A better plastic uke for my car? :^)

The only two I'd leave in a car if I had to are the Enya Nova U and the Outdoor Ukulele.

maki66 said:
The Outdoor Ukulele is a very decent, but we have a small issue with ours. An annoying buzz has developed and we cant seem
to fix it. It was our car ukulele for over a year and we kept in a padded Gator bag, I don't think it was abused, but it might have gotten a knock.
I'd still recommend OU, no one else seems to have any problems with theirs.
My buddy uses his everywhere and often plays at the beach.
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Did you try contacting the people at OU?
I would also suggest changing strings, if you haven't already. In the process, shake around the uke to make sure something isn't inside loose. Clean the nut slots, bridge slots, etc. Make sure the screws and hardware are all tight enough on the tuning machines. Other than that, I'm not sure what it could be. The braces on the top are molded into the body, so that eliminates a loose brace.
 
ripock said:
Or there's another way altogether.

I'm about to take a 1200 mile drive and instead of risking damage to a ukulele or buying some plastic thingy, I'm going to think. Think about where on the fretboard are all my Ab's and Db's and Eb's; think about whole tone scales; think about chord shapes. When I'm done traveling then I can play. There's a time and place for everything. I wouldn't take the wife, kids, and golden retriever to a boys' night out and I wouldn't take an instrument traveling. That's how I deal with this topic.
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AQUATOPAZ said:
Some of us relax with a ukulele, and want to do so while travelling too. There is always a place for ukuleles.
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I take one on trips. I take one on trips because it is relaxing. I'm also at an age where I have a lot of time. I'm seldom pushing to get somewhere. I tend to stop driving early afternoon. I like to play songs and sing. It makes me feel good. Also I am an inveterate busker and I will take advantage of any opportunity to find a pitch after I've checked into my hotel. I always road trip with a ukulele. I don't keep one in the car all the time just to have it near though.

One thing, next summer I will be spending three weeks in France and England. We are doing a lot of traveling by plane, bus, boat, and train. We are doing a lot of tours during those three weeks. I am seriously thinking that I can get along without a ukulele for three weeks. My wife is betting that I pack one the night before we leave. I'm thinking that I need the space for clothes and other necessities. It is too far off to worry about it right now, but I have thought about it.
 
I thought about getting an ukulele for my car, but try as I may, my car won't play any of my ukes!
 
Kala makes a "composite" ukulele - ukadelic. I have a ukadelic I acquired. While not my go to, I picked it up today after us having a heatwave and now a cold wave I was surprised how good it sounded today. I'm not a fan of plastic uke. I take my trustee mahalo laminate when I want to leave one in the car. If you find something inexpensive then it gets ruined doesn't hurt so much. Personally I couldn't stand that outdoor ukulele. I think you have to take one that you feel comfortable playing. The cheap ones bother me after three songs. Flight gets great reviews and I remember enjoying the tone of it when I read it review a few years ago. You'll find"The one."
 
Rllink said:
I take one on trips. I take one on trips because it is relaxing. I'm also at an age where I have a lot of time. I'm seldom pushing to get somewhere. I tend to stop driving early afternoon. I like to play songs and sing. It makes me feel good. Also I am an inveterate busker and I will take advantage of any opportunity to find a pitch after I've checked into my hotel. I always road trip with a ukulele. I don't keep one in the car all the time just to have it near though.

One thing, next summer I will be spending three weeks in France and England. We are doing a lot of traveling by plane, bus, boat, and train. We are doing a lot of tours during those three weeks. I am seriously thinking that I can get along without a ukulele for three weeks. My wife is betting that I pack one the night before we leave. I'm thinking that I need the space for clothes and other necessities. It is too far off to worry about it right now, but I have thought about it.
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It is amazing how much space you save when you roll your clothes instead of folding them. That's what flight attendants do according to my daughter, who gave me the tip.
 
I like my Flight TUS 35 very much. I live in Eastern Washington where summers get over 100 and winters can be below zero and it's been in my car off and on for about two years. I think dashboards are made from ABS plastic, and they're left in the car 😛 so the Flight uke should be OK. And the top is laminate, so that's OK too. I did have a problem with the strings when I left it outside in the sun for too long. All that said, at $50 it's a low risk.

Chris, that's good to know about your comparison. I'm checking your channel right now.

