Fender Venice Soprano - REVIEW

bazmaz

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Not based on this example I wouldn’t... of course, there may be better examples out there... but that’s kind of the issue.
 
Thanks for the review. My first uke is a Venice in Lake Placid Blue from an Amazon deal-of-the-day. I agree with all of your objective points (subjectively, I like the look - I'm a sucker for bright colours).

Mine had the opposite problem on the setup. The saddle was high, and the nut was set somewhere near the moon's orbit. If I knew what I was doing I'd have set an open tuning and gotten a slide (or if I really knew what I was doing I'd have picked a different uke ;) ). On the bright side, I did want to practice set up so instead of a disaster it was a good testbed for my nut files! Such opposite extremes as you and I found don't speak well to their consistency :(

I replaced it with an Ohana concert for my main player (night and day difference!), and I thought about selling the Venice, but now that I have it playable I'll probably hang onto it as a bedroom practicer and to have a soprano around just 'cause. It has seen its last trip out to a jam session.
 
I think that helps to sum up my concern. Consistency and quality control. I am sure there are good examples out there but this isn’t one of them.
 
I don't understand what Fender is trying to do to itself. Besides being pretty ugly, that thing just doesn't sound good. What a waste of wood. Miss Vanderwall may want to second guess her decision. I thought she was going with Kala???
 
Nickie. I genuinely think their uke ‘division’ are not taken seriously and their main focus is guitars. I had some dealings with their uke marketing team and to say they came across as clueless was an understatement. I suspect it’s a tiny team (in Fender terms) left alone to play with what the guitar teams probably think are toys. Thst doesn’t make the whole brand suck and I adore their guitars

iMHO if Grace wants to be seen seriously as a ‘uke artist’, she needs to partner with an actual uke brand. To date she is most associated with Luna and Fender. To her legion of fans the brands or their quality won’t matter, but it may start to matter to her. Or perhaps not. I know little about her.
 
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