Ukes in the classroom

mctot

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Hi UU,

I am a teacher and will be using ukes to teach my general music classroom starting next year. I need to get 15 ukes plus cases (soft or hard doesn't matter, they will be stored in lockers in the classroom).
I'm looking for a high level of durability and playability (stays in tune at least decently, action isn't too high/low, etc.) for these instruments. My budget is roughly $1000 USD (a bit over wouldn't hurt).

EDIT: the tuning I’m looking for is high G sopranos.

I've looked into a few options, but want to see what you all would have in mind.

Thanks,

mctot
 
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I recently got a bunch of Kala KA-15S ukes for a program I am teaching. I am pleased with them. They sound decent, play well, seem really durable, etc, etc. Basically they tick all the boxes. If you get one of the many well known vendors (including folks like Elderly, Uke Republic, Mim's) or a decent local shop to set them up for you they will have good playability. As it stands right now, if I had to order them again, I would have no problem getting more of these.
 
I am using Ohana SK-10's for my kids classes. I have restrung them with Aquila Kids strings.
Bulk packages of 20 sets are available directly from Aquila in Italy. The colored strings make it easy to teach the kids where their fingers go.
G string is green, C string is red, E string is yellow, A string is blue.

Good Luck with your program.
 
The strings--is there a website or a phone number you use for that? I'm highly interested in those--never knew they existed, would be tremendous as a teaching tool.
 
You should talk to Choirguy, who is also a teacher and would be the best source of info on here.
 
If you need sites as references, let me know...I’m happy to share.

At this point, I would suggest four possible routes for ukuleles that meet your criteria (you have not specified what scale of ukulele you are interested in).

The ukuleles we are purchasing for our next school are Outdoor Ukuleles, which come in Soprano or Tenor, and if you contact them, they give special pricing to schools, making them very affordable. If you want rugged and perfect set-up...that’s the way to go.

Another option is to contact Mainland Ukuleles. Mike (active here on UU—and the host of Ukulele World Congress) has helped schools to have high quality instruments at a reduced price—seconds if he has them (Mainland’s seconds are better than many company’s “firsts.”). With solid Mainlands, you will need a strategy for humidity (not sure where you live—your info doesn’t include location). Paul Marchese, another UUer with a educator’s website, was able to get Mainlands last year, and he created his own humidifiers for them. Mike sends these set up properly.

A third option is the new Makala Dolphin concert sized instruments. They are in the $65 range, and can be purchased set-up by a number of dealers (Uke Republic, for example).

A final option is in the world of Amazon (gasp!) where a company called Enya has entered the market. I have found their products to be very good, and there is a laminate concert Sapele (laminate) for $53.39 with a very nice gig bag (the only choice in this list with a gig bag). These have been shipping well set up.

I have no problems with other Kala or Ohana products, and if ordered from Uke Republic or Mim, they would be set up properly. Set-up is the main reason I would recommend one of these dealers over a local music store.

As for the Aquila KIDS colored strings, I highly recommend them, and they sell them in bulk packs of 20 to schools. Contact Aquila directly via e-mail and they will arrange to sell you the strings.

I would also buy an Eddie Ball string winder tool, a string winder/clipper tool, and I also highly recommend the Roadie 2 for tuning purposes. I know the Roadie 2 seems like a bug expense when a $5 tuner (see Reverb.com) will do...but it is so nice to be able to tune without thinking about it.
 
If you get outdoor ukes I advise getting all the same color.
I had some colored Ukes and the kids fight over the colors they want.
I now have 20 mahogany Ohanas.
 
The Mitchell MU40 is your 'ukulele and the Bonsai soprano gig bag are your ticket

Ric, can I ask why you recommend this model? The Mitchell ukulele series is not usually recommended (see some of Booli’s thoughts for example). Do you have a different experience with them?
 
For the 25 or so ukuleles I leave in my classroom for the younger classes, I use Makala sopranos. They've done the job really well. I store them in their original boxes in a big cabinet.

Then we also have 30 or so others, some Lanikai soprano, some Kala, which I use for older kids. They can take these home and bring them back each week, and we also provide padded gig bags and tuners for the older kids.
 
Hi Mctot,

Enya have a X1 HPL series is quite suitable for students. It is made of HPL new material which will not be effected by the environment and humidity. So you don't need take good care of the humidity in the room.

And Enya X1 HPL series ukulele have a very low action and perfect fretboard radian which make the ukulele is very easy and comfortable to play.

Besides, Price including a high quality cotton padded gig bag and a whole set of accessory pack ( tuner, capo, strap, strings, picks, clean cloth, finger shaker etc.)

If you order 15pcs, we could give you a factory wholesale price. It will be definitely within your budget.

Welcome your inquiry!

Emma
 
Ric, can I ask why you recommend this model? The Mitchell ukulele series is not usually recommended (see some of Booli’s thoughts for example). Do you have a different experience with them?

I enjoy Booli's thoughts and reviews. I've purchased dozens of Mitchell MU40's when Guitar Center has them on sale for $29 bucks. I test each one out in the store by tightening them with my P38 and stretching and tuning the strings before leaving. I have not purchased a single one that was not playable out of the box. Here's a video review of one I had just purchased and the strings had not yet settled. They are really sweet instruments after a week of playing.

https://youtu.be/yk9RkAmKO4M
 
The ukuleles we are purchasing for our next school are Outdoor Ukuleles, which come in Soprano or Tenor, and if you contact them, they give special pricing to schools, making them very affordable. If you want rugged and perfect set-up...that’s the way to go.

A third option is the new Makala Dolphin concert sized instruments. They are in the $65 range, and can be purchased set-up by a number of dealers (Uke Republic, for example).

