Right Handed Uke Reviews

cashew

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Ok, now, i gotta imagine I'm not the only one with a uke within arms reach of my favorite sitting place. What I want you to do is go to your favorite chillin'/sittin' (et al in' places), stick out your RIGHT arm, and grab the nearest uke.

(If there is no uke handy, you're allowed to get up and while only making right turns grab the uke nearest to you)

Then, look at your uke, and give it a small review :)

My nearest uke is my Soprano Kala Kiwi. It was in the realm of about $80usd. It's pretty and green, pineapple shaped. It has a bright tone and pretty decent intonation. I just swapped out the strings to a set of kamaka strings I had hanging around. They sound nice and bright and twangy.

The tuning knobs, which are generally nice are situated in a odd way, where they get in the way of certain chords (E7 for one off the top of my head) but its not a debilitating thing, I just shift my hand.

All in all, I love this uke.

Ok lords and ladies, men and women, girls and boys, it's your turn :)
--Nut
 
Ok, I've already reviewed this one in Acoustic magazine, and will soon post a Youtube review (Acoustic is on the next issue now, so I don't think I'm stealing my employer's thunder!). My good uke is a Moano UK-55MDXG soprano. It's all-solid flame maple, with contrasting mahogany binding with a ring of abalone inside that. It's very bling! It also has excellent intonation, and a nice tone; bright would be the word. If you play it gently, fingerstyle, it's clear, ringing and pretty. If you strum it hard, it's kinda barking, though not quite so throaty as a mahogany soprano can be at full chat. I loves it to bits, even though it has friction tuners. You can see it in my avatar.
 
I've got this Kelii tenor on my right side at the moment...

It's all koa with no bling except for some light curl in the wood itself. It has a slightly longer tenor scale at 17.25", with a body depth that's thinner than most concert sized ukuleles. The neck is very thick and beefy feeling, but the uke is very light and not head heavy at all. It has a nice woody "island" sound and with the Worth CT's currently on it, it has very good sustain and volume despite the thin body depth. Great value. Easily in the class of other Hawaiian brands, but much lower price. I give it two thumbs up!
 
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