Unimpressed with new PONO cedar acacia tenor....

uketanzon

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My friend, a newbie uke olayer, asked me for a recommendation for his first quality uke......a tenor.
I did a lot of research within his spend budget of $500 and made him a number of recommendations,

Some PONO models, Opios, so on.

He choose the Pono Cedar Top Acacia with radiused frets at Ukulele site and bought that, one of my “best buys” recommendations...or so. thought.

Brought it over today for me to try it out and test run it. I had my Lopriznzi tenor cherry and my Acacia Opio to compare it to.

First impressions....Nicely built, a tad heavy but not bad, fairly good looking not flashy but classy.....

Played it.....really unimpressed.......very quiet, muted almost ....and the stock strings were hard and stiff as a two by four. I felt a little embarrassed recommending this model ( was wishing he bought the Opio tenor instead) He said “ what do you think” . I said mmmmm..........let me try something

I happened to a extra set of worth clear tenor strings and I got some cable industrial cutters to get those horrific stock strings off the instrument and put on the worth clears....

Result, It was MUCH MUCH better, had a voice now, and sounded failrly decent..HOWEVER, it fell quite short to my Loprinzi or Opio in terms of volume, sustain, sweetness and tone.

I told him it would open up in time, and get better, and I was going lend him my tonerite vibrator to age the top for a few days...

My personal lesson learned.....do not make recommendations to other people......they make backfire on you.
 
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The best recommendation - although I know it is not always practicable - is not to buy any instrument unless you have actually seen it, held it and heard it. The next Pono off the assembly line could have been much better.

John Colter.
 
Very interesting, thanks for sharing. I'd think that you made some very well recommendations, Opio and Pono are about the best value I have experienced in my twelve years of playing and buying ukes, and the model your friend bought has some of the best features you can get in this price range: all solid woods, a Cedar top that many people love, radius fretboard with binding, truss rod for extra stability as a long-term insurance of playability…

Your description of the sound matches my own experience… with two ukes out of about twelve I have owned from Pono. Nine out of them are playing in the same league as Kamaka, Kanilea, or KoAloha, but those other two were sounding somewhat thin and tinny. I'm assuming that it is realistic for two out of twelve to be sounding sub-standard within the boundaries of regular quality control (build quality was still as excellent as with all Ponos).

I totally agree that the stock strings are not doing them a favor, feeling stiff and sounding almost muted, like you said. I usually change them for Worth or Oasis and much prefer the sound.
 
HMS has a good return policy if you're unhappy.

My experience with new instruments is they go through a week or so of shock as the top flexes into shape and it acclimates to the new humidity and temperature. I bought three ukuleles, two guitars, a terz guitar and a guilele in the past 9 months and they all sounded dull and soft the first few days. My Romero Creations parlor guitar was especially horrid out of the box and proved to be a real screamer after a month or two of daily playing. Very discouraging but I knew they'd sound better once they acclimated and I installed the right strings. Indeed, they all sound good now. My Pono MT-E was twangy, bright and soft when new and I felt like tossing it out the window. Five years hence, it now has a full and sweet voice. Of course, the big mystery initially is how much will it improve after the top flexes into shape and it acclimates.
 
You are comparing this Pono to a custom built Loprinzi and a Koaloha which is always loud. As you well know the strings you just but on it take about one week of playing to settle and sweeten in tone. As gochuggi stated the ukulele is still in shock from traveling through different enviroments. I find one to two weeks of constent playing and leaving it out of the case to let it acclimate allow the woods to relax and the tone improves. Good luck. Hopefully it gets better but as Rakelele said all instrument can vary from one to another because individual pieces of wood are never the same.
 
Thanks for sharing.

A lesson there for us all ...... only recommend what you have played.
 
I also have to give my brain time to open up to the new ukulele as well. Even when I got my Opio, I wasn't sure I liked it because the sound I imagined it to be wasn't the same as the sound it was producing. Once I grew accustomed to it, I like it a lot. I find that's usually the case with a new uke - I have to adjust my ears to this new sound.
 
Cedar tops are not for everyone’s ear. Cedar is a very soft wood compared to spruce, the sound may seem muted when compared to other ukuleles.
 
I too, only tend to recommend what I have personal experience of, but would add that some people do like Pono - I personally don't, & can't see/hear what others do, in them, but I'm OK with my Opio & Ohana long neck concerts - each to their own. :music:
 
All the cedar topped instruments I've owned—and I have many—were loud and resonant. Not a one qualifies as muted. The Kremona Coco I bought last Fall has a cedar soundboard and darned if it ain't the loudest ukulele I've ever played at any price. If anything, cedar seems to play in faster than spruce but I love the different but equally pleasing tone of both types of soundboards.
 
