neo1022
Well-known member
Finally got ahold of a Romero Creations ST Concert ukulele, aka the STC. This is the “budget” model with sitka spruce top, and mahogany laminate sides and back). As someone who loves the Tiny Tenor, I was excited to try out this new, smaller version.
A few words about the uke, for those who don’t know. The ST Concert is a really interesting hybrid instrument. It melds a tenor bout "paddle" body and a full 15”concert scale, but the overall size of the instrument is a soprano. Basically, it’s a concert uke with the overall size of a soprano, but with a full tenor body. Perfect for travel.
As for the sound, as far as I can tell, it’s identical to that of the Tiny Tenor. So if you’re a concert scale player who’s been holding off on the TT because of the scale size, this is your instrument. Since the body is the same size and material as the TT, it sounds the same, but in a significantly shorter overall package. Of course, the concert scale reduces the string tension a bit, which some players appreciate.
As with the Tiny Tenor, the sound is superb--well balanced, with perfect intonation across the entire fretboard (I was told that Pepe Romero—or someone in his shop—inspects and set sup each of these instruments when they arrive from Vietnam). The C and E strings are nice and full with no “boominess” or “thuddiness",” and the G and A strings are chimey and very clear and bright. Strung with low G, the instrument transforms. The low G is full and clear, and sets the entire body vibrating under your arm. The uke comes set up with Low G, so the nut is already prepped to take the thicker string. Switching to high G is effortless, and there is no issue with vibration at the nut. The bridge features a compensated bone saddle, which accounts for the spot-on intonation.
Fit and finish is superb for a production instrument. My example had no cosmetic flaws. Although the fret ends are files to an angle, they could use a bit of polishing to smooth out the edges. The fretboard is lovely, as is the neck (a nice shallow C shape, finished in a satin polyurethane). 12 frets to the body (15.5 frets total), and really great black 16:1 closed geared tuners.
I was surprised to see that they have widened the neck a bit since the first gen tiny tenors (which I found to be a bit narrow at the nut). Now it feels perfect and is sublime for fingerstyle or clawhammer.
The spruce top is lovely and thin, providing clear, bright high notes. As with the TT, the soundhole is oversize compared to other ukes, which allows for a very open sound. It’s surrounded by a lovely and simple mother of pearl ring that looks great.
The finish is a very thin and very hard satin polysomething – it hold up superbly over time, and you won’t have to worry about dings or scratches (since I play clawhammer, this is a real benefit, as fingernail strikes do nothing to this finish!). It’s also thin enough for easy phantom hammer-ons and pull-offs that can actually be heard (often a problem on ukes with heavier builds, or thick gloss tops). The body of the laminate production models is also deeper than the solid wood models, which seems to produce greater volume and tonal complexity. I really like this feature, and for this reason alone prefer the “cheaper” solid/laminate over the solid models. The solid wood models are tonally sublime, but for my style of playing I find them to be either too quiet or too warm – the spruce top on this model, combined with the deeper body, solves all these problems.
On a few models I looks at, the bridge was canted at a bit of an angle (presumably so improve intonation on the C string). This varies a bit by instrument – I selected one with almost no angle to the bridge, but the intonation was perfect.
So, although I was skeptical at first (and hadn’t really considered buying the ST Concert), I’m really happy with the purchase. It’s largely displaced the Tiny Tenor in my stable, and seems to sound identical (but with the advantage of the concert scale, which I prefer).
Unfortunately, I’ve heard Pepe Romero has stopped production on all the “economy” Spruce/Laminate models. Apparently, the production time on these was too unpredictable, so they decided to cut them from the product lineup, going with all solid wood for now. If you’ve been thinking about buying a laminate Tiny Tenor or ST Concert, now is the time. Once the current models are gone, there will be no more.
They’re already tough to find (sold out at most vendors), but U-Space Ukuleles in Los Angeles still has a few for $289 with custom hard foam “flight” case. Jason Arimoto is a great guy, and does a superb job setting these up. The action on mine was a tad high for my tastes, but after 10 minutes of setup work, Jason had dialed it right in! Give them a call if interested.
