Mele 8 string questions, advice needed

I had a white label Kamaka 8 that I sold as I didn't play it much [really dumb move] I bought a Lanikai LU8 cheap on the bay[it had a popped bridge which I repaired] . Now I'm playing in a folk choir and I'm playing that 8 a lot, so I want to upgrade. There's a couple of Mele 8's on the bay right now. ones an Braddah with double sound holes, the other a koa topped . anyone have any experience with these. or have an 8 they want to part with?
I think the braddah loks pretty cool. and no bids. is it over priced?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mele-Bradda...857?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c2e2a69f1
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAP...0592&item=150964400592&lgeo=1&vectorid=229466

Aloha Andy,
Make sure you don't get the wide nut one...big difference in feel and comfort.... ask first... I know bo is selling the one with the wide nut and he just couldn't get used to it....1 1/2" nut is
very hard to play....hope it helps....Braddah was the lower end and was discontinued...I would not go with that one, I think they had the thick necks and wide nut too..

thanks Stan. my Lanikai 8 has a 1 1/2 inch nut too. I thought that was pretty standard on an 8. I just checked and my Lanikai SB bari, it has the wide neck 1 1/2 nut and the 8 hole bari bridge, must have been made on a Friday afternoon. ha, maybe I should slap another 4 tuners on er and turn that into a bari 8. I'm serious, it has a nice tone ,got it on ebay damaged, has a top crack and a chip off the back, so I don't have too much invested in it.

I have two 8 string tenor ukulele's. One with a standard neck and one with a wide neck. As a picker I LIKE the wide neck instrument. Easier to pick cleanly. If your a strummer maybe a narrow neck feels better.

I've certainly looked at those Mele ukulele's before. If your search for Mele Ukulele on YouTube then you will find the seller of these instruments has uploaded lots of sound samples. They're great sounding instruments.

Anthony

The braddah is gone. Braddah was the mahogany line a few years ago. The koa ukes were the regular Meles, but then they dropped the braddah name totally.

I like the price on both, and I ar first thought the koa top was maxed out but ithas free shipping which makes a difference. Not bad. I do like the looks of the koa on that one.

I have a mahogany Mele 8 string (single hole, traditional figure 8 tenor body) with SouthCoast strings. I like it. I was on Maui last year and went to Mele Ukulele. I tried several of the 8 strings, and found the mahogany to have the best sound. They had a koa 8 stringers also, more $'s, but price wasn't the issue at the time, sound was the most important thing. And the mahogany 8 sounded the best. I had also been over to Bounty music in Kahului just hours before and checked out the Kamaka 8. The Kamaka 8 koa was prettier than the Mele mahogany 8, but the Mele mahogany 8 (tenor) body is what i bought, it sounded better than the Kamaka. It doesn't get much play these days. It sleeps in the cabinet in its case. I just never fell in love with the 8. I tried. It romanced and woo'd me for a while, but i never clicked with the 8. The Kanilea concert is what gets all of the attention these days. If you are interested, let me know. I paid $650 for it. If you are interested i'll let it go for $450, if you pay shipping costs. I'm in Santa Barbara, California 93105.

thanks Kent, I'll think about it. I like the wider neck too, it does make it a lot easier to pick on the 8. I decided to give the Lanikai another chance, I ordered a Southcoast set yesterday, which is what I had on my Kamaka. it has the Aguila 8 set on now, which I find a bit hard and brash, an 8 string is pretty brash anyway. I get lots of compliments on the sound though. I wish I hadn't sold my Kamaka.

Looking at that Braddah myself. As others have pointed out, Braddah WAS NOT their low end instrument, but their mahoganly model before they dropped the Braddah label. Same quality as other Mele's. Have heard other reports about those Mele tenors sounding great. The ones I've heard did and that 8 string double puka should easily sound better than any 8 string tenor you can get for that price.

PhilUSAFRet said:

Looking at that Braddah myself. As others have pointed out, Braddah WAS NOT their low end instrument, but their mahoganly model before they dropped the Braddah label. Same quality as other Mele's. Have heard other reports about those Mele tenors sounding great. The ones I've heard did and that 8 string double puka should easily sound better than any 8 string tenor you can get for that price.

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I prefer the Mele mahogany ukes over their koa ones. I do love my redwood tenor with koa back and sides, but I brought my 6 string mahogany tenor with me to Alaska.

How does the LU-8 intonate? I had an LU-8E - acoustically it was an absolute dog, in fact I've often said it was like strumming a wet dog, but I bought it from a "warehouse" shipper and it came set up better than any other Lanikai uke I've bought. It also rocked the house with the pickup, it was only acoustically that it sucked.

What I'm saying is if the LU-8 is set up and comfortable to play, you might just try putting a pickup in it and rock the house...

John

OldePhart said:

How does the LU-8 intonate? I had an LU-8E - acoustically it was an absolute dog, in fact I've often said it was like strumming a wet dog, but I bought it from a "warehouse" shipper and it came set up better than any other Lanikai uke I've bought. It also rocked the house with the pickup, it was only acoustically that it sucked.

What I'm saying is if the LU-8 is set up and comfortable to play, you might just try putting a pickup in it and rock the house...

John

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The pickup option is good. The Lu-8s that I played (spruce top ones) rocked. They sounded good.

OldePhart said:

How does the LU-8 intonate? I had an LU-8E - acoustically it was an absolute dog, in fact I've often said it was like strumming a wet dog, but I bought it from a "warehouse" shipper and it came set up better than any other Lanikai uke I've bought. It also rocked the house with the pickup, it was only acoustically that it sucked.

What I'm saying is if the LU-8 is set up and comfortable to play, you might just try putting a pickup in it and rock the house...

John

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It plays well and sounds pretty good. I'm going to start by changing the strings, probably a good idea before turning away from any uke. got a set of Southcoasts on order.