Anyone Tried Kremona Ukuleles?

I have a couple of these and have been impressed. I've searched the forum and can't find much reaction elsewhere (although I see Bill Mc had some experience). I just wondered if anyone had tried them?

They're new to the UK but looking online there is much more presence in the US I notice, so perhaps there are some Kremona players out there?

The two models I have are the Coco, which looks stunning, and the Mari, which looks a lot more plain but is cheaper and sounds just as good to my ear. The nut is quite wide which I think led Bill to have some issue with the string spacing, but maybe my style of playing is different as I didn't notice that. I did notice the fact I could get my big fingers into the right place for barre chords though!

Never heard of them, but they look pretty cool.

I haven't played an Kremona/Orpheus Valley ukeleles, but have played several of their classical guitars. Most of them sound fine, but workmanship is hit or miss. Some had action that was a mile high, with zero saddle left to lower it. I was truly tempted to buy one that had great action, but the neck appeared to have been seriously gouged while being shaped, and then sanded flat to try to make it look a little better. Other classical guitarists have reported the same findings to me, but I've also heard of people finding specimens that were just fine.

FrankB said:

I haven't played an Kremona/Orpheus Valley ukeleles, but have played several of their classical guitars. Most of them sound fine, but workmanship is hit or miss. Some had action that was a mile high, with zero saddle left to lower it. I was truly tempted to buy one that had great action, but the neck appeared to have been seriously gouged while being shaped, and then sanded flat to try to make it look a little better. Other classical guitarists have reported the same findings to me, but I've also heard of people finding specimens that were just fine.

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I've seen only about 6 of their instruments so far and all have been perfect - but I'll certainly ask our technicians to keep a sharp eye...

Came quite close. Actually, I bought and paid for a Mari and, when the dealer offered to swap out to new strings (to add a low G), we ended up with a buzz (sounded like kerfing) that would not go away no matter what we tried.

The dealer tried to get another one from his supplier, but they were out of stock. I ended up getting the Pono ATCD which had been more expensive and sounded a bit warmer. Since this was going to be my first uke, I had originally decided to get the less expensive of the two finalist ukes that I had tried out that afternoon. Still think that a buzz free Kremona would have been a fine player.

OmegaMatt said:

I've seen only about 6 of their instruments so far and all have been perfect - but I'll certainly ask our technicians to keep a sharp eye...

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Hi Matt,
My experience with Kremona guitars was about 5-6 years ago, and they probably improved workmanship since then. Actually, I started playing them when they first hit the USA. Kremona has been making bowed instruments for decades, and maybe they needed to adjust to guitars....for whatever reason. Gryphon Stringed Instruments carries Kremo a guitars, but they were sending a lot back 5-6 years ago, and offering only the properly built instruments.