Choirguy said:
I'm traveling to LA with my Flight TUS 35 tomorrow. It took playing it next to a Magic Fluke to realize how good it was (I have a recent review on my YouTube channel, youtube.com/ukestuff).

That said, I would't leave it in a car...it has an ABS body.

P.S. Flight is releasing a long neck TUS 35 soon, and they have a custom Elise Ecklund model coming out that looks really nice as well, with a few added features such as one strap button and Aquila Sugar strings.
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rubykey said:
Kala makes a "composite" ukulele - ukadelic. I have a ukadelic I acquired. While not my go to, I picked it up today after us having a heatwave and now a cold wave I was surprised how good it sounded today. I'm not a fan of plastic uke. I take my trustee mahalo laminate when I want to leave one in the car. If you find something inexpensive then it gets ruined doesn't hurt so much. Personally I couldn't stand that outdoor ukulele. I think you have to take one that you feel comfortable playing. The cheap ones bother me after three songs. Flight gets great reviews and I remember enjoying the tone of it when I read it review a few years ago. You'll find"The one."
Click to expand...

I believe that the current Ukadelic is a painted Waterman and that original Ukadelic was basically a Dolphin with a different bridge and paint job. All the Dolphins that I’ve had would serve me as well as any other Outdoor type Uke, I wouldn’t encourage anyone to buy a Waterman. At one point I had a nice old Mahalo which, after a lot of work, ended up being quite nice to play if marginally too quiet for club use. Really, it was just fine for a car and for the beach; maybe it was daft of me to not to be satisfied with it ‘cause I don’t believe it played any worse than a plastic Outdoor Uke would and it was pretty robustly built - besides time and effort it cost me very little too.

Anyway whilst there are a load of laminates out there that would, I believe, be OK for the OP he’s asked about plastic.
 
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Bill1 said:
Another option is to put an extra hook on the coat and hat stand. Hang your road uke next to your coat in winter and your hat in summer. Just take it out when you pick up the coat or hat. Even when you go in someone else's car. Then you might be able to use a nicer sounding uke.
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This is what I did with a custom build Ono 16” super concert, cedar and walnut. My friend freaked out when I told him it was my car uke:mad:

But it lived in a good gig bag and never received any abuse. I took it into the car in the morning then back into the house at night. It really isn’t that hard and I had a fabulous sounding instrument to play. Life is too short to play ukes you don’t like the sound of. I did a one week 700km bicycling trip last year with my all solid walnut custom Fred Shields super soprano.

If you do need a knock about maintenance free uke the Outdoor Uke is great. A friend has both the soprano and tenor.
 
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Rllink said:
I take one on trips. I take one on trips because it is relaxing. I'm also at an age where I have a lot of time. I'm seldom pushing to get somewhere. I tend to stop driving early afternoon. I like to play songs and sing. It makes me feel good. Also I am an inveterate busker and I will take advantage of any opportunity to find a pitch after I've checked into my hotel. I always road trip with a ukulele. I don't keep one in the car all the time just to have it near though.

One thing, next summer I will be spending three weeks in France and England. We are doing a lot of traveling by plane, bus, boat, and train. We are doing a lot of tours during those three weeks. I am seriously thinking that I can get along without a ukulele for three weeks. My wife is betting that I pack one the night before we leave. I'm thinking that I need the space for clothes and other necessities. It is too far off to worry about it right now, but I have thought about it.
Click to expand...

That sounds awesome! But please be careful with instruments+planes. I've heard several horror stories. So if you can travel with a cheap one that wouldn't be a big loss if it gets damaged or lost, do it. Agh I had a very "funny" horror story some where on Facebook and now I can't find it. It was basically a guy with his uke, they didn't let him have it with him as handbag, because "guitars have to be in a hard case". They didn't seem to know the difference between a guitar and an ukulele. Violins were ok in soft cases, though (because they were smaller, of course!). In the end they called their boss and the boss laughed and let him in.
 
My car uke is a concert Flea. 5 years in the car through Kansas summer & winter? No Problem. 1 year on the patio in Arizona heat? No problem. It’s finally about ready for a new set of Martin M600 strings. This uke has been to Australia and the Camino de Santiago in Spain. Rugged, dependable, and it sounds good.

