New uke - Islander MT-4 - need feedback

I received my Islander MT-4 from HWS yesterday. This was my first upgrade from a cheap soprano that I started learning on about three months ago. I progressed nicely, I think. Working through the Uncle Rod Bootcamp, learning some simple songs, a riff here and there doing some basic fingerpicking. I've played the Islander about an hour so far, have noticed a few things and need some feedback.

Observations:
Very warm and rich sound. Really caught me off guard. Gonna take some time to get used to but sounds beautiful. So much room on the fretboard for my rather large fingers too.

Questions:
Is a nicer instrument less forgiving when it comes to the occasional sloppy note? I'm generating a lot more buzz on this one. Is it just that my fingers need to get used to the larger frets? I also feel I need to use a little bit more pressure to get a clean sound. I'm probably over analyzing the whole thing after just having played for a short time on the new one, but any feedback is appreciated.

I probably just need to get to know her a bit better before going to town on her.

The MT-4 is a tenor right? Tenors have much more string tension than sopranos, so it will take more effort to fret the notes cleanly. If it's still buzzing after you're used to the higher tension, it could be that it's setup too low.

I have an Islander MT-4 on the way from Hawaii Music Supply as well. Glad to hear it sounds so great!

I know when I try to play my son's Dolphin soprano my fingers are used to hitting strings where they are on the concert and I get more buzzing and generally sloppier play. I'm coming from a Kala Concert and expecting my fingers to have to adjust to the larger scale of the tenor a bit as well.

So much of playing is muscle memory and I suspect it will just take some time for your fingers to adjust to the slightly different placement.

Keep us updated on how it goes!

What is HWS?

thanks

jbm said:

What is HWS?

thanks

Click to expand...

Typo on my part (her's too I think) I meant HMS, Hawaii Music Supply. I was looking at her post and typed it wrong as well.

you will soon get used to the spacing on the frets, your muscle memory will adapt quite quickly

Let it buzz for a while. Come back in a month and see if you still need to ask the question. Takes a lot more than an hour of playing to get used to any new instrument.

Yes, I meant HMS. I think this is the second post where I put HWS! Good to know about the higher tension on the strings. And I've played it another half hour or so earlier today and it sounding better already. If I have any more issues in down the road I'll let you know. Time to play some more...