Favorite Cheap uke roll call

Your favorite cheap uke, priced $100.00 and under brand new. What's yours?

Mine is a Kmise laminate mahogany tenor, $43.00 from Amazon. I installed Ratio tuners. Surprisingly good sound, and the only uke I use Nylguts on. Nice slim neck, which I like. Standard 35mm nut. 27.5mm string spread, which I'd prefer a bit wider. Gotta learn how to cut a new nut myself.

HanoHano long neck soprano picked up for $85 in Honolulu. It has a very wide nut so is easy to play for beginners. Sounds almost as nice as my expensive solid ukes. Perfect for Kanikapila at the beach.

Kala KA-SLNG long neck laminate mahogany soprano - one of my first ukes, & still picked up & played 4 years later.

I have a Yellow Mahalo U30 I bought more than fifteen years ago. It needed the usual basic fettling and the result is a uke that sounds far better that it should. My favourite cheap uke is branded "Burks" and is a soprano bought direct from China on AliExpress - about US$30. It is made from that mysterious material HPL. It lives in the car and gets quite a bit of use. It is good to play and, in the confines of the car, the sound and volume are well on the right side of acceptable. Oh, and it looks like a proper musical instrument, too.

John Colter

Flight TUS-35LB. Currently $62 from Amazon. Other colours running under 50.

It's the only sub-$100 uke that I have no regrets or reservations about, and it's the one that rescued sopranos in my mind. Played well out of the box (good thing, since standard setup bits weren't adjustable - I think they are on current one). I really like the sound, even if it's not woody. It lives on my desk at work, and I'm kind of missing it while I shelter at home. I have no qualms recommending this one to anybody who asks.

Second place: Enya EUS-X1 Soprano. Currently $72 on Amazon. Rated "meh" for no particularly good reason. It's playable, and it sounds fine, but it just doesn't excite me. The appearance leaves me cold - The Facacia finish lands in the uncanny valley for me and just doesn't look quite right. I'd rather an HPL that reveled in its HPLness instead of trying to pretend it's wood. Can't get a Bonanza for under $100 though

Dishonorable mention to the Fender Venice - my first uke and very pretty to my eyes. Lovely Lake Placid Blue. Not so pretty to my ears. It played fine after setting up, but still didn't sound great. Currently loaned to a friend's daughter. She chose it over the Enya based on looks. She wasn't offered the Flight. That one's mine.

Just missing the cut: my Vorson FLPUK-2 LP solid-body electric. I love this guy. It's sitting next to my work-from-home desk plugged into a wee little Honeytone amp. It'd probably get first place, but it took work to set up and can't get an unqualified recommendation. The current pricing is $103 from Amazon, so just barely out of category for this thread today.

Enya EUS-X1 Soprano ($72 at Amazon) is my only cheap uke. I bought it because of a good review on gotaukulele.com and have been happy with it. It lays around the couch ready to grab and travels without worries. It's easy to play and has a good, balanced HPL sound.

I'm going now to buy the long neck version of the Flight soprano Arcy mentioned ($48 at Amazon). I'm curious and it's a cheap way to take care of my UAS for a while.

My $65 Makala concert that was my first uke. I was noodling around on it this morning in my easy chair. I play it a lot.

The kala 15s has been a long favorite of mine. I’ve bought many for $30 or less. Can’t beat them for the price. I have a Mahalo u-330 that I really like and the newer Hano Mahalos are pretty decent for the price. I haven’t been playing a ton lately but I am really embracing the cheap ukuleles!

I've had two of the soprano version and it's great. I'm thinking about my own answer.

Ukecaster said:

Your favorite cheap uke, priced $100.00 and under brand new. What's yours?

Mine is a Kmise laminate mahogany tenor, $43.00 from Amazon. I installed Ratio tuners. Surprisingly good sound, and the only uke I use Nylguts on. Nice slim neck, which I like. Standard 35mm nut. 27.5mm string spread, which I'd prefer a bit wider. Gotta learn how to cut a new nut myself.

View attachment 126057
View attachment 126058

Click to expand...

CB Gitty Bento box.....You do have to put it together and set it up yourself. $39.99 ...Even though I made mine 3 strings.. CEA...it's uke enough..

Enya Nova U.

Enya concert...can't remember the model number. Came with a good case and other accessories for about $50 on Amazon. It's the HPL mahogany one.

Flight TUS35 Also around $50.

The first one I mentioned is the only one I still have, but I like the others, especially for the price.

Honorable mention:
I also had a Kala something or another I got from MIM.. It was soprano...I think it was under $100..and pretty nice. Laminate mahogany.

Tanglewood TU-1. Standard laminate hog soprano but is an absolute sound cannon. Love it.

I own an Enya HPL and Flight TUSL and have tried my friend's Enya Nova. First 2 were about $45 and the last one was $70. I like the Flight TUSL the best. Enya Nova has a slightly harsher sound. Enya HPL is too quiet for playing in a group.

I've also tried some Kalas and Ohanas in this price range and thought the tone and volume were kind of limited. Certainly very playable for this price range, but not my first choice.

Another vote for the Flight TUSL-35. I bought it for camping, beach trips, etc. but like it so much that I play it every day. It has more volume than my solid-spruce top Ohana concert.

Makala Dolphin

I bought a Cahaya concert off Amazon. Slot head, solid African mahogany top back & sides. It’s actually a rather nice uke with decent tone. I had to do a bit of setup work but all in all it’s not too shabby and sounds very cool with Aquila reds in low G, especially.
The original price, brand new, with shipping, was $73 but as an Amazon Prime member, I got a $70 credit if I opened an Amazon debit card account. So I did it, and the uke cost me a whopping $13.

I like the Enya Nova (£79) and a cheap Kmise baritone KMU30B is also very good for the price (£55), but my favourite cheapo is my Donner DUT-3 (£50).

My favorite scale is concert, although I'll play anything (had the sopranissimo and the baritone out last night)

Flight TUSL-35 (Soprano with Concert Neck)
Enya Nova
Aklot AKC-23

Choirguy said:

My favorite scale is concert, although I'll play anything (had the sopranissimo and the baritone out last night)

Flight TUSL-35 (Soprano with Concert Neck)
Enya Nova
Aklot AKC-23

Click to expand...

I can't imagine the transition between those 2 sizes!

The one I just got to replace the Fluke I was not crazy about, an Aklot all bamboo tenor cutaway on which I replaced the nut and saddle with black ebony, added black and gold strap buttons to match the tuners, added D'Addario black strings and black beads on the ends to simplify installation. and black stick-on fret markers. Sounds and feels really good, $90 plus shipping.

---

This is Michael Kohan in Los Angeles, Beverly Grove near the Beverly Center
9 tenor cutaway ukes, 6 acoustic bass ukes, 12 solid body bass ukes, 14 mini electric bass guitars (Total: 41)

• Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children in hospital music therapy programs. www.theukc.org
• Member The CC Strummers: YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/CCStrummers/video, Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheCCStrummers

My 1930's Globe sopranino from Jake Wildwood that was $79. It was a cheapie in it's day, but has a sweet music box voice when tuned in CFAD.

New would be the Enya Nova U that was $69. I initially wasn't smitten with it because of the long length neck and thin body, but I really like it now.