I'm a born skeptic, so I ask myself what the motivation for writing that article was in the first place? They gotta write something I guess. I also wonder how many of those ukuleles that they tested were the same ukulele, from the same ukulele factory in China, just a different tag stuck inside it and a different decal on the headstock? Maybe some cosmetics to define it as one brand of ukulele or another? I also wonder what actually defines a "beginner" ukulele? What even makes a ukulele a beginner's ukulele? I'm thinking price. I think that for most people just getting into something and not being particularly knowledgeable, one does not want to sink a lot of money into it until they know a little more and know if it is really what they want to do. That goes for everything, not just ukes. But I think a beginner ukulele by definition is something that doesn't cost a lot but is still playable. Okay, that is a Mr. Skeptic view of it. Take it for what it is worth, probably not much more than the article itself.Never heard of Donner, but that Ohana was the uke that got me back into playing as an adult after not picking a uke up in nearly 40 years. I quickly moved on to higher-end ukes and passed it on to a friend in need, and years later she's still playing it.
I actually know one of the testers and he's legit - plays anything and everything with strings and I would tend to trust his judgment.
That being said, I tend to disagree with only presenting under-$100 options as "beginner" models. It would be good to see a mix of price ranges in one of these round-ups sometime.
I dislike that they link to Amazon for the purchase. If buying and you don't know any better, I'd rather get your first from someone like MIM's Ukes or HMS or Mike/Uke Republic who will inspect it/ do a set up.
I'm a born skeptic, so I ask myself what the motivation for writing that article was in the first place?
I agree that the testers are legitimate. You said that you knew one of them and that is good enough for me. But I got to thinking about it, and if the testers were not beginners, doesn't that sort of form a bias to start out? I can only base my opinion on my experience. So considering that I was a beginner for a short period once in my life, my personal experience in beginner ukuleles is pretty much limited to the ukulele I began with.Truth is, the actual motivation for the putting the article out on the interwebs is for the website owner to generate clicks to their Amazon Affiliate links, pure and simple. In other words, money.
And I'm a skeptic too (and not a believer in "beginner" instruments or "beginner" cars or "beginner" camera equipment and such), although I still sense the testers had some legitimacy and probably little or nothing to gain from giving their opinions.
I agree that the testers are legitimate. You said that you knew one of them and that is good enough for me. But I got to thinking about it, and if the testers were not beginners, doesn't that sort of form a bias to start out? I can only base my opinion on my experience. So considering that I was a beginner for a short period once in my life, my personal experience in beginner ukuleles is pretty much limited to the ukulele I began with.
The site looks legitimate enough.
Maybe the ukuleles shown are fine for the first group but for the second they'll be wasting money for a ukulele that sooner or later will be disposed of. They would have been much better off getting a higher quality ukulele which will serve them well for the long term. Such a ukulele will also be easier to learn on since it's been properly setup.
-- Gary
In hind sight I would have probably been $65 ahead if I had just bought my Mainland in the first place. But when I first got the itch to learn to play a ukulele, if I had known that a real beginner's ukulele costs $200 plus, I wouldn't even be playing a ukulele right now.
Maybe it depends on where you are coming from. You were probably a pretty accomplished musician when you came to the ukulele. You also probably had a track record of success with another instrument and knew that you could make music. I had no idea what I was getting into. I think that someone with your kind of experience might be more inclined to spring for a more expensive instrument right off the bat. If I were to become interested in another instrument at this juncture, my criteria for a beginning instrument would be much different than it was when I bought my first ukulele.what makes this discussion interesting is the fluidity of our criteria for nomenclature such as "beginner." I bought my first instrument while still in high school. I paid $23.89 a month for a flute and I paid on that loan for years. In that context, a $200 ukulele doesn't seem outlandish to me, especially when I consider that I still play it. I could have purchased something cheaper but it would have been more of a toy and it wouldn't have given me a good, representative feel for what I can expect from a ukulele. My Oscar Schmidt is a good, but not great, ukulele and that is what I had in mind for a beginner's ukulele--at least for this beginner.