Somebody left a box on my porch...

...I found it when I got home.

John

If you don't want that box, send it to me

open that box John

I had Santa leave that box, John . . . if you don't want it, you can return it to me. Here's my coded address; &&* _dFeojfsm A..fks; Any City, Any State. BTW, Mele Kalikimaka!

OldePhart is banned for posting a teaser......oops, wrong thread!

What did you get brother?

If it's a Pono MBD, we don't want to hear about it!! LOL

Oh, it couldn't possibly be a Pono MBD... Could it?

I know one thing, if it is a Pono MBD it will probably get a JJB pickup very soon.

What no pictures you teaser...LOL

nongdam said:

If it's a Pono MBD, we don't want to hear about it!! LOL

Click to expand...

Okay, have it your way.

Doc_J said:

Oh, it couldn't possibly be a Pono MBD... Could it?

I know one thing, if it is a Pono MBD it will probably get a JJB pickup very soon.

Click to expand...

Yes and yes. I need to order another JJ-200 but I'll wait until after the holidays.

Okay...obligatory picture...


First, very hasty, impression - wow! Very nice looking uke, my crummy picture doesn't do it justice (bright spots are reflections off the glass finish - my good flash bought the farm and I had to use the on-camera flash).

I examined this thing very closely, turning every which way under the light. I honestly can't find anything that would make it a second. Usually even a minor flaw is pretty obvious on a gloss uke but I can't find anything at all. For a moment I thought maybe the marker dots were slightly off center but finally decided that was just an optical delusion caused by the different width and color C and E strings. Honestly, the only thing I can find that makes it a second is the "2" stamped inside the body.

I did notice that it has silver tuners while the website shows gold tuners on the MBD - makes no difference to me at all and certainly not cause for a second in my mind but I mention it because somebody in the marketplace said they thought that ebay user Opahcat was selling some older model seconds. I think what might be happening is that they might be marking some older models as seconds just to move them out of inventory. That's just a guess but it seems to fit what I'm holding in my hands.

So, how does it play? The setup is very good with basically perfect intonation at the first fret. Intonation up the neck is only average - but the strings haven't settled in yet. I've found that up-neck intonation often changes significantly once the strings have settled in to where they will hold tuning for several hours. So, I'll check that again in a few days. Also, I'm not sure that I'll end up staying with these strings or even the standard tuning - eventually I'll find a tuning and string combination that is perfect for this particular uke - I've found that to be a necessary exercise even on "k-brands."

The setup at the saddle is perfect - neither too high nor too low. Of course, that is a very subjective thing but in this case it happens that the setup tech shares my 'druthers for string height - high enough to allow for picking but low enough to make barre chords up the neck easy.

How does it sound? Very nice. Really good body resonance and nice bell-like 12th fret harmonics with decent sustain. Still, I'm not 100% sold on these strings but I'm going to give them time to settle in. I actually bought this intending to go to a reentrant tuning anyway. I just prefer reentrant tunings for ukes - otherwise I'll play my guitars. That said, this uke has a very nice deep response on the D string and if I do decide to keep a "traditionally tuned" baritone this is probably the one I would choose for that role.

One other thing deserves mention. I wasn't expecting to receive this for a week. I figured that the free "standard shipping" would be pretty slow and the estimates showing on eBay were for delivery the 19th to 26th. I was really surprised to find that they shipped it FedEx and apparently 3-day. Kudos to Opahcat and the guys at Ko'Olau!


Okay, 'nuff for now!

John

Okay...I think maybe I found what makes this uke a "2nd" - but it's pretty darned minor. It looks like the bridge is mounted about 1mm off center toward the D side. At the 20th fret it is about 4.5mm from the center of the D string to the edge of the fretboard and about 5.5mm from the center of the E string to the edge of the fretboard.

That's certainly nothing that affects play and I would never have noticed it if I hadn't been trying so hard to figure out what made this a second - and even then I had to break out a mm ruler to confirm it. LOL

John

Congratulations on your fine detective work!

kvehe said:

Congratulations on your fine detective work!

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Thank you...maybe I should get a PI license and hang out my shingle...Ukulele Detective! Then after I'm rich and famous we can get Jim Carey to play me in a hit movie...

("whew! Do not go in there...")

Congrats. Looks like you got a keeper. What's the first vid going to be?

Congratulations John! Is that a bari?

Yes, it's a bari - very resonant one, too. It is so resonant I might actually end up keeping it in linear tuning - but only if I can find some strings that aren't as noisy as the ones that came on it (I'm not a fan of wound strings at all).

@vanflynn - not sure what vid I'll shoot first. Maybe something for Christmas. Maybe something country while it's in linear tuning and I can keep an alternating bassline going on the D and G strings. Maybe something country-Christmas.

John