Help me choose a babymoon concert Mele (koa top, mango, koa)

As the you may have guessed from the title, I’m currently in Maui on our dream vacation before our little one finally arrives in the spring. Even before we arrived here, I knew I wanted to bring home a ukulele and learn to play Aloha ‘Oe for my baby.

I’m going to try a few different models at the store before I decide, but the three I am mostly considering are the Mele concert koa top, mango, or koa. I’d appreciate any insight into the differences in these three ukeleles that I should listen for as I try them out. What effect in tonality will the different woods have?

Mahalo!

As someone who also was drawn in by the allure of buying my first uke on Maui, and ended up with a Mele koa tenor, I’d hold off and do some more research.

The instruments are good and well made, but I felt—after playing many other ukes—that I didn’t find the value there.

Ended up trading it.

As for wood, to my ear, mango has a softer/warmer tone to it, whereas koa is brighter and deeper.

Hope that helps

I think Mele offers a good value in their cheaper models (solid mahogany for $300, etc). Once you get into their higher price ranges, especially for their koa models, I think the more popular Hawaiian brands like Kanilea, Koaloha, and Kamaka give you noticeably better sound for not much more money. My advice is to find a store that sells more than one brand and then compare for yourself.