Total Ukphoria
Well-known member
I'm looking for a cutaway soprano ukulele. A tenor and a concert just won't do. .
There's also this: http://ukerepublic.bigcartel.com/product/paulele-k-bus-c-solid-bamboo-cutaway-soprano-ukulele
I'm personally not a fan of bamboo ukes, but it's made fairly well. Pauleles are produced by Kiwaya USA. Also, you can NOT go wrong with Mike @ UkeRepublic... top-notch service.
There's also this: http://ukerepublic.bigcartel.com/product/paulele-k-bus-c-solid-bamboo-cutaway-soprano-ukulele
I'm personally not a fan of bamboo ukes, but it's made fairly well. Pauleles are produced by Kiwaya USA. Also, you can NOT go wrong with Mike @ UkeRepublic... top-notch service.
Just curious, what is it about the bamboo ukes that you don't like?
--G
Well, by way of nature, bamboo grows in long thin tubes. When the bamboo is harvested and cut for uke production, multiple strips have to be glued together to produce the soundboard. Basic physics would dictate that there would be less resonance using this method of design, as opposed to a traditional one-piece (solid wood) soundboard. I consider them to be more on par with other laminate ukuleles, albeit better, due to the fact that the pieces are only glued together side-by-side and not on top of each-other.
Really, it's more than that I suppose... the few bamboo ukes that I've gotten my hands on sounded a bit shrill and thin. However, I'm a sucker for the aesthetics and all-in-all, IMO at least, they're not a bad addition to any uke collection.
Sorry for the long-winded response lol!
snip ... Whilst i"m sure bamboo ukes do sound poorly, Bamboo has very different physical properties than traditional instrument timbers, it should come as no suprise that it would sound different (worse)
Personally, I'm pro-bamboo. I have a Paulele and its lovely, and LOUD! In a good way though. The intonation is spot-on, which was my initial concern, and the tone is wonderful. They're pretty cheap too, considering they're from the good folks at Kiwaya.
I'm more inclined to go with how an ukulele actually sounds.
There are far too many examples of laminate ukuleles that outperform all-solid and solid-top instruments.
While theoretically solid wood should resonate better, it is not always the case in real life.
The Paulele seems to be one of those ukes that puts many one-piece solid wood ukes to shame.