Hi all. Just wanted to share some love of a lesser-known brand L.Luthier (Malaysia). I pick up L.Luither Le Koa tenor ukulele from reverb a couple of weeks ago. The brand was pretty unknown to me but I have been eyeballing it for a while due to its really great price for a Koa ukulele with a ton of bells and whistles (binding, purfling, soundport, gloss with satin neck). The uke has a really cool design with an off-centered soundhole (looks very similar to the Kanile'a D series). And larger wider body tenor. I had found only 1 sound sample on youtube but it sounded like it had some good volume, nice tone, and was very resonant.
What made me pull the trigger was I chatted with another UU member that picked up a hog version (mahogany) and he loved it. Decided to pull the trigger and took about a week to get from Malaysia. Ya getting stuff from overseas can be nerve-racking and I wasn't sure how to return it if I didn't like it.
When I got the uke my initial thoughts were this is beautiful. It has some curly koa and nice sap on the back and front of the uke. The uke has curly maple bindings around the body and on the sides of the fretboard. Something that the vendor didn't list was that the uke has an active pick (piezo and mic). Big win! The uke is a little bit heavier than my other ukes. Not sure if it's the build or maybe the combination of the build plus the electronics. The action was a little bit high so I ended up sanding down the saddle a bit to drop it.
As far as sound. The uke sounded good but tight right out of the box. I try not to jump to conclusions with sound because it's rare that I am amazed right when I get a uke (with the exception of my MoonBird Cedar top). I swapped out the savarez strings with Joel's uke logic soft tension low g strings. After playing it for a couple of weeks it really has begun to sing. The uke has very good tone with nice resonance. Sounds really good in the mids (what is expected from koa). The volume is also very good.
For the money, this is a very good uke, especially if you are looking for a quality koa uke for less than $800 (maybe less because they take offers on reverb.com).
thought I would give L.Luthier some love and share my thoughts with the UU community. I tried to share my thoughts with my wife but she was not impressed that I had bought another ukulele. lol
What made me pull the trigger was I chatted with another UU member that picked up a hog version (mahogany) and he loved it. Decided to pull the trigger and took about a week to get from Malaysia. Ya getting stuff from overseas can be nerve-racking and I wasn't sure how to return it if I didn't like it.
When I got the uke my initial thoughts were this is beautiful. It has some curly koa and nice sap on the back and front of the uke. The uke has curly maple bindings around the body and on the sides of the fretboard. Something that the vendor didn't list was that the uke has an active pick (piezo and mic). Big win! The uke is a little bit heavier than my other ukes. Not sure if it's the build or maybe the combination of the build plus the electronics. The action was a little bit high so I ended up sanding down the saddle a bit to drop it.
As far as sound. The uke sounded good but tight right out of the box. I try not to jump to conclusions with sound because it's rare that I am amazed right when I get a uke (with the exception of my MoonBird Cedar top). I swapped out the savarez strings with Joel's uke logic soft tension low g strings. After playing it for a couple of weeks it really has begun to sing. The uke has very good tone with nice resonance. Sounds really good in the mids (what is expected from koa). The volume is also very good.
For the money, this is a very good uke, especially if you are looking for a quality koa uke for less than $800 (maybe less because they take offers on reverb.com).
thought I would give L.Luthier some love and share my thoughts with the UU community. I tried to share my thoughts with my wife but she was not impressed that I had bought another ukulele. lol
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