I received my Islander MST-4 this afternoon. This is from Kanilea's import line: an all-solid mahogany tenor-sized ukulele. My review will be in two parts. This first part just covers impressions of the instrument straight out of the box. The second part will be after I change the strings to low-G and do my own set-up.
The ukulele was purchased through Ukulele Hotline which had them for $204 shipped from Indiana to California. I don't believe they do any setups.
Here's the bullet-point detail:
The MST-4 has made a very good first impression on me. If this is how they are straight from Kanilea, then I doubt that there's much more of a set-up needed.
I think this ukulele will really pump when tuned to low-G with Worth clears. I'll be ordering a set of strings shortly. I will then polish the frets and condition the fretboard.
The Nu-Bone nut and saddle are good but I'm thinking of juicing up the instrument even more with real bone. I have the tools and materials for this. I believe Nu-Bone nuts are hollow.
I mentioned nothing about intonation. Intonation can be affected by string quality, uneven string stretching, and other factors so I don't think it's worth assessing. An accurately machine-cut fretboard with properly placed frets shouldn't cause intonation issues. This MST-4 with its installed Aquila intonates within 0-5 cents at the 12th fret. That's pretty much in line with all my best instruments.
This should be an excellent fingerstyle ukulele once I convert it to low-G. It should handle Daniel Ho's pieces from his CD/tunebook Polani very well.
Very good so far!
The ukulele was purchased through Ukulele Hotline which had them for $204 shipped from Indiana to California. I don't believe they do any setups.
Here's the bullet-point detail:
- The ukulele is loud with a lovely woody tone. I don't have another tenor to do a side-by-side comparison in my home-office acoustic conditions so that may have to come later.
- 12th-fret Action out of the box is 0.100" for the 1st string and 0.110" for the 4th string. This suits my standards and it's how I set-up my last ukulele. I don't want it too low that it might reduce the volume of the instrument and I want some room for adjustments with different strings.
- Nut action is good some might pick nits and claim it's a smidge on the high side. Very good uthier-built ukuleles will show barely a sliver of light between the 1st fret and the string when fretted at the 3rd. The current space is enough to slip one calling-card through. I think this is correct and should be left that way to provide allowance for changes in humidity.
- Overall playability is excellent with the 1.5" nut. I am so glad that Kanilea went wide on this. It definitely sets them apart from the pack for fingerstyle players like me.
- I found only one uneven fret - the 15th on the treble side and just by a hair. I don't know if it's a fluke or their standard, but this is the best fret leveling I have seen in a production ukulele to-date (compared against Lanikai, Kala and Cordoba).
- Fret dressing is very good. all frets seem level and smooth. There are no indications of coarse sanding that I've seen on several Pacific-Rim factory instruments. A light rubbing with steel wool will polish the frets nicely.
- Fretboard edge is not bound but all fret-ends are smooth. No work needed here.
- Fretboard looks fine but will look better after being conditioned with fretboard oil. I think Hawaiian Music Supply conditions the fretboard of their ukuleles before sending them out.
- Bridge inspection found one very small spot where I can slip 1mm of paper into. This was into the lower-edge treble point. It's not an issue. The rest of the bridge edges are sealed.
- Grover closed-gear tuners are nice and smooth.
- Satin finish is smooth and even. External build is clean. I'll check the internal build in the second part of my review.
- Top appears to be one solid piece of mahogany.
- Sides are not bookmatched but are similar enough not to be noticed unless you're looking.
- Back halves seem to be slightly bookmatched. It looks like that they were cut from the same wood.
- Faux abalone rosette is fine. I can find minute indicators of tear-out along 3mm of the inner-edge when held at an angle. Almost everybody else who isn't an anal-retentive tech or luthier wouldn't notice this.
- Faux tortoise-shell binding has a very nice 3-dimensional quality to it since you can slightly see through it.
- The Islander logos seem to be spray-painted or silk-screened on. I'm tempted to gently remove one of them using steel wool. Maybe I'll remove both and replace it with another logo. Might save that for a future project.
The MST-4 has made a very good first impression on me. If this is how they are straight from Kanilea, then I doubt that there's much more of a set-up needed.
I think this ukulele will really pump when tuned to low-G with Worth clears. I'll be ordering a set of strings shortly. I will then polish the frets and condition the fretboard.
The Nu-Bone nut and saddle are good but I'm thinking of juicing up the instrument even more with real bone. I have the tools and materials for this. I believe Nu-Bone nuts are hollow.
I mentioned nothing about intonation. Intonation can be affected by string quality, uneven string stretching, and other factors so I don't think it's worth assessing. An accurately machine-cut fretboard with properly placed frets shouldn't cause intonation issues. This MST-4 with its installed Aquila intonates within 0-5 cents at the 12th fret. That's pretty much in line with all my best instruments.
This should be an excellent fingerstyle ukulele once I convert it to low-G. It should handle Daniel Ho's pieces from his CD/tunebook Polani very well.
Very good so far!
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