Has quality gone up or is it my imagination?

Witters

Witters

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Hi all,

I have recently tried out some below $150 Soprano's. Kala Mahogany, Spruce, and another Spruce Concert and they all played pretty good.
In fact I'm going to get one this weekend because I was very impressed.

So I was wondering if the quality in these low end Uke's has gone up because a year ago I tried out some stinkers and reckoned you couldn't get anything good for less than about $300.

Has anyone else found this?
 
I hope so.

About to buy my first ukulele for slightly over $200... I hope it's not a waste because it's gonna be a long time before I can save up for something people on this forum consider "high quality."
 
Going on what I found you will get a great Uke for that price.
 
There were always two kinds of inexpensive ukes:

1. Inexpensive ukes of poor quality
2. Inexpensive ukes of good quality


Lately, more companies have been producing inexpensive ukes of good quality.
Perhaps due to competition?
 
Hmm. Must be the same with high quality because I bought a very well known branded Uke and it was terrible.
 
It's definitely across the board in terms of inexpensive instruments. Twenty years ago, any instrument under a certain price point (dependent upon the specific instrument) was a piece of junk. Any starter instrument really wasn't worth the plywood it was built with. Now you can buy a starter instrument and have a decent axe that can last you a long time.
 
Any uke will have inconsistancy levels in sound preformance..even expensive ones.. just the lower cost ones might have a fewer good ones.. find that gem in the haystack..they are there..
 
Over the last 5 years or so, I've seen the quality of acoustic instruments coming out of China improving. These include guitars in the $400-500 price range made of solid woods as well as ukuleles in the $150-250 price range also of solid woods. I think you still need to stick to certain names as the QC seems to vary amoung different brands.
 
I think there are many good quality affordable ukes. I have a $75 Kala soprano that has great sound. I have a Koaloha concert and am looking to get a concert under $300 that I can take out more. I am confident I will find something very nice.
 
It's getting better...
I had a Kala Archtop (from the original batch) and it was very nice, but developed a problem and it was replaced under warranty. The replacement (from a newer batch) already showed some improvements. If that happens within a line, just over a couple years, imagine what has happened across the board.
I recently purchase a $60 soprano pineapple from Luna (through Amazon) and was very happily surprised by its light construction and playability.
 
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