Cordoba Protégé U1MS Soprano Ukulele

A few weeks ago, Musician's Friend offered this ukulele for $30. Knowing its normal price, I had to buy one.

Ultimately: not too impressed. For a ukulele that should be on par with the Kala KA-15 series, it sounds good but has a scruffy build inside and out. It isn't a ukulele to be avoided...but I'm not sure I would spend the $79 asking price that is currently out there on the internet.

I'll post the One Minute Review followed by my much longer UkeGuide review.

I looked at the Protege Concert - very similar build, back in 2018. Similarly unimpressed and not comparable with similar priced Kala's etc.

To be honest, I am never really impressed by ANY Cordoba i've seen..

Where did you get that tuner? it sure would come in handy when we have to tune 30+ ukuleles for a beginner class!

Right Baz, I started with a Cordoba concert uke, I was very underwhelmed. I finally sold it for half what I paid for it. I think they should stick to building guitars.

bazmaz said:

To be honest, I am never really impressed by ANY Cordoba i've seen..

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Nickie said:

I think they should stick to building guitars.

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I have never tried a Cordoba uke, but I was fairly impressed with the C1m 1/4-size guitar as a baritone guilele. I sold it after getting a custom Jupiter to replace it. It's laminate so not the most complex tone and a tad on the quiet side, but overall quite pleasant. I think it's the best (only?) 19" scale guilele on the market.

Nickie said:

Where did you get that tuner? it sure would come in handy when we have to tune 30+ ukuleles for a beginner class!

Right Baz, I started with a Cordoba concert uke, I was very underwhelmed. I finally sold it for half what I paid for it. I think they should stick to building guitars.

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The tuner is a Jowoom Smart Tuner. I received one for review purpose, then bought 2 for my (previous)school, then received an updated model based on my review, and then last year received yet a further updated model. The others had been left at my previous school, so having the latest T2 was a blessing.

The other product on the market like the Jowoom is the Roadie tuner. I also bought (nothing given for review) 2 of the Roadie Tuners (at one point I was dealing with 120 ukuleles at the school i was at, and students helped me tune). Roadie's working on generation 3 of their tuner.

I like the Jowoom a lot--I like the size, weight, and battery life...as well as the automatic mode. I can put it on any string under "uke" tuning, and then play a note, and it will tune the ukulele to the nearest note. This isn't so helpful when you first string a ukulele...but once things start to settle, it's a big help.

I can tune by ear (with a reference pitch) or use a clip on tuner (or an app), but this is just faster and requires no special thought.

Oh...and the Jowoom is significantly less than the Roadie.

I had a concert Cordoba which was just okay and I came very close to buying a 23T back in the day when I had to have a tenor, but I really like my cedar top baritone. But then maybe Cordobas get better when they get bigger, the whole guitar thing.

Ukecaster said:

How about the 30 Series tenors? All solid woods (mahogany, acacia, etc), with wide necks. I'd expect those to sound better than the lesser Cordobas. Although I've never played a 30 Series, I've seen used ones for around $200.00.

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I wondered about those too. Weren't they designed by or with Pepe Romero?