Tone: 9.5
Fit & Finish: 8.5
Intonation: 10
Volume: 10
Price: 7
Playability: 10
A few words about the uke, for those who don’t know. The ST Concert is a really interesting hybrid instrument. It melds a tenor bout "paddle" body and a full 15”concert scale, but the overall size of the instrument is a soprano. Basically, it’s a concert uke with the overall size of a soprano, but with a full tenor body. Perfect for travel.
As for the sound, as far as I can tell, it’s identical to that of the Tiny Tenor. So if you’re a concert scale player who’s been holding off on the TT because of the scale size, this is your instrument. Since the body is the same size and material as the TT, it sounds the same, but in a significantly shorter overall package. Of course, the concert scale reduces the string tension a bit, which some players appreciate.
As with the Tiny Tenor, the sound is superb--well balanced, with perfect intonation across the entire fretboard (I was told that Pepe Romero—or someone in his shop—inspects and set sup each of these instruments when they arrive from Vietnam). The C and E strings are nice and full with no “boominess” or “thuddiness",” and the G and A strings are chimey and very clear and bright. Strung with low G, the instrument transforms. The low G is full and clear, and sets the entire body vibrating under your arm. The uke comes set up with Low G, so the nut is already prepped to take the thicker string. Switching to high G is effortless, and there is no issue with vibration at the nut. The bridge features a compensated bone saddle, which accounts for the spot-on intonation.
Fit and finish is superb for a production instrument. My example had no cosmetic flaws. Although the fret ends are files to an angle, they could use a bit of polishing to smooth out the edges. The fretboard is lovely, as is the neck (a nice shallow C shape, finished in a satin polyurethane). 12 frets to the body (15.5 frets total), and really great black 16:1 closed geared tuners.
I was surprised to see that they have widened the neck a bit since the first gen tiny tenors (which I found to be a bit narrow at the nut). Now it feels perfect and is sublime for fingerstyle or clawhammer.
The spruce top is lovely and thin, providing clear, bright high notes. As with the TT, the soundhole is oversize compared to other ukes, which allows for a very open sound. It’s surrounded by a lovely and simple mother of pearl ring that looks great.
The finish is a very thin and very hard satin polysomething – it hold up superbly over time, and you won’t have to worry about dings or scratches (since I play clawhammer, this is a real benefit, as fingernail strikes do nothing to this finish!). It’s also thin enough for easy phantom hammer-ons and pull-offs that can actually be heard (often a problem on ukes with heavier builds, or thick gloss tops). The body of the laminate production models is also deeper than the solid wood models, which seems to produce greater volume and tonal complexity. I really like this feature, and for this reason alone prefer the “cheaper” solid/laminate over the solid models. The solid wood models are tonally sublime, but for my style of playing I find them to be either too quiet or too warm – the spruce top on this model, combined with the deeper body, solves all these problems.
On a few models I looks at, the bridge was canted at a bit of an angle (presumably so improve intonation on the C string). This varies a bit by instrument – I selected one with almost no angle to the bridge, but the intonation was perfect.
So, although I was skeptical at first (and hadn’t really considered buying the ST Concert), I’m really happy with the purchase. It’s largely displaced the Tiny Tenor in my stable, and seems to sound identical (but with the advantage of the concert scale, which I prefer).
Unfortunately, I’ve heard Pepe Romero has stopped production on all the “economy” Spruce/Laminate models. Apparently, the production time on these was too unpredictable, so they decided to cut them from the product lineup, going with all solid wood for now. If you’ve been thinking about buying a laminate Tiny Tenor or ST Concert, now is the time. Once the current models are gone, there will be no more.
They’re already tough to find (sold out at most vendors), but U-Space Ukuleles in Los Angeles still has a few for $289 with custom hard foam “flight” case. Jason Arimoto is a great guy, and does a superb job setting these up. The action on mine was a tad high for my tastes, but after 10 minutes of setup work, Jason had dialed it right in! Give them a call if interested.
Tone: 9.5
Fit & Finish: 8.5
Intonation: 10
Volume: 10
Price: 7
Playability: 10