Looking to buy my first Ukulele

Looking to buy my first ukelele. Have a bit of experience with them but have never owned one. Long time acoustic guitar player, main guitar is an old Gibson J45.

I realize there is different sizes and such. I'm open to suggests but keep in mind I'm a big guy at 6"3 with fairly large hands. Right now I'm trying to decide between a concert and tenor. I'm going to a high end acoustic guitar shop on the weekend which has some ukes. Going to try to get a good size comparison between the concert and tenor.

Looking to spend $250 (max), realize that's not a huge budget but I hope to keep a decent intermediate uke if I can.


Anyways all and any suggestions/advice welcome!
Thanks

Chris

ChrisM said:

Looking to buy my first ukelele. Have a bit of experience with them but have never owned one. Long time acoustic guitar player, main guitar is an old Gibson J45.

I realize there is different sizes and such. I'm open to suggests but keep in mind I'm a big guy at 6"3 with fairly large hands. Right now I'm trying to decide between a concert and tenor. I'm going to a high end acoustic guitar shop on the weekend which has some ukes. Going to try to get a good size comparison between the concert and tenor.

Looking to spend $250 (max), realize that's not a huge budget but I hope to keep a decent intermediate uke if I can.


Anyways all and any suggestions/advice welcome!
Thanks

Chris

Click to expand...

Take a look at this video. This helped me out a lot to figure out what size I was looking for.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0xnNs56GsI

I personally REALLY like the tenors. When I was trying to decide what size to get it was a tough decision, but I am so glad I got a tenor. I think that they sound the best (personally) for the type of music I like to play. I also like that they have a bit more finger space. My cousin has a soprano and I don't know how she fits her fingers on the thing! I think you'd be more comfortable with a tenor if you have big hands. Just my two cents!

Funny it was that video I was watching before that made me lean more towards the tenor.

I was able to pop into my local guitar shop and hold a tenor and a concert. That really helped me too. The tenor felt perfect, the others were just too small for me. Mind you, I have a guitar and have been learning to play on that, so maybe I came into it biased, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE my tenor. No regrets. I'd probably only consider something smaller and more traditional if I wanted to play different music on it.

Are you considering any specific brand? It's fun making your first ukulele purchase!

I came from a background as a guitarist as well. My first uke was a tenor. I now have one concert, one soprano and five tenors, if that tells you anything about my preference.

In your price range I'd look at Kala and Ohana. For a bit more, you could move up to a Mainland. Keep an eye on the Marketplace here and your local craigslist for good deals on used.

Sounds like I'm on the right track with the tenor now. Most of my acoustics are 1 3/4" at the nut so maybe a slightly larger bodied uke with a longer scale length would be good. I still need to try some out though!

I had been looking at the Mainlands. I could probably swing for one of those.
I've never heard of Kala and Ohana so I best read up on them.

For acoustic guitars you got the big players like Martin, Gibson, Taylor, etc. Who are the big/well known companies in the uke world?

I figured another source will not hurt.
Look at my site for a bunch of reviews and stuff
Beyond that, big quailty manufactures in the uke world.
Kala and lanikai are big manufactures and have crap to really nice. you pay for what you get.
Martin is making a comeback for sure, but uke players are not as picky about labels (For the most part)
I know a bunch of people that love their oscar Schmidt ukes.
Now unlike the guitar world, many people have custom ukuleles. THE big name is Moore Bettah, but there are tons more like Boat Paddle, Mya Moe.

In my mind, for the money and backing, I would say MAinland is a really good choice. Mike (HoosierHiver) is on this forum a lot, and he also hosts our big party every year call Ukulele World Congress

Chris - I play guitar and much prefer the tenor scale..nothing wrong with the others, but the feel and the sound is what I like, though it's definitely not the traditional ukulele sound you get from the smaller scaled instruments. Don't worry about the size of your hands - I have fairly large hands and can get around on a soprano just fine.

You should check out the Kamoa E3 series - they're all solid woods and play very well. If you check out my YouTube videos from the last few months, I recently got a red E3 tenor and, having played lots of other ukuleles, I don't think you can beat if for the price.

I also like the Mainland red cedar ukuleles - there's one of those in my not too distant future. Very playable, warm sound, lots of sustain..... quality instruments for the price.

The big names in production ukuleles are the Hawaiian 'K' brands. I'll let the ukulele experts weigh in on those, but I've played quite a few and really like the KoAlohas. Their basic tenors run about $1000 US, but are fine instruments.

There are also a number of custom makers who seem to be turning out quality instruments at great prices. Look around the forums here and you'll see - coming from a guitar background, I think it's pretty amazing what you can get for your money in the ukulele world.

The nicest ukuleles I've played, though, are made by Collings. Just like their guitars, they make amazing ukuleles that have to be played to be believed. They aren't cheap, but if you've got the scratch, you definitely get what you pay for. My holy grail is a custom Collings.....

ukeeku thanks for all that. Checking out your site now, lots of good stuff!


23skidoo glad to hear the tenor works for you but also the suprano. Coming from a guitar background I'm not 100% set on the classical uke sound so if a tenor is a bit different sounding I'm totally ok with that.

The Kamoa E3 series looks nice, a no frills solid wood series. Will have to investigate further.

I've been really drawn to the Mainland Cedar Tenors, its at the top of my list. Those Collings sure do look nice though! Just like their guitars (which are great, played a C10 the other weekend that blew me away) they are pricey.