Don’t overthink it.
 
maki66 said:
The Outdoor Ukulele is a very decent, but we have a small issue with ours. An annoying buzz has developed and we cant seem
to fix it. It was our car ukulele for over a year and we kept in a padded Gator bag, I don't think it was abused, but it might have gotten a knock.
Click to expand...

Does it have a washer around the base of the tuning peg? Often makers rely on the string to hold it down against the headstock, or there may be a hexnut that screws down to hold it in place. I have a Kala that developed a buzz. I check all of the usual suspects even changed the strings. Then I heared the washer rattle when my finger lightly brushed it. I gently tightened the hex nut using a wrench that fit under the string and voila! No buzz. DO NOT OVER TIGHTEN! If it has one. It can crack the plastic if you do.

Also, check that the heat & cold didn't warp the neck a little causing the strings to hit when you play it. Good luck.
 
Ordered my Enya Nova U. One more day for the introductory price of $69.99 with no tax or shipping costs.
 
rainbow21 said:
Ordered my Enya Nova U. One more day for the introductory price of $69.99 with no tax or shipping costs.
Click to expand...

Which color? I like the white the best....white goes with anything, right?

I emailed them to ask if the Nova U was made from recycled plastics, and they replied, "no, not yet, but they are thinking of putting that in the plans, thanks for the idea."
I might order one tomorrow, to use in the Shriner's hospital.
 
Nickie said:
Which color? I like the white the best....white goes with anything, right?

I emailed them to ask if the Nova U was made from recycled plastics, and they replied, "no, not yet, but they are thinking of putting that in the plans, thanks for the idea."
I might order one tomorrow, to use in the Shriner's hospital.
Click to expand...

Choose color according to your tastes. It was between blue and pink for me since I consider this my nonserious uke to drag around in the car (and possibly on vacations depending on its performance). I polled my family and the three others voted blue. Blue it is!
 
Nickie said:
Which color? I like the white the best....white goes with anything, right?
Click to expand...
I have absolutely no need for the Enya (I already have an Outdoor), but darn it: the orange one would match my car!
 
Naisha said:
That sounds awesome! But please be careful with instruments+planes. I've heard several horror stories. So if you can travel with a cheap one that wouldn't be a big loss if it gets damaged or lost, do it. Agh I had a very "funny" horror story some where on Facebook and now I can't find it. It was basically a guy with his uke, they didn't let him have it with him as handbag, because "guitars have to be in a hard case". They didn't seem to know the difference between a guitar and an ukulele. Violins were ok in soft cases, though (because they were smaller, of course!). In the end they called their boss and the boss laughed and let him in.
Click to expand...

I most always have checked luggage when I fly and I can get a ukulele in my suitcase if I put it in corner to corner. That's the way I've always done it.
 
Naisha said:
That sounds awesome! But please be careful with instruments+planes. I've heard several horror stories. So if you can travel with a cheap one that wouldn't be a big loss if it gets damaged or lost, do it. Agh I had a very "funny" horror story some where on Facebook and now I can't find it. It was basically a guy with his uke, they didn't let him have it with him as handbag, because "guitars have to be in a hard case". They didn't seem to know the difference between a guitar and an ukulele. Violins were ok in soft cases, though (because they were smaller, of course!). In the end they called their boss and the boss laughed and let him in.
Click to expand...

My son left for Senegal for 2+ years in the Peace Corps last week. He will be moved to another location in 2 months, possibly a remote location with crowded and old transport. He was adamant that he did nit need a hard case and that his gig bag was enough. I gave him his personally inscribed ukulele as a gift to replace the Mitchell that he never played, and he loves it and plays daily. I had to buy 3 cases and return 2 before he deigned to use the third. I haven't asked, but I presume now that after lugging a 50 lb. pack, a small back pack, camera and suitcase, plus his uke ,that having the extra protection has already saved his uke from the bumps that must have happened when carrying all that stuff around as he has.
 
Well, I have a car and a truck, and so needed the Enya Nova U so I don't have to keep moving my Outdoor Uke from vehicle to vehicle :)

I ordered mine in Bazmaz black.
 
do you folks leave the uke in the trunk or the passenger area of the car? Is this primarily when you find yourself waiting in a parking lot and need to pass the time for a few minutes, or is it you find yourself somewhere unexpected (like a beach or park) and you always have a uke with you?

I'm trying to understand the psychology of the car uke.
 
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