Ukecaster
Well-known member
I haven't done an NUD for a while, but got this 2018 Elite 1MGH-T Doghair tenor in recently. I've had an Elite concert before, but never a tenor. I prefer wide specs at the nut for playing accuracy (old hands) and this one truly delivers, with 38mm nut, 32mm string spread at nut, and 46mm spread at the saddle. Very comfy neck, with super smooth fret ends. It is beautiful to look at, with simple appointments, and plays very easily for me. As mentioned by others previously, the Grover clone tuners are just ok, functional, but nowhere as smooth as Grovers, and the string posts are ridiculously tall, with hardly any string angle between nut and the posts. However, that doesn't seem to affect sound or playability, but UPTs would be a huge improvement. The stock Kala Transit gig bag is very nice also.
The sound is, as expected, lush, warm/full, strong and mid-focused. Good volume, and just keeps delivering under strong strumming. First impressions were good, but it REALLY came to life when I tuned down to Bb, what an incredible difference. It came with Martin M620 flouro strings, and some type of silvery wound low G. I replaced those with Fremont Blacklines in reentrant, which was an improvement, but put that same low G back on (barely got it back on, with only 1 wrap). This uke sounds really good in linear. My low-G uke to date has been my cedar top Cordoba 24T-CE, which I still like alot, but it can't match the rich, powerful sound of this Elite. I'll probably try some other strings eventually, LW and/or Uke Logics, looking for a tiny bit more high end sparkle.
All in all, a very sweet mahogany tenor. It's only been here about a week, so hoping it will continue to improve as it acclimates and settles in.
The sound is, as expected, lush, warm/full, strong and mid-focused. Good volume, and just keeps delivering under strong strumming. First impressions were good, but it REALLY came to life when I tuned down to Bb, what an incredible difference. It came with Martin M620 flouro strings, and some type of silvery wound low G. I replaced those with Fremont Blacklines in reentrant, which was an improvement, but put that same low G back on (barely got it back on, with only 1 wrap). This uke sounds really good in linear. My low-G uke to date has been my cedar top Cordoba 24T-CE, which I still like alot, but it can't match the rich, powerful sound of this Elite. I'll probably try some other strings eventually, LW and/or Uke Logics, looking for a tiny bit more high end sparkle.
All in all, a very sweet mahogany tenor. It's only been here about a week, so hoping it will continue to improve as it acclimates and settles in.
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