First time buyer - Kala, Alvarez, Takamine?

amecily

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Hey everyone,

I'm an experienced guitar player (electric and acoustic), but I love the sound of the ukulele and I'm keen to get into it. I live in South Africa, so we don't have a huge variety to choose from. I might use it for some casual gigs (weddings, events for friends), but would prefer to mic it up so not too worried about a pick-up. Budget around $200 (or R3500 here :)).

I'd love solid wood, or solid-wood top, but struggling to find reasonable prices here (or any good options at all). And I think I'd like a concert size. I've narrowed it down to three decent-looking options. Which one would be best?

Alvarez AU70WC Artist Series
https://www.harrygreenmusicworld.co...rez-au70wc-concert-uke?variant=19136433356862

Kala satin mahogany concert
https://www.harrygreenmusicworld.co...n-mahogany-concert-w-eq?variant=1090153381907

Takamine EGUC1 Mahogany conert
https://www.mitechdirect.com/product/takamine-eguc1-mahogany-mahogany-concert/

Thanks,
Amy
 
Thanks for the reply. Is the Kala I posted above decent though? I can’t find many Kala options here so I’m wondering whether the specs of the Alvarez or the Takamine are better than that specific Kala?
 
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I'm not a musician and just beginning on the uke. I did a lot of research in my price range and settled with a Kala KA-SMHCE-E and I've been very pleased with it. i know that Alvarez & Takamine make nice and affordable guitars, just like what I read and heard on the Kala brand. The particular model I ended up with feels good too.:cool:
 
Yeah, Kala is great for the bucks but if you can't find one that kinda narrows it down to Alvarez and Takamine! I've seen a lot of nice ukuleles made by guitar companies—Martin and Asturias come to mind. I used to be a Takamine dealer and carried their G series ukuleles for many years. Not great sounding but okay for plywood. The one thing I liked about the Takamine design was the beefy neck and wide fingerboard. Very comfy for guitar players albeit ukulele players might complain that they're too big. We keep a couple of the Takamine GUT1 tenors in our office to loan to students—tough as nails and have been dropped without damage many times.
 
Hi Amy,

I am also from South Africa. Which province are you from? I am from Gauteng but apparently there are some music stores around the Western Cape with better ukulele options. Lock-down has made it difficult to get around to physical music stores closer to me. Bought my first ukulele online from takealot about 3 weeks ago and it is not too bad but also looking for better options?
 
As an old guitar player, and now a uke player, here's my thoughts: I would prefer a Kala over a guitar-maker's uke like Takamine or Alvarez. Reason being that I never liked their budget acoustic guitars, so I don't have much faith in an inexpensive uke from them (I did, however, like Takamine's high end acoustics). Kala makes some very nice ukes, but I would try to budget maybe a hundred dollars more and look to get something a little better, with a solid wood top. If you don't need electronics, as you're going to mic it up, then don't use your budget on a uke with it because you are paying for that with a lesser quality uke. A Spruce top might be better as it will project more and have more presence, and Kala makes some sweet cedar tops too. But I don't gig so I'm not familiar with your needs there. I just think that no matter what your budget, you should get the best sounding uke possible. Kala does ship direct, but consider that a good setup is often very critical to the playability of budget ukes. Gotaukulele.com has a bunch of great reviews, and most good uke shops ship worldwide. Check out the Ukulele Site (great sound videos!), Mim's, Southern Ukulele Store - there are several other really good uke specialty shops, and possibly even our Marketplace here as it's a good source for some nice, lightly used ukes. Good luck!
 
Happy Kala owner here. Two tenors with a Ubass on the way. My concert ukes are different brands that I would not recommend based on your needs.

My two tenors, one solid mahogany and the other a solid top cedar both sound great. I sold a laminate Kala a while back - it did not sound any where near as good as either of these two.

You will want, IMO, to restring with something like worth browns to bring out the best sound. More importantly though, it will likely need some setup work. The action can be quite high at both the nut and saddle.
 
I'm also not primarily a uke player and coming to ukuleles mostly from guitars (and bass guitars). I would offer this advice: Don't get hung up on tone or fancy wood choices, at least not for your first instrument. Especially if you'll be gigging it mic'd, since at that point your tone is as much in the electronics as it is in the instrument. Focus on playability and feel. Coming from a guitar, the uke's fretboard and neck are going to feel tiny. You may find that a beefier neck feels better to you. Or maybe a tiny neck will feel like a relief! You may also need to play with string choices to get something with tension that feels OK with you. Only way to know these things is to try some different choices and see - and if it will be tough for you to do this before buying, you may just be taking shots in the dark after all - but at least you can consider that when looking at reviews or reading feedback online.

As a corollary to that, consider return policies and/or resale value as part of your choice - if you buy an instrument that doesn't resale well and the shop doesn't have a good return policy, you may be stuck! But if you buy something that sells well on the used market and/or from a shop that is generous with returns, you can always swap for something else if you don't like it.
 
Hi there!

I learned how to play on that Kala mahogany satin, in a concert size. It's an excellent beginners uke, for sure. I then moved up to a SSTU travel tenor. Neither are awesome sounding, to be fair, but that travel tenor sounds amazing compared to the plywood Kalas, and I love how light and easy to play it is... Plus it's available with a good quality pickup in all sizes (no Baritone). Here in America it can be had for about $250 w/ pickup included.

That said, once I stepped up again to a "true" solid top uke, my Kala travel became my beach uke and my Satin Mahogany my loaner. The Pono never leaves the house!

Enjoy!

Bill
 
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