uketanzon
Well-known member
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.
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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