Plastic Ukes...

[bento]

Hello. I was wondering if you guys have experience or recommendations with plastic ukes. I'm kind of an outdoors person, and I wanna take something a bit durable and relatively inexpensive for when I'm overnight hiking and camping. I'm also hesitant to bring it to the beach because of the sand and water. Thanks in advance!

[maddogsauce]

Personally, I like the Outdoor Ukuleles for a plastic uke. Kala Waterman is a toy, Enya Nova is alright and probably the best value, but the Outdoor is going to have the best feel and sound in my opinion. I've also read good things about the Lava ukes, but they're spendy for plastic and I really don't care for the Apple*esque look to them and their accessories.

[maddogsauce]

If you like sopranos, Synergy is very competitive with their full carbon fiber soprano, and i prefer my carbon fiber instruments to plastic.

[Brad Bordessa]

Hard to beat the Outdoor Ukulele. Mine has been strapped on the outside of my backpack through four foreign countries, lived on the floor of every plane ride to get there, been dropped, kicked, smashed, inundated by salt air/water (tuners are a little crunchy and rusty now, but can't hardly blame them), and lived in the back seat/floor of my very messy car at all other times. Two of my tuner buttons have fallen off, but I think they changed the tuner style on new models. It just works. Any other uke I would have had to buy three or four times over by now, I'm sure.

[jer]

I'm not sure what your definition of inexpensive is. That said, I can 2nd the Outdoor Ukulele as well as Enya Nova.
I've had both. I admit both were just house players that were taken care of...so I can't speak personally about durability (What Brad said there should be enough) but they are both solid instruments to play just in general.

[Uncle Rod Higuchi]

I’ll add my vote for the Outdoor Ukulele.
Good design, durable materials and construction, good sound quality,
Ease of use and carefree functionality.
Next to a full Carbon Fiber Ukulele (SynergyInstruments.com), the Outdoor
Polycarbonate ukuleles are great for affordable and durable instruments.

Keep uke’in’,

[ukulelekarcsi]

Fleas and Flukes can take a beating much better, but because their tops are laminate they're not as waterproof and they're slightly heavier than the full-plastic ones mentioned above. Sylvain Enjoubaut (www.ukulele-motu.fr) makes some great unbreakable, waterproof ukuleles from marine-grade laminates at a very good price.

[Dada]

I think in terms of value for money, you can't beat the Flight TUS or TUSL. Been recommending this as a beginner instrument, because it can be used as a great beater/travel uke once an upgrade is in order.

[badhabits]

only real problem with outdoor (not counting sound preferences) is no concert size. for flea/fluke and flights, their concert scale is a little long at 15.5". also if the frets are not painted they can sometimes be hard to see.

[Graham Greenbag]

Sylvain Enjoubaut (www.ukulele-motu.fr) makes some great unbreakable, waterproof ukuleles from marine-grade laminates at a very good price.

Not seen those before and I wish that the site was in English ... or that I also spoke French.

I know that the OP asked about plastic instruments but wish that the environmental aspect had been considered too.

A painted wooden Uke can be surprisingly durable and sound at least as good as a plastic one. Something made of wood is recycle-able (into ash if nothing else), potentially tougher than a lot of plastics and more repairable than a lot of plastics. As far as I know plastic Ukes aren’t recyclable and whilst some are tough their repairability is questionable. Outdoor brand Ukes aren’t cheap ($125 and upwards) and you typically don’t see them for sale second hand, in comparison basic wood Ukes are often well priced and second hand ones can be really cheap. Sound wise it all depends on what you buy (there’s some stuff to avoid out there and I tend to stick with normally respected brands like Makala and Ohana); I’ve found that cheap wooden Ukes can give a perfectly practical sound - which I suppose is one of the objectives.