Review- Outdoor Tenor Ukulele

https://vicsukuleleblog.com/2018/08/09/review-outdoor-tenor-ukulele/

You can also click the link in my signature to see the review.

Thanks Vic, nice review. I have a green tenor and brown soprano outdoor ukulele. The soprano is my current favorite. I am new to ukuleles and I often read people on here talking about them being plastic-y sounding and generally dismissing the outdoor ukulele unless the ruggedness is a requirement. I've listened to almost every YouTube video of someone playing one and they sound nice to me.

I was disappointed when I read that gotaukulele (Barry) would not be reviewing one as I like his reviews. So glad to see your review.

This is one of my favorite outdoor ukulele performances on YouTube, I am not a big fan of the original tune, and she does a great rendition on a brown soprano:



Thanks again!

I like these so much that we bought them for our new school that opens in three weeks (or at least we’re hoping it is ready!). No kidding...60 tenors and 10 sopranos. I wish they had concert scale instruments. They sell to schools for a significant discount...I think vendor pricing...although the company seems to stick with online sales for the most part, and I can’t really begrudge them for that because it does represent a significant amount of income and the ukuleles are not that expensive to start with.

There is a music store not far from me that still has some Outdoor Ukulele stock from an order when they had started the new tenors but were still selling the old style soprano...and they actually have some of the old sopranos in stock. I don’t recommend them. (I was graciously sent an original outdoor ukulele soprano by a UU member, and I do play it from time to time. It works, but the improvements in the models is amazing).

I agree with you regarding side dots; I just don’t know how they would do it.

The only correction I would make is that they aren’t improving the models as time goes on; they have the molds, and the molds haven’t changed since they introduced the tenor and then the soprano that is basically the tenor in a smaller size. What you see is what you get, unless the whole mold is recreated. They have switched the company that creates the plastic materials that go into the mold since mine was made (I bought mine from that local dealer), and they have that new polycarbonate laced with carbon fiber. But the mold is the mold.

Thankfully, the set-up on these is perfect.

I inquired about a concert model, and I believe that they told me that it cost about $100,000 to design, test, and create the molds for a new model, and that there are no plans to make a concert at this time.

Thank's a lot for the review. To be honest: Since I saw your unboxing video I looked almost daily if your accounced review is already available in your youtube channel.

What I'd like to know and you of course can't answer right now is:
How durable are these ukes in the long run?
I think that's an interesting question, as bridge, saddle, frets can not just be renewed ... (if I understand this right).

Thanks again for your effort and greetings from Germany.

My green tenor is 1 1/2 years old and lives behind the drivers seat in my car in a cheap very thin gig bag.
The temperature ranges from -10F ish to better than 130F inside the car. It has been knocked about and I have played the strings off it.
There is not a mark on it and I think it plays just as well if not better than when new.
If something happened to mine I would buy another the next day!!

Thank you for the review Vic, a lot of interesting comments and in a style that works for me too.

I’m looking forward to your coming review of the Soprano model. For me string spacing is important so if you could say what it is on the Soprano that would be helpful; I fear that it will be small and if so then the ODU company would be well advised to widen it (the extra finger space allow easier use for typical Adult Male fingers). The Tenor has a wider nut and I take it that it has wide string spacing (say 10 mm between centres). I’d also be interested to hear more about the test chords that you are using, just a bit more detail please - sorry if I’m a bit slow witted on this - so that I can copy them on my own Ukes, thanks.

The bridge is slotted rather than tie. I note that the g was of a thick low type on your Tenor. Are all the slots (bridge and nut) the same width and what is the bridge knot arrangement? I would guess that either beads are used or some bulky form of knot instead; but I’d prefer to know rather than guess, please.

The new rules video was interesting. I very much liked her voice and the lyrics, but what’s also valuable is that the ‘singer’ made the OU Uke work for her too. It seems to me that whilst the ODU’s are not the greatest sounding Ukes in the world (and neither should we expect them to be) they clearly are good enough for some serious music making and tough enough for use in conditions that wooden Ukes would almost certainly not be able to endure. That combination, together with an affordable price, really appeals to me.

Edit. Sadly that affordable price in the USA doesn’t translate to an affordable price in the U.K.: though I have not costed it carriage charges and purchase taxes / import duties will inevitably up the price by quite a bit. I estimate that the U.K. delivered price for a basic Soprano would be in the region of $160.

dgame said:

I was disappointed when I read that gotaukulele (Barry) would not be reviewing one as I like his reviews. So glad to see your review.

Click to expand...

It's not that I would refuse to review one - just that it's extremely unlikely they would ever send me one...

Just got back from the Jam. The OU worked great. Plenty of volume and kept in tune, once it adjusted to the A/C.

I love the sound of the soprano in the New Rules video. Dua has a beautiful voice and did a great job playing the soprano OU. My new soprano, in the same color, should be here in a day or two.

Thanks for the great feedback.

Thanks for the review, Vic!! I enjoyed it.

I also very much enjoyed the New Rules cover video above. She did a great job and the Outdoor soprano worked very well with her voice (though I imagine just about any soprano would sound good with her voice )

Just got a blue tenor yesterday. It's replacing a waterman, which just never was what I needed it to be. Very pleasantly surprised by the OU's tone and sustain. The neck also has an interesting shape. It's very flat behind the first fret and the width of the flat spot tapers heading up toward the soundhole. Looks kind of funny to the eye, but my thumb knew just what to do. Very comfortable playing, and importantly for me, not too thick.

Also intonation is great all the way up. It's no Moore Bettah, but it's a LOT more bettah than the choice between the waterman or something Hawaiian and expensive when I'm in the great outdoors. Wouldn't mind leaving it in the trunk for the day or letting the kids play on it either.