Kala KA-15S Soprano Ukulele

I had those giant tuner knobs on my KA-SLNG. It was the one detail I detested. The concert and tenor had little black knobs, so I'm pretty sure they put those monsters on the sopranos so you'd eventually notice and want to upgrade to something nicer.
 
Thank you for the review which I thought very fair - it’s also nice to hear what a well set-up version can sound like in capable hands too. It was very interesting too to hear about sound spectrum. I like my Ukes to have a good balanced Bass response rather than to be overly biased towards the higher notes. To me Sopranos should be broad ability musical instruments - ideally melodic - rather than (for want of better expression) primarily shrill percussive sound boxes that cut through other sounds, but ideas of what a Soprano should sound like vary.

I have both a Kala KA-P and KA-S, both have been with me for some years and they are (IMHO) close in build to the KA-15S. As far as I can see the KA15-S is a stripped back version of the KA-S which allows Kala to compete at two price points, I’m generally ‘tight fisted’ but if someone can afford then to my mind the KA-S’s additional features are worth the additional spend. I note that the Uke that you played was well set-up by the previous owner and fitted with custom strings, similar work has made an enormous difference to my two Kala’s - buyers of new Ukes should note that their Ukes will probably not sound as well as yours did. I have also fitted bone nuts and saddles to mine and spaced out the strings at the nut; the strings that I use (my preference) are Martin M600’s and as alternatives an acquaintance is delighted with Worth BM’s on their KA-15S and I found regular Fremont Blacklines to be worth fitting too. My KA-S now punches well above its price point - the more I play it the better it sounds too - and I suspect that a similarly re-worked KA-15S would similarly benefit. My KA-P was bought several years before my KA-S, both are a delight to play, by a quite small margin I prefer the S model (with, to my ears, its marginally greater bass response) to be the P.

Personally I’d prefer friction tuners on those Ukes of mine (it’s a personal preference, at some point I might fit some and unlike the vast majority of people I don’t struggle with friction tuners); the buttons on the supplied tuners are perhaps on the big side but for me their size is barely even a minor issue. There are numbers inside of my Kalas that whilst not serial numbers do, IIRC, relate to month and year of manufacture. Somewhere here on UU there’s a thread about dating Kalas.
 
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I just got one of these for $24! you can't even buy the nubone saddle and nut for that price. It is pretty amazing out of the box, but I reckon I just got lucky- frets are very smooth (really good, nothing remotely sharp or even sticking out), action is good as well (0.75 and 2.5 mm). It has nickel frets (an update?) and a strap button (already removed). The calipers say 35 mm nut with 27.6 mm string spacing. No kerfing inside, notched or otherwise, nothing! Sounds like a ukulele… a wood one (so tired of plastic ukes). I’m gonna use it as a cheap traveler (stuff in the carry-on backpack, no bag/no case beater). As you can see it's the newer ugly black version and the “satin” finish has a good bit of sheen to it. It will either be slowly covered by stickers acquired traveling or maybe given away at a destination or along the way. I'm pleased but also kinda disappointed as I was expecting to do some fret work on it... lol.

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Just looked on eBay: 4 available for under $40, S+H included.

I've bought a few of these for my students... very consistent, playable, and durable. I do sand the frets a bit usually when I receive them, and soften the lower corner of the nut a bit, but they are generally pretty good and ready to play. Action is a bit high, it's true, but since most beginners play in the first position it's not really a problem...
 
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