All the cedar topped instruments I've owned—and I have many—were loud and resonant. Not a one qualifies as muted. The Kremona Coco I bought last Fall has a cedar soundboard and darned if it ain't the loudest ukulele I've ever played at any price. If anything, cedar seems to play in faster than spruce but I love the different but equally pleasing tone of both types of soundboards.

Agreed - my experience with cedar tops, though limited to maybe 5 examples, is that they are pretty loud and often sound pretty amazing. It's one of my favorite top woods.
 
I too, only tend to recommend what I have personal experience of, but would add that some people do like Pono - I personally don't, & can't see/hear what others do, in them, but I'm OK with my Opio & Ohana long neck concerts - each to their own. :music:

Yes to each his/her own. I have some really nice ukuleles and my favorite is an old Pono mahogany that I purchased used on Ebay years ago. My other tenor, a KoAloha is a prettier, lighter weight instrument with a beautiful voice but that Pono sings mellow.
 
All the cedar topped instruments I've owned—and I have many—were loud and resonant. Not a one qualifies as muted. The Kremona Coco I bought last Fall has a cedar soundboard and darned if it ain't the loudest ukulele I've ever played at any price. If anything, cedar seems to play in faster than spruce but I love the different but equally pleasing tone of both types of soundboards.

That's why I bought a cedar top the for busking. Cedar and spruce seem to be louder to me. I think that is a consensus. But another thing, often times as you lower the action there is a point where you can lose volume and sustain. I had a solid mahogany that was set up by the seller and it was set up real low. It played great but I was getting nothing out of it when I played it outside. Someone suggested to raise the action up just a little. It made a noticeable difference. There is a balance between too high and too low.
 
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I can't figure out what Pono is thinking with those strings! I've had several and I absolutely HATE those cables. As far as sound, I think Pono TONE and TIMBRE are outstanding! As far as volume, they'll produce after time IF you lean into them. They're not cannons. To my mind that's Ohana territory, among production ukes. I will give Pono profs for build and "elegance". But, honestly I'm a Blackbird (EKOA) guy. They wrecked me for anything at or below their price range. But I don't buy for bling anymore I like lo-maintenance, bombproof cannons!
 
My personal lesson learned.....do not make recommendations to other people......they make backfire on you.

I don’t think you have anything to feel bad about—your recommendations (the list seemed incomplete) seems solid to me, and the instrument that your friend purchased IS a quality, well respected instrument from a quality manufacturer.

Your friend also had access to The Ukulele Site’s online recordings where I think they have a video and audio recording for every instrument they sell (and those they no longer sell). It’s a pretty amazing set-up that Andrew has considering how laid back he seems to be.

I bought a Pono earlier on in my playing, a cedar as well, and just didn’t bond with it—and it was (and still would be) my most expensive ukulele by far. I bought it from Dixie Ukuleles as they cleared stock...so bought it for a good value...and then sold it here on UU for a little less than I had bought it for (the clearance price was already a good 65% of original value).

There was nothing wrong with the ukulele...it was gorgeous and sounded very nice. I’d also be willing to stick my neck out there a bit and say that the mid to higher priced Ponos are some of the best looking ukuleles in the mid-range market. They do a nice job. But I didn’t bond with the ukulele and that’s okay. It was valuable enough that I didn’t feel comfortable simply keeping it and not playing it.

It wasn’t the cedar, either...I recently bought a Mainland Baritone (Cedar and Rosewood) and like it a lot.

So, your friend has a high quality instrument that can be used for generations—and if they don’t like it, they can return it (in the very near future) or sell it down the road. I don’t think you have anything to feel bad about.
 
Pretty rough buying an instrument without first trying it out, but this seems lots more common with the uke than it does guitar.
 
I bought a Pono mahogany concert about a year ago and was very disappointed as I thought it sounded dead. I had tried it in the music store but when I got it home and compared it to my Opio Acacia tenor it sounded thin. I know, comparing apples to oranges and different price points. I swapped out the strings which improved the sound a lot but I still wasn't crazy about it. After playing it for a while now, I really think it has opened up and sounds much sweeter and fuller and I like it a lot.
 
If you recommend something or someone,
If it works well the person will take credit for their own genius in making the choice.
If it doesn't, the person will always remember who made the referral.
 
ponos are known to be low in volume due to heavy bracing and thick finish. they are built like tank for sure :) almost same as Koolaus . wait isn't pono and koolau same company?
 
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