Rebel or Romero or something else?

So, after selling three of my ukuleles, my UAS is on full overdrive and I feel I'm ready for my next uke. I have a few more or less high-tier ukes and I'm not seeing anything interesting at that end currently, so I'm looking at a few different mid-tier ukes instead.

I've been eyeing the Rebel ukes for some time now, so much so that I actually made a separate thread regarding them a month or two ago. I really like how they look and sound but my issue was (and still is) that they seem a bit too similar to KoAloha ukes. I have a KoAloha KSM-00 so I'm not quite sure if the Rebels really offer anything substantially different than the KSM-00. I'm mostly interested in the Double Creme soprano, and after watching the most recent (at the time of posting) Youtube video by the Southern Ukulele Store about the fantastic looking and sounding Kanile'a mango ukes, I though that I'd give mango a chance as a tone wood. Not quite sure about whether a mango soprano specifically would differ that much from a koa soprano as mango, I believe, tends to be a bit more warmer sounding which isn't really the most typical trait of a soprano uke, but I'm still very intrigued. I've no reservations about the build quality of the Rebel ukes, just wondering whether mango would give a sufficiently different sound to koa. Listening to video/audio samples is tricky because they rarely capture the lower end of the sound spectrum of an instrument well enough.

The other uke I've been interested in is the Romero Creations XS Soprano. This one would definitely be different from what I already have. All of my ukes are the traditional double bout shape and also tuned high G. Not that I couldn't change the strings to low G on any of my current ukes, but I kinda like the idea of getting a uke that's specifically designed for low G. I also love the boat paddle shape and the fact that the overall length of the XS Soprano is even smaller than most soprano ukes. I've been mostly looking at the koa model but I could of course get one made of mango so I could kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. I do like the ST Concert as well as the bigger body size would bring more warmth to the tone (I think warmth regarding tone is something I'm after currently) but I would probably prefer the soprano just because I like the tiny size so much.

The Rebel and Romero are almost exactly the same price so money isn't really a factor here. Any comments and recommendations regarding these ukes would be highly appreciated. You could of course suggest a completely different uke. I mostly play soprano but I do dabble in concert occasionally. Or you could just talk me out of getting either, anything goes really.

Rebel by far.
i have several Romero’s, I got rid of them all
Rebels are amazing ukuleles at incredible price they all sound great and the necks are far better than the Romeros
They tend to be a little more plain than the Romero’s but you can’t beat them for sound and play ability

My favorite Rebel was super different from a KoAloha because it was a spruce-top tenor that had a tiny offset sound hole. It sounded crazy good! Didn’t feel bad either!

My Romero mahogany concert from HMS is one of my favorites and my #1 favorite concert that I keep strung with a low-g. It plays great , has great intonation, and has almost a tenor sound. It's the one that on a past HMS podcast you can hear Andrew saying it's one of his favorites and Corey, after playing it and listening to the tenor sound in the concert scale holds it up, looks at it, laughs and says "That's cheating." I liked it enough to find and buy the soprano version (same Mahogany Low G as the concert) which is good and also has its own sound, but for me not as great as the Romero concert.

You probably noticed on this forum that people like their tiny tenors and replicas. The only negative I've seen here was someone mentioning that older Vietnamese ukes seemed to be made with wood that wasn't dried properly.

It seems that every brand you mentioned has some folks who will tell you that brand is their favorite. Good luck with your choice.

eyedoc said:

Rebel by far.
i have several Romero’s, I got rid of them all
Rebels are amazing ukuleles at incredible price they all sound great and the necks are far better than the Romeros
They tend to be a little more plain than the Romero’s but you can’t beat them for sound and play ability

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Why did you buy more than one if you didn't like any of them? Did anything happen to the ukes over time? Did you decide on a different sound? Was it the neck shape?

I am happy with owning two of them out of my baker's dozen of ukes, but am curious if I should be on the lookout for anything.

I tried different models to see if I could make peace with them: Grand Tenor, Replica. Same complaint about the neck and action. Also I prefer 14 frets to the body as a chord-melody player....very hard to bar the 10th fret on a 12 fret to the body Uke.

I had inquired about some sopranos with Mim a few months back. I was exchanging an inexpensive soprano I didn't like, and knew I wanted something better. Among the ones I asked her opinion on was a Rebel, a Koaloha Opio, a Kiwaya and a Martin S1. Her recommendation - "The Opio or The Rebel hands down! The Opio is Loud, expressive, crisp and resonant. The Rebel will be crisp but warm and rich and resonant." I would've gone with the Rebel, I think, though I'm not sure it would've been the Double Creme. My point on this is that Mim discerned a definite difference between the Koaloha Opio and the Rebel.

I ended up with some Ponos for the time being.

I have a mango Rebel and mango Romero. Overall, I prefer the Rebel to the Romero, but I still like the Romero because of its unique features, with its very wide fretboard and guitar-like sustain. It's like a small classical guitar. But mine's the Replica/Signature, and it's been a while since I tried the other Romero models, so it's tough to say for those. I do recall not liking the unusual shape or the headstock. But if I wanted a really small, high quality soprano, the XS Soprano would be up there.

