Lanikai monkey pod vs Lanikai zebra wood.

KohanMike

KohanMike

Los Angeles, Beverly Grove West
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The Lanikai monkey pod tenor cutaway I had cracked recently with the very dry weather here in Los Angeles, I actually gave it away to my young cousin, so I replaced it with the same configuration in zebra wood. I have to say,the zebra wood sounds better than the monkey pod, brighter with more sustain, and the action and intonation are also that much better out of the box.

As I did with the monkey pod, I'm going to yank the poorly conceived Fishman Sonicore preamp with controls inside the sound hole and put a Fishman Isis+ preamp/tuner on the side.

Monkey Pod 1st, Zebra Wood 2nd.

u5LanikaiMP.jpg

u7Lanikai Z.jpg
 
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I have no experience with either tonewood so pardon the dumb question. Is the zebra the one on top?
 
How long did you own the monkey pod? I have the concert non electronics monkey pod and after about 4 months the general overall tone improved.
 
I also had the monkey pod about 4 months, and it did improve in that time, but I'm just saying that right out of the box, the zebra wood sounds and feels better than the monkey pod did.
 
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I understand that zebra is similar to rosewood as a tone wood. If it is, it's likely to be quite bright.
 
I had the Zebra Wood cut-a-way acoustic electric. It had a great, what I would call, mellow sounds. Not bright but really rich and subdued. Loved it, but traded it for a Flea "Tiki God" Uke. I haven't seen or played the Monkey Pod to compare. The only negative item I had was that the headstock is heavy. Otherwise the uke is awesome!!!!
 
That's interesting. After playing it for a couple of hours now, it certainly is brighter than the monkey pod, and the intonation also very good. I'm going to play it at the Westside Ukulele Ensemble gig tonight.
 
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Gig went very well, and the uke held tune better than I thought for coming out of the box yesterday. I did hook it up to my Fender micro amp when I got home and found that the pickup is not balanced at all, the high strings have much less volume than the low strings, which most likely means the pickup under the saddle is not seated properly. Since I'm replacing the preamp, which has it's own pickup, I should be able to correct the problem.
 
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I yanked the Sonicore preamp out of the sound hole and installed the Isis+ preamp/pickup in the side of the zebra wood today, now the amplified strings are properly balanced. I also added a compensated saddle and the intonation at the 12th fret is right on. (I'm getting good at this, may have to put up a luthier shingle.)

Zebra Isys+ compensated.jpg
 
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Just did some more playing on the uke amplified, and I'm finding that the high and low strings don't have as much volume as the two middle strings. I'm going to have to do some adjusting to the saddle and pickup.
 
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