that I have played, I have tried at most a couple of ukes they built because unless you live in close proximity of of the builder, it's simply unrealistic to have tried too many instrument from said builder. However, I've pretty much only ordered custom ukes from builders who have a stellar and impeccable reputation when it comes to player instruments. In just about all cases in my experience, the custom built instrument not only have great sound, but also have a great feel. That is, the instrument feels alive when I'm playing it. I'm not completely certain what gives off that "vibe", but probably because the custom builder was able to fine tune the ukulele through bracing and thickness tuning on the soundboard. For me this "vibe" differentiates custom built ukes from production ukes more so than the sound.

Don't get me wrong. I don't think a custom instrument automatically sound better than a production instrument. And to me there is a big difference between a high quality sound versus something that sounds good to a particular person (a uke can have a high quality sound that doesn't necessarily sound great to everyone. For example, I think a National resonator uke have a high quality sound, but I don't personally enjoy it more than a traditional ukulele's sound). But I'm pretty confident, through my personal experiences, that a custom built instrument from a highly reputable builder will be superior to a production instrument most, if not all, of the time.
 
Asthetiscs is nice, but I probally go for sound preformance, playability, comfort......A custom is buillt to your specifications...
So you get what you want, hopefully....a premimum off the shelf, you get to choose the best in the bunch....if you ask..
so you'll know exactly what you're getting... if you can get to play a custom off the shelf, that would be cool too...then
you'll know if it fits you like a glove....Simply put.....Good Luck....
 
Top Bottom