I like mango, but for me it ranks behind koa, spruce, and myrtle. These days I tend to prefer bright and loud ukes. But mango does have a sweet, if somewhat softer, tone.

I think for Romeros, the wood makes less of a difference. Maybe I would have liked a spruce Replica better, but the sound difference seems really minimal. On the other hand, for Rebels, the sound difference is more noticeable, and given the choice, I'd probably choose the spruce over the mango. Still, I'm not sure I'd want both, and I'm actually thinking about replacing my mango Rebel with a KoAloha uke. I love my mango Rebel, but I guess for me it might be too much overlap if I got a KoAloha. We'll see.

Cadia mentioned Pono, I think one of the woods they're better at is mango. My one other mango uke is a Pono pineapple. I don't love the neck, and I think the volume isn't as loud as I'd like, but it has an incredible tone.

I would say rebel by far. I have a double cream mango (super concert) and a ktm-00 and they're completely different. Granted, those are different body sizes. But the mango is much more mellow, not to the point of being muddy but definitely a smooth operator. I really love the fretboard on it too, super fast. By comparison, the ktm is a little sharper, the strings come through individually in a little bit of a clear way. Not doing the differences justice but its there. I ended up putting a low g on the rebel and its become my default jazz/blues player and honestly gets more time than the ktm.

Ed1 said:

(...) The only negative I've seen here was someone mentioning that older Vietnamese ukes seemed to be made with wood that wasn't dried properly.

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Having been interested in ukulele for over a decade and following the rise of Romero Creations from the very start, I have never heard that complaint about the Vietnamese made Romero Creations models. Could it be that you are confusing this with the story about the early KoAloha Opio (or back then: KoAlana) models from Thailand that had several reports of cracking? Or to Bruce Wei's instruments from Vietnam that were well known for this problem?

snowdenn said:

I have a mango Rebel and mango Romero. Overall, I prefer the Rebel to the Romero, but I still like the Romero because of its unique features, with its very wide fretboard and guitar-like sustain. It's like a small classical guitar. But mine's the Replica/Signature, and it's been a while since I tried the other Romero models, so it's tough to say for those. I do recall not liking the unusual shape or the headstock. But if I wanted a really small, high quality soprano, the XS Soprano would be up there.

I like mango, but for me it ranks behind koa, spruce, and myrtle. These days I tend to prefer bright and loud ukes. But mango does have a sweet, if somewhat softer, tone.

I think for Romeros, the wood makes less of a difference. Maybe I would have liked a spruce Replica better, but the sound difference seems really minimal. On the other hand, for Rebels, the sound difference is more noticeable, and given the choice, I'd probably choose the spruce over the mango. Still, I'm not sure I'd want both, and I'm actually thinking about replacing my mango Rebel with a KoAloha uke. I love my mango Rebel, but I guess for me it might be too much overlap if I got a KoAloha. We'll see.

Cadia mentioned Pono, I think one of the woods they're better at is mango. My one other mango uke is a Pono pineapple. I don't love the neck, and I think the volume isn't as loud as I'd like, but it has an incredible tone.

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To me the Rebels seem just a tad better built but I do really like the quirkiness of the XS Soprano or the other ones with the tiny tenor body. I generally prefer koa over mango as well but I already have two koa ukes so that's why I'm looking for something different. I too have read that the tone wood on Romeros makes less of a difference. I know a really good speciality uke shop who sells all the tiny tenor models and the shop owner has described the difference between mango and koa on the Romeros to be minimal, and sometimes the mango model might even sound brighter than the koa model. That's why I would probably go for the koa XS Soprano because I doubt I'd get the typical mango sound from a Romero uke. Argh, such a difficult decision.

Muybien04 said:

I would say rebel by far. I have a double cream mango (super concert) and a ktm-00 and they're completely different. Granted, those are different body sizes. But the mango is much more mellow, not to the point of being muddy but definitely a smooth operator. I really love the fretboard on it too, super fast. By comparison, the ktm is a little sharper, the strings come through individually in a little bit of a clear way. Not doing the differences justice but its there. I ended up putting a low g on the rebel and its become my default jazz/blues player and honestly gets more time than the ktm.

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Thank you for the comment. Experiences like these are the reason why I'm looking at mango ukes. I'm guessing the tone wood would make less of a difference for a soprano sized uke but I'm hoping there's enough of a difference in sound. That's why I'm currently probably leaning towards the Rebel at this time. Playability-wise, I've already learned that the Rebels are remarkably similar to KoAloha (hardly surprising) so no worries there.

eyedoc said:

... ...Also I prefer 14 frets to the body as a chord-melody player....very hard to bar the 10th fret on a 12 fret to the body Uke.

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In general, I like 12-frets-to-body because that puts the bridge very near to the lower bout's sweet spot. My 12th fret ukes (none of them Romeros) are all cutaways so doing a 10th fret barre is no problema.

As to Romeros --- my Romero Grand Tenor (a 14 fret-to-body) is my absolute favorite ukulele -- its slightly oversized body & reverse fan bracing produce amazing sustain, dynamic range, & resonance.