Epi Les Paul VS Lanikai LU21CE

TicToc

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 12, 2010
Messages
196
Reaction score
0
My birthday's coming up, and I'm going to use my birthday money (about $120) to buy an acoustic/electric concert sized ukulele. My two main options right now are the Epiphone Les Paul ukulele and the Lanikai LU-21CE. I was wondering if anyone had any experience with either one, and which one they would recommend for my budget. Also, if there's another acoustic/electric concert sized ukulele in my price range, feel free to let me know. Thanks!
 
There are lots of talk about these ukes if ya do a search, you can read allot about them. Personally, I would go with the Epi, altho not because it's better, but because it gets to have the actual name on it. It's no better, in fact marginal until it is set up properly. The only issue I really have is that epi didn't put traps on it, but everyone else did..
 
That's a hard choice.

In my point of view....

The Lanikai is a more generic, widely accepted good quality inexpensive uke.
It is quite traditional, it does its job, it's highly versatile and has an active electronics system that takes batteries (I tend to prefer these on acoustic-electrics.. sounds cleaner through amplification). It's a very good strummer, although sounds a bit thin to play fingerpicked acoustically.

The Epiphone Les Paul, in my opinion, is more for acquired tastes. People who are specifically fascinated with Les Pauls, and can look over its little quirks because its a Les Paul. It's a very different kind of uke, that sounds different too. I was just playing mine now and thinking that Gibson didn't really build it like a uke.. there certainly is something guitary about it (but it's not really like a guitar). Conversely to the Lanikai, it sounds better fingerpicked than strummed to me.

If you get the Epi, try putting on some D'addario Pro-Arte strings on them. They sound fabulous on it, much better than Aquila!
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom