NUD: Enya EUT-M6E cured my Baby T-Rex Hands Syndrome

I got this rare Baby T-Rex Hands Syndrome (BTRHS), so said the doc. My hands are not even the size of 12 years old’s. Wifey got the long slendery pianist fingers and sometimes do that T-Rex clawing gesture in jest. I accepted it and it is a fact.

In uke term, it means I’m legally binded to soprano ukulele for the rest of my life. I even struggled with concert. I barely made it to stretch across 5 frets between my index to pinky for a concert scale. It’s a PITA.

Recently, I started playing up to the neck, with my S1 and C1K ukes, soprano and concert scale length respectively. Alas! My BTRHS act up again, fingers are too fat and stubby to do a clean note when squeezed together. It’s like wearing some tight jeans and not all of your belly fats can go in nicely. You gotta breath in real hard.

Realising that all I need is a wider pair of jeans, or a bigger size uke, I immediately started my hunt for a tenor. It’s no easy feat. Given my condition of BTRHS, the doc said it’s impossible for me to find that tenor. A tenor that a BTRHS person can play.

Disregarding all advices from the doc, the wifey, even the neighbour next door, I went to many music stores for 2 weeks in a row, to seek for that one tenor. I tried every single tenor that was hanging on the wall. Kala, Ibanez, Fender, ANueNue, KoAloha, Kanile’a and even Kamaka. It was a lost cause.

When I was about to concede to my Baby T-Rex Hands Syndrome, the store assistant handed me something I didn’t had in mind. An odd-looking laminated tenor uke from Enya. EUT-X1C to be specified. Just to be clear, I also wanted a solid uke hence it wasn’t in my radar.

I tried it and found hope. Although it had that laminated kind of voice, but I could do my fretting nice and clean, up to the neck at the 12th! It has a radiused fretboard! My barred chords, all clean and smooth. It just worked. Great but it wasn’t the exactly uke I’m looking for. I know, I’m getting greedy now.

The good store assistant sensed it and immediately pointed out a shipment will be coming in 2 days later. And it has that uke I was looking for.

2 days later, I have in my possession, the Enya EUT-M6E tenor ukulele. It has the same radiused fretboard, nut width at 39mm (at least mine is!). A nice cutaway where my T-Rex hand can be safely put away when fretting beyond the 14th

The uke is all perfect except just 1 thing.. the sustain and projection are not quite at the expected tenor level. It could be the strings (D’Addario Titanium), I don’t know. I intend to change to the Martin fluorocarbon. Will update again once I done so.

Overall, I’m rather pleased with it. Having paid only 385 usd for:
1. very well made fit and finish
2. Radiused fretboard
3. Wide nut width at 39mm
4. Setup done out of box
5. all solid mahogany
6. glossy body with satin neck
7. Inlay everywhere
8. Florentine cutaway
9. Active pickup (not the ugly cut a hole at the side)
10. Strap button at both ends
11. Funky head stock
12. Truss rod in a uke?? That’s crazy.
13. Super thick padded gig bag

Lastly, this uke is totally detachable at the neck. See the pic below for inter swapping with your friends’ Enya ukes headstocks just for fun. Exactly like a Swatch watch!

Thanks for reading this unnecessarily long post.

Congrats on getting exactly what you wanted and being persistent in your search. I like the gloss body and satin neck combo. I wonder if "open" tuning (GCEG) would help or make things worse for your terrible affliction?

Davoravo said:

Congrats on getting exactly what you wanted and being persistent in your search. I like the gloss body and satin neck combo. I wonder if "open" tuning (GCEG) would help or make things worse for your terrible affliction?

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Thanks, Davoravo! Ya, this uke kind of ticks all the boxes for me. In my persistent search, I gotten many dagger stares from the shops where I tried a dozen ukes and walked out without buying anything. Haha.

I didn't realise Enya were producing some higher end stuff as well as their entry levels. That uke looks gorgeous! Really glad you found one to meet your needs.

That's a beauty. You are lucky to have a good uke store nearby, too. Your post made me laugh.

I too, have been a taunted as a short term victim of dinosaur paws, usually while dancing...it is the way it is. That is a lovely Enya and I am so happy a radius fretboard has allowed a sense of normalcy.

Pirate Jim said:

I didn't realise Enya were producing some higher end stuff as well as their entry levels. That uke looks gorgeous! Really glad you found one to meet your needs.

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Thanks, Jim. They do have high end ukes in style of big 4 K, in glorious curly koa. My local shop carries their full range. And all comes with radiused fretboard which is another bonus.

Gotaukulele has a positive review on the no pickup version too!

Ziret said:

That's a beauty. You are lucky to have a good uke store nearby, too. Your post made me laugh.

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Thanks, Ziret. I’m really lucky and glad I got the chance to try out before buying. I’m that kind that needs to feel the real thing to have a connection. Glad I made your day a bit brighter!

Sharpshin said:

I too, have been a taunted as a short term victim of dinosaur paws, usually while dancing...it is the way it is. That is a lovely Enya and I am so happy a radius fretboard has allowed a sense of normalcy.

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A fellow brother of the cursed dino hands. I’m glad you have found light at the end of the tunnel too, haha. Thanks, Shin!

AustinHing said:

Gotaukulele has a positive review on the no pickup version too!

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Somehow missed that one - looks properly decent.

Pirate Jim said:

Somehow missed that one - looks properly decent.