A final option is in the world of Amazon (gasp!) where a company called Enya has entered the market. I have found their products to be very good, and there is a laminate concert Sapele (laminate) for $53.39 with a very nice gig bag (the only choice in this list with a gig bag). These have been shipping well set up.

Don't you use the Caramel's now Choirguy?
 
Don't you use the Caramel's now Choirguy?

We have....

41 Makala Soprano Waterman (40 donated by Kala when I wrote to ask for some ukulele posters) (2 left handed)
40 Caramel Concerts (1 strung lefty)
10 Caramel Tenors (1 strung lefty)
6 Kala Concert Waterman
2 Mainland Mahogany Sopranos
2 Mainland Mahogany Concerts
2 Makala MK-CE Concert ukuleles (one high G, one low G, arriving next week)
1 Populele
1 Lanikai Soprano Banjolele
1 Bonanza Custom Cherry Tenor
1 Enya HPL Tenor

All have Aquila KIDS ukulele strings

I recently ordered 70 black straps from Legacy Straps...just a pleasure to work with. Right now we have CHEAP eBay guitar straps on the Caramels.

We have a Reverb tuner for every instrument (if needed—I took most of them off as students caused more issues than they solved) and two Roadie 2 tuners.

As we open a new school (same name, new location) we will leave the Waterman and Caramels behind to be used by the elementary school that opens in our building—and one of the sets will be sent to one of the other 18 elementary schools in our district.

We are ordering:

60 Green Tenor Outdoor Ukuleles with strap buttons (5 will be lefty)
10 Green Soprano Outdoor Ukuleles with strap buttons (we’ll have a few of these for smaller hands)
1 Green Tenor with a double pick up for the teacher

I also am ordering 300 sets of KIDS strings so that we have them on hand.

We have been asked to stop fundraising and that our future needs will be met (this is a first for me in my career) and to date, all existing materials were bought by fundraising. The new instruments and strings are part of the new school building.

Other than the Waterman and Caramels, all the other equipment goes to the new school.
 
That's awesome, Choirguy. I've gifted well over a two hundred 'ukulele, all soprano, to local schools, friends and family well over a decade. I used to personally setup all the instruments before gifting them, to make sure they were playable and in fairly correct intonation. Currently I have 4 of the Mitchell MU40 natural 'ukulele in the Bonsai padded bags and will buy more, when Guitar Center has their next $29 buck sale on them. We also prepare notebooks with lesson plans on the origin of the 'ukulele, parts of the 'ukulele, Olelo Hawai'i basics (language of Hawai'i), chord charts and simple songs. 'Ukulele Tonya Dale of 'Ukulele of Paradise assembled my favorite basic lesson plan:

https://web.archive.org/web/20101011095501/http://ukuleletonya.com:80/files/beginner_lesson_pkg.pdf

for teaching 'ukulele to beginners. The Boss Tuner app for Apple and And Android from Roland is the best device tuner I've encountered. I tune solely by ear and am always within 5 cents of a digital tuner, so I can tune a couple dozen 'ukulele in about 5 minutes. Ric
 
We have....


I know you used to recommend the Caramels as a good budget friendly option, I wondered if you felt the quality had dropped or something, or if you just had a better budget now. I noticed a lot of their products seem to have vanished or out of stock on the website, - wondered if the company was in trouble.
 
I still think that the Caramels are a great way to get a playable ukulele into a classroom when you had no budget. Even at today’s prices, the same set of Caramel ukuleles (40 concerts at $37 and 10 tenors at $42) is an overall investment of $1900. That’s incredible. But you may have to do set up work on each ukulele—and as we have been reminded in other threads, dry humidity conditions (many schools) will lead to sharp fret ends and buzzing over time as fretboards and necks dry out (this is true with any ukulele you would drop into the same environment).

The Caramels have served us well—as well as any laminate ukulele could.

But at the same time, if I didn’t acknowledge that Barry Maz’s review of Caramel Ukuleles didn’t impact my thinking about them, I’d be lying. I know—he’s just one voice and he’s the first to say that. But how do I have the audacity to recommend a brand to others when that brand was one of the worst reviewed ukuleles on a blog devoted to ukulele reviews (and that has reviewed hundreds of ukuleles)?

With this opportunity to buy Outdoor Ukuleles, the school is set up to have instruments that will withstand substantial damage and have perfect set-ups. Someone may not like the sound or feel of a current Outdoor Ukulele—but you can not deny the playability of every instrument they make. And the best part is that the school will never need to worry about heat or humidity impacting the instruments (unless the school burns down). With school discounts and a slightly larger set of instruments plus the extra cost of strap buttons, overall cost of this purchase is around $6000, which is still less than 2 tubas. The 71 Outdoor Ukuleles will serve over 400 students each year...so even at a cost much higher than the Caramel (I think $70 for Sopranos and $90 for tenors for schools with the added hardware) it is a bargain investment for schools in terms of a rugged instrument with great educational impact and an instrument that makes playing about as easy as possible due to a perfect setup.
 
The Mitchell MU40 is on sale through today for $33.59 and look at the 129 reviews for an average 4.5 stars out of 5 stars in these reviews. They are a gem at this price and you can try them before you take them home if you live close to a Guitar Center. I have never purchased any Mitchell models, other than the Mitchell MU40, so I cannot personally attest to their quality, but I do have the personal experience and audacity to recommend the Mitchell MU40 sopranos. Don't for get to tighten the phillips cross point tuner screws on them before tuning to key. Download the Boss Tuner app by Roland on your smartphone, if you cannot tune by ear. Ric

https://www.guitarcenter.com/Mitchell/MU40-Soprano-Ukulele.gc
 
I won one of those in a contest a decade ago, Monica. It was a nice player out of the box. I donated it to a local 'ukulele club raffle and it became the first 'ukulele for a retired lady and she shortly after started taking lessons. Ric
 
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