bearbike137
Well-known member
Hi all. I am primarily a guitar player, but I have dabbled in ukes over my life. For many years I owned a vintage Kamaka 6-string tenor, but I stupidly sold that uke a year ago. I was uke-less until yesterday when I had a brand new Kamaka tenor shipped to me.
I'm not sure if the Kamaka that was shipped to me is a keeper or not (I have it on trial). The reason I am not sure is that outside of the 6-string I owned, I haven't played many ukes. I am in the Chicago area and we are horribly devoid of high-end uke dealers.
The store I bought the Kamaka from had several tenors in stock, and at my request, they played through the stock to help me select the best sounding one. They narrowed the ukes down to two - and I chose the one I thought looked the best.
I received it last night and it does sound sweet. And it looks pretty. However, there are a couple of things that bother me. The primary issue is the loss of volume on the A string as I play up the neck. Is that characteristic of ukes? From the fifth fret and up, there is a noticeable loss of volume versus the C and E strings in the middle. I didn't notice this issue on my 6-string uke, but that may be because the A string is doubled. I wonder, however, if this has to do with the higher tension of that string. When I tune down a full step to Bb, the issue goes away because of the reduced tension on the string. I watched some videos of Jake playing his Kamaka tenor, and on a song like "Gently Weeps", he doesn't seem to experience much volume loss when he plays up the neck on the A string.
That said, I LOVE the tone of this uke on the lower frets and on open chords. I will have to lower the saddle a bit if I keep it. The string height at the 12th fret is nearly 8/64". And there is only a modest amount of saddle left - so this is another thing I have to take into account.
So, I am really interested to know how characteristic this reduction in volume is when one plays up the neck on a uke. It is a given? Do players tend to have to really dig in on those higher frets? Thank you.
I'm not sure if the Kamaka that was shipped to me is a keeper or not (I have it on trial). The reason I am not sure is that outside of the 6-string I owned, I haven't played many ukes. I am in the Chicago area and we are horribly devoid of high-end uke dealers.
The store I bought the Kamaka from had several tenors in stock, and at my request, they played through the stock to help me select the best sounding one. They narrowed the ukes down to two - and I chose the one I thought looked the best.
I received it last night and it does sound sweet. And it looks pretty. However, there are a couple of things that bother me. The primary issue is the loss of volume on the A string as I play up the neck. Is that characteristic of ukes? From the fifth fret and up, there is a noticeable loss of volume versus the C and E strings in the middle. I didn't notice this issue on my 6-string uke, but that may be because the A string is doubled. I wonder, however, if this has to do with the higher tension of that string. When I tune down a full step to Bb, the issue goes away because of the reduced tension on the string. I watched some videos of Jake playing his Kamaka tenor, and on a song like "Gently Weeps", he doesn't seem to experience much volume loss when he plays up the neck on the A string.
That said, I LOVE the tone of this uke on the lower frets and on open chords. I will have to lower the saddle a bit if I keep it. The string height at the 12th fret is nearly 8/64". And there is only a modest amount of saddle left - so this is another thing I have to take into account.
So, I am really interested to know how characteristic this reduction in volume is when one plays up the neck on a uke. It is a given? Do players tend to have to really dig in on those higher frets? Thank you.