I dont particularly love the sound of non-wooden ukuleles but they serve a purpose. I own two Enya X1 which are made from counter top laminate, think Arborite. They are durable and have a pleasing mellow sound.
I got this Enya Nova as a Christmas present.......because I was curious from all the rave reviews and good YouTube sound samples. I do a lot of outdoor activities so figured this would be a durable candidate.
With the stock strings, which are soft and thin, it is loud and bright sounding for a plastic uke, in a good way. It is not dull, thuddy and tubby sounding. Build quality is excellent which has been my experience with other Enya products.
Playability......good news bad news. I love the slight radius fret board, intonation is good. I have a hard time with black frets on a black fret board, solution was found, see pictures below. My BIGGEST gripe is the width of the nut and string spacing. Nut width is 1-5/16"+ and string spacing is a very tight 31/32". Compared to any of my other ukes with a 1-3/8" nut width the string spacing is usually around 1-1/8". A difference of over an 1/8" is big and I was flubbing chords and muting string and getting buzzing. After two weeks I have adapted my fingering technique and it is better......but still bothersome.
Ok two last points....make it three. Thanks to Jerry I was aware of a company called Neck Illusions that make fret board stick on coverings, with 63 different patterns for ukulele. Fantastic product and company to deal with, highly recommended they are 10/10. This solved the fret visibility problem. Number 2 is I dont like the strap button on the top side of the upper bout, it neck dives. So I removed it, as it was just screwed into place and screwed it into the usual spot, treble side of the neck heel. Works a charm. Now for the big controversy, I now have this strung with a Fremont Soloist wound low G paired with D’Addario carbon tenor strings 3,2 &1. IT SOUNDS GREAT. The astute will notice the Aquila Red Low G in the last picture. That lasted a couple days, way too dull and thudding, I am just use to the sound of a wound low G. We will see if I get any fret wear. I might be playing this 30 minutes a week or less so I not too worried about it.
I got this Enya Nova as a Christmas present.......because I was curious from all the rave reviews and good YouTube sound samples. I do a lot of outdoor activities so figured this would be a durable candidate.
With the stock strings, which are soft and thin, it is loud and bright sounding for a plastic uke, in a good way. It is not dull, thuddy and tubby sounding. Build quality is excellent which has been my experience with other Enya products.
Playability......good news bad news. I love the slight radius fret board, intonation is good. I have a hard time with black frets on a black fret board, solution was found, see pictures below. My BIGGEST gripe is the width of the nut and string spacing. Nut width is 1-5/16"+ and string spacing is a very tight 31/32". Compared to any of my other ukes with a 1-3/8" nut width the string spacing is usually around 1-1/8". A difference of over an 1/8" is big and I was flubbing chords and muting string and getting buzzing. After two weeks I have adapted my fingering technique and it is better......but still bothersome.
Ok two last points....make it three. Thanks to Jerry I was aware of a company called Neck Illusions that make fret board stick on coverings, with 63 different patterns for ukulele. Fantastic product and company to deal with, highly recommended they are 10/10. This solved the fret visibility problem. Number 2 is I dont like the strap button on the top side of the upper bout, it neck dives. So I removed it, as it was just screwed into place and screwed it into the usual spot, treble side of the neck heel. Works a charm. Now for the big controversy, I now have this strung with a Fremont Soloist wound low G paired with D’Addario carbon tenor strings 3,2 &1. IT SOUNDS GREAT. The astute will notice the Aquila Red Low G in the last picture. That lasted a couple days, way too dull and thudding, I am just use to the sound of a wound low G. We will see if I get any fret wear. I might be playing this 30 minutes a week or less so I not too worried about it.
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