whepper
Well-known member
This weekend I bought a 120 euro ukulele as a present in a local music store. It was the first time that I actually tried ukes in store. They didn't stock high-end ukes, but had a range of Korala's, Lag's and Staggs.
Most of those ukes were in the 80-200 euro range and almost all of them sounded dreadful. There as a nice looking Lag soprano, which was clearly overbuild and sounded dead. Some other ukes could have had potential, but had bad quality (black) nylon strings.
There was one uke, however, that really surprised me for the price. It was the Korala UKS-70-NT soprano. It has laminated back and sides and a solid spruce top. It had Aquilla strings. The sound was loud, deep and warmish (I thought spruce tops sounded bright?!) and sounded so much better than all the other ukes. It has a gloss finish, which looks nice and geared tuners. The action on this uke was surprisingly low, but no buzzing. The fret wires were quite thick. Good intonation.
The inside of the uke looked clean, although the bracing could be sanded a little bit better.
My conclusion is that it's a very good starter uke and one of the best you can get for that price. The gloss finish and the sort of rosewood lamitated back and sides give it a nice look.
http://www.koralaukuleles.com/tonewood-series/soprano-ukuleles/
http://www.koralaukuleles.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/UKS-70-NT.jpg
Most of those ukes were in the 80-200 euro range and almost all of them sounded dreadful. There as a nice looking Lag soprano, which was clearly overbuild and sounded dead. Some other ukes could have had potential, but had bad quality (black) nylon strings.
There was one uke, however, that really surprised me for the price. It was the Korala UKS-70-NT soprano. It has laminated back and sides and a solid spruce top. It had Aquilla strings. The sound was loud, deep and warmish (I thought spruce tops sounded bright?!) and sounded so much better than all the other ukes. It has a gloss finish, which looks nice and geared tuners. The action on this uke was surprisingly low, but no buzzing. The fret wires were quite thick. Good intonation.
The inside of the uke looked clean, although the bracing could be sanded a little bit better.
My conclusion is that it's a very good starter uke and one of the best you can get for that price. The gloss finish and the sort of rosewood lamitated back and sides give it a nice look.
http://www.koralaukuleles.com/tonewood-series/soprano-ukuleles/
http://www.koralaukuleles.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/UKS-70-NT.jpg