Enya Nova U Carbon Travel Ukulele - REVIEWED

bazmaz

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I've been waiting for this one. Awesome review, Baz! I'm looking forward to getting my hands on one after the release in the USA.
 
Addeed a stop press to the review - they are available to the US now direct from Enya with free shipping. I also believe they will be on Amazon USA next month.
 
Yes from https://www.enya-music.com/ for USA buyers out of their new office/distribution in Texas.
Pre-order is up. One of the USA reps told me mid-October is the estimated shipping date for us in the USA from there.

That uke really sounds good in your hands! I love the looks of it too. I always liked the LP shape for guitars and like it with this uke too.
 
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Looks cool, but the string spread of only 25mm on the 35mm nut would put me off, man, that's tight! (see Baz's pic below). If they widened the string spread to 29-30mm, it would be so much more playable, at least for me.

For reference, the Outdoor ukes I've had were:

Soprano: 35mm nut, 29mm string spread at nut
Tenor: 38mm nut, 29.5mm string spread at nut

Enya Nova.JPG
 
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That was immediately my worry, and usually I find those dimensions unplayable. However....

Not sure it is the neck material, the shallower back or the radius, but... I actually found it really playable. Totally contrary to my usual findings. Not sure why, but I could play this all day.
 
I thought it would be easy to order once reviewed. Now to decide color and with or without pickup.....
 
I didn't even know a pickup was an option!!
 
Blimey. I was expecting a decent score after (and even before) watching the video, but a nine?! To be fair, at least in the video it sounded a lot more vibrant and jangly than any plastic uke I've ever heard, so maybe I shouldn't be that surprised. Looks the part as well, and I actually really like the gold tuners and strap buttons as well. Gives the uke some contrast which I like very much. Nice review, as always!
 
As with a lot of my reviews, due to the way the four score parts work, certain areas can drag a score up and look a bit strange. With this one, no, clearly it's not a high end wooden uke, but it is a hundred quid for something that works very well - so the value for money score element helped bring the score up! I also adore the looks (the subjective bit) which helped. The construction and sound ones are less in the mix which I thought was fair.

I wouldn't say my scoring was perfect, but it is what it is!
 
As with a lot of my reviews, due to the way the four score parts work, certain areas can drag a score up and look a bit strange. With this one, no, clearly it's not a high end wooden uke, but it is a hundred quid for something that works very well - so the value for money score element helped bring the score up! I also adore the looks (the subjective bit) which helped. The construction and sound ones are less in the mix which I thought was fair.

I wouldn't say my scoring was perfect, but it is what it is!

I was thinking the exact same basically. The value for money does indeed inflate the score, but then again I can easily see why it is great value for money. If I were scoring ukes myself I would probably obsess about the scores I gave to the point of insanity, because when you condense a review into a number anyone can easily just look at the numbers and have a go at you because you gave a plastic uke a better score than a huge number of wooden ukes. And just to clarify, I'm not one of those people and don't care about other people's scores that much. I can look at scores or whatever in more isolation and see that, e.g., when it comes to plastic ukes specifically, this one shines way above most others but not necessarily above most wooden ukes, despite the score. As I said, great review. :)
 
Thanks for great review Baz. I’m wondering what the weight is of this ukulele? Second, love the moulded gig bag.
This Uke is a prime candidate for Graphtech planetary tunes. Light weight, black which would work on all colours and planetary 6-1. Seems like a good fit. I’m in Canada, wish that free shipping applied to North American. I’d give one a spi. Even though I’m a tenor guy. