Newbie overwhelmed by choices!

Hi all: I've been wanting to get a ukulele for forever now! I've finally decided to do it. I am a guitar player, and know from my experience with guitars that getting a shitty, 20 euro specimen is no good – I want a uke that's a bit forgiving, so I'm willing to shell out up to 200 euro (270 usd) I'm a bit overwhelmed by choices! Looks like koa is the wood to get – but those seem far outside my budget. I have my eye on a Leho Rosewood. Any experiences with Leho and/or rosewood?

Any guitar players have experiences starting with the ukelele? What's the learning curve like? I know I shouldn't be able to just pick it up and play, but was at least hoping I'd have a leg up. Thanks in advance! I'm super excited about started this!

As another guitar player who picked up the ukulele about three years ago, I can say that I found the transition to be relatively painless. While ukulele is different from guitar, there are certainly enough similarities that you should pick it up pretty quickly. The hardest adjustment will probably be the absence of bass strings and adjusting to re-entrant tuning (if that's the tuning you choose). Otherwise, the intervals are the same, albeit different notes, so a lot of your guitar technique will come over and your chord shapes will still work in many cases, although with four strings, often different chord voicings will sound better.

Hi. I only started on the uke a couple of months ago, but played guitar for many years, stopping about 15 years ago. What I have found is that I seem to have a head start with strumming & picking, although maybe I am not doing it all in a normal uke way (I'll probabaly find out when i get together with other uke players and they say "that's not right..."). The thing which I was worried about was un-learing all of the guitar chords which I still seem to know after all these years. But to be honest after a few hours of playing C-F-G and the other usual suspects, it all falls into place quite easily. Just once in a while I see an F coming up and my fingers start to go for a guitar F, but that is happening less now.

As for the choice of instrument, my advice would be find a shop which has a good selection to pick from and just go with whatever feels and sounds right.

Enjoy it!

In the sub-200Euro price bracket, I've found Bruko and Ohana to have the best quality for the money, with Bruko maybe just tipping ahead (for me!), mainly due to the all-solid woods and sturdy build quality (you could use a flat Bruko for self defence if needs be!)

Good idea of getting a fairly decent first uke. For myself, if I were to start over I would go for an Ohana from Mim's or a Mainland from Uke Republic. They are both exceptional uke value and both Mim and UR do a setup personally before sending it out. Sounds like you're in Europe somewhere so I'd look at the Ohana. Never played a Bruko but the other two have a fantastic fast neck along with a lower action, they are great.

The main concern I have about going to a shop or just willy-nilly of the net is they don't do a setup before selling. I've been to many stores who say that it was setup at the factory. Most factory intsruments are set with a higher action and the intonation is rarely checked. UkeRepublic, HMS and Mim's all do a checkup.

Claudiness said:

Looks like koa is the wood to get – but those seem far outside my budget.

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Although koa is a traditional wood for ukuleles, its use in lower-end ukes does tend to be limited. I play a mahogany Mainland concert, which is a very affordable option that has served me well.

Since you have background in guitar, you might find it useful to go to a shop and play some ukuleles to experiment with brands, size, and wood types. One advantage to buying from a good shop if you have access to one--you can play your ukulele before you buy it. At your price point there can be a difference in quality from uke to uke. Even at a much higher price point it is my understanding that there can be a difference in sound between two "identical" ukes.

Enjoy your search!

You will easily find very nice, and most durable ukuleles. Islander, Gretch, Mainland, Ohana, Oscar Schmidt (my choice in your price range)... are all very good names. They all use good materials, build well, and guarantee their products.

I think you could just about pick up a Flea for 200 Euro. You literally can't go wrong with a Flea or Fluke.

Pundabaya said:

I think you could just about pick up a Flea for 200 Euro. You literally can't go wrong with a Flea or Fluke.

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I really have to agree with this one! And they come in so many very cool and very plain models.

You're a guitar player, so it's fairly simple:

1. Go some place that sells a bunch of Ukes.
2. Find the Ukes in your price range
3. Pick up a Uke.
4. Now pretend that you're playing the blues in G, only someone cut off strings 5 and 6 while you weren't looking.

On Uke, that's really C in normal tuning, but you don't have to worry about that so much.

5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 with the other Ukes in your price range.

No need to go for Koa straight away (if at all), there's plenty of excellent other materials in your price range.

If we knew your location we could probably give some better hints towards what and where to buy.

Thanks all! SUPER useful! I live in Munich, Germany, by the way. I'll let you know what I go with!