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Yes, it’s pretty decent, I would say that too. For this price tag, it’s almost a steal. But the sustain imho, needs to be a bit more longer.. for a tenor. the top soundboard is fairly thin and the bracing seems fine too. The gloss is not thick too, so I’m pointing my finger at the strings for the relatively short sustain. I’m definitely getting some Martin strings to see if that helps.

"BTRHS" I have to write that down. Congratulations on finding the uke that fits you best!

I prefer Living Waters fluorocarbon strings to the Martin. The Martins were like cheese cutters on my fingers. Whilst the LWs are not as hard on my hands.

The most "bendy" strings I have are the Fremont Black Lines I have on my Martin Tenor. They seem to be easiest on my fingers, but with the trade off of being warmer and mellower.

Glad you found a tenor that fits your hands and playing. That's terrific! Your persistence paid off.

With the bonus that it's also a great looking instrument. Congrats.

Swamp Yankee said:

"BTRHS" I have to write that down. Congratulations on finding the uke that fits you best!

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Thanks, Swamp! She’s a keeper for sure. BTRHS is no laughing matter. Haha.

Kenn2018 said:

I prefer Living Waters fluorocarbon strings to the Martin. The Martins were like cheese cutters on my fingers. Whilst the LWs are not as hard on my hands.

The most "bendy" strings I have are the Fremont Black Lines I have on my Martin Tenor. They seem to be easiest on my fingers, but with the trade off of being warmer and mellower.

Glad you found a tenor that fits your hands and playing. That's terrific! Your persistence paid off.

With the bonus that it's also a great looking instrument. Congrats.

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Thanks Kenn! I have never tried LW before, but definitely one of the top choice to try if the Martin string didn’t work out. The Martin strings on my martin S1 and C1K felt fine to me, but most probably my meaty fingers help to cushion away the cheese-cutter wire sensation.

I agreed, the Enya is quite the looker, the fender headstock seems appropriately suitable, somehow. Kind of grow on me the more I play it.

Congratulations! That's a pretty cool looking uke.

Nickie said:

Congratulations! That's a pretty cool looking uke.

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Thanks Nickie! ‘Thumbs up’

AustinHing said:

Thanks, Swamp! She’s a keeper for sure. BTRHS is no laughing matter. Haha..

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Hmmm.... seems there might be a laugh or two....

Swamp Yankee said:

Hmmm.... seems there might be a laugh or two....

View attachment 116104

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life’s too short to be serious!

Okay, so I have strung the Enya up with the Martin M620 and it, IMO sounded flatter than the d’ad Titanium although I gained a bit more substain and projection. The notes at the 10th fret onwards sound plinky.

I took them off and replaced with the Martin Ukulele Premium M625, that graphite gray polygut. Boy I think I like the sound of it now. It is definitely sustaining to a reasonable length. The volume is still about the same, maybe a just bit louder.

Here’s me playing. It’s noisy and plenty of buzzings caused by my clumsy baby T-Rex hands, the uke is perfectly fine. Hope it gives you an idea of the voice.

https://youtu.be/l6DCwCB66Yg

Just an update that I have been string searching for this uke. So I’m still kind of unsatisfied with the Martin graphite gray polygut. Although there was improvement over the d’addario titanium but the sustain is still not as long as I want it to be. Also the string texture is pretty tactile which kind of alike running your fingers on very fine grit sandpaper. It’s not uncomfortable but just weird. Also they are stiff, which are just like typical nylon strings and that requires more strength from my weak baby T-Rex fingers.

So.. I have moved on. It’s sad as I really want to use the Martin strings. It’s more of my problem, really. I searched around the house and found some old Worth Brown tenor strings. Gave them a shot and they worked! The sustain is there, and for the first time, I can feel the back of the uke vibrating against my chest. The volume is there too. Wow, I guess I found the perfect match for this Enya until..I did a bar chord at the 7th fret.

I heard a buzz note from the 1st A string. What the.. happened? I checked and found the problem. It’s my Baby t-Rex Hands Syndrome again. Despite having a radiused fretboard to help my situation, apparently, I need a fat A string too. The Worth fluorocarbon string is too thin. You see, my index finger is so meaty that little “valleys” are formed at the finger joints. The A string is so happened to be at the “valley” and no matter how hard I tried to squeeze the string to the fretboard, I cannot get a clean note out of it.

I got 3 good strings and 1 that is not working out. I need a fat A string and so, to prove my theory, i put on the D’addario Titanium A string on it. Just as expected, no more buzz note from it. So I guessed I found my solution and only nylon string has this kind of thickness. The Titanium A string is at 0.029inch and the worth brown A string is 0.0224 inch. But I didn’t like the short sustain of the Titanium at all. And the sound is kind of bell-like bright tone, which didn’t match to rest of the brown strings which are darker tones. Immediately I thought of the D’addario darker tone black nylon string whose A string is at 0.028inch.

So I grabbed a pack at a local music shop and quickly installed it on. Just the A string only. And it worked, not buzz when doing bar chords up the neck and the tone kind of matched the worth brown. And it does substain much longer than the Titanium. It’s a bit on the stiffer side when compared with the flurocardon but the stiffness is expected from a nylon string.

And finally, I think I can give it a rest now, after 4 packs of strings. So this uke’s string is a hybrid of 3 fluorocarbon and a nylon. Haha. Sorry for the long rant.

Sounds pretty good. By George, I think you've got it!

BTW, I have the same problem with the valleys of my fingers. I find the finger's position near the fret and not so much the pressure works to make a good barre.

Also, rotating the finger a bit sometimes helps.