Arcy
Strummin' in the Rain
Last week I ordered a Kala Cedar Baritone in my sleep.
I thought I was trying to reduce the herd rather than increase it, but my subconscious disagrees. I honestly don't remember ordering this - I remember looking at the Kala clearance site somebody had linked here.
I'm blaming the Ambian - I had run out of my current medications and fell back on my previous Ambian prescription. I'm torn between scared and laughing on this one, but tossing the rest of the bottle so there isn't a next incident with actual consequences.
Anyway, the actual arrival wasn't a surprise - I had seen the order confirmation in my email, and I probably could have cancelled it since it took a few days to ship. However, this is a uke that was on my short list a year ago (it lost out to the Bonanza Homestead) and which I've still been tempted at for full price. Not worth fighting at the clearance price.
The first things I noticed upon opening it were:
Overall, the initial impressions are very good. It's even prettier in person than I'd thought from the pictures I'd seen. The wood is nice, the embellishments are clean and very well balanced. This is my first really glossy instrument, and that makes a very definite first impression. It's also my first slot-head. Love the look. Not sure I have an opinion one way or another as far as actual use.
The checklist was the big surprise. I expected this to be like the Kala's I'd gotten from big-box music shops: drop shipped and needing some work before they were really ready to play. All this one needed was tuning. The action at the first and 12th frets matched the promised specs, and according to both my normal target numbers and my fretting fingers that was in a good spot.
Sound-wise I like it quite a lot. It's very different from the walnut Bonanza, so I'm not at all stuck with two similar sounding instruments. I aim to take time with both of them tomorrow once the rain chases me inside [edit: It's now tomorrow - the network crashed on last night's post and I'm just now able to recover it now that the rain has chased me inside]
I have a fancy pickup (Double U0 with chorus, reverb, etc. from a previous Insomnia purchase, though that one without meds and with full consciousness) that was too deep for the Bonanza, so it might end up in this one.
The pickup's kind of ugly though, so this uke may be too pretty for it. It'll probably get a strap button, but may otherwise remain pristine. I will take off the paper protecting the strings [edit: ok, long since done] and likely change the strings, but since I hadn't planned this I didn't get replacement strings prepared.
I thought I was trying to reduce the herd rather than increase it, but my subconscious disagrees. I honestly don't remember ordering this - I remember looking at the Kala clearance site somebody had linked here.
I'm blaming the Ambian - I had run out of my current medications and fell back on my previous Ambian prescription. I'm torn between scared and laughing on this one, but tossing the rest of the bottle so there isn't a next incident with actual consequences.
Anyway, the actual arrival wasn't a surprise - I had seen the order confirmation in my email, and I probably could have cancelled it since it took a few days to ship. However, this is a uke that was on my short list a year ago (it lost out to the Bonanza Homestead) and which I've still been tempted at for full price. Not worth fighting at the clearance price.
The first things I noticed upon opening it were:
- GLOSSY!
- Interesting slips of paper - a warning that it probably wasn't in tune (duh) and QC checklist that sounded more like Sweetwater than from factory. No candy. I still have Haribos.
- OMG IT'S GLOSSY!
Overall, the initial impressions are very good. It's even prettier in person than I'd thought from the pictures I'd seen. The wood is nice, the embellishments are clean and very well balanced. This is my first really glossy instrument, and that makes a very definite first impression. It's also my first slot-head. Love the look. Not sure I have an opinion one way or another as far as actual use.
The checklist was the big surprise. I expected this to be like the Kala's I'd gotten from big-box music shops: drop shipped and needing some work before they were really ready to play. All this one needed was tuning. The action at the first and 12th frets matched the promised specs, and according to both my normal target numbers and my fretting fingers that was in a good spot.
Sound-wise I like it quite a lot. It's very different from the walnut Bonanza, so I'm not at all stuck with two similar sounding instruments. I aim to take time with both of them tomorrow once the rain chases me inside [edit: It's now tomorrow - the network crashed on last night's post and I'm just now able to recover it now that the rain has chased me inside]
I have a fancy pickup (Double U0 with chorus, reverb, etc. from a previous Insomnia purchase, though that one without meds and with full consciousness) that was too deep for the Bonanza, so it might end up in this one.
The pickup's kind of ugly though, so this uke may be too pretty for it. It'll probably get a strap button, but may otherwise remain pristine. I will take off the paper protecting the strings [edit: ok, long since done] and likely change the strings, but since I hadn't planned this I didn't get replacement strings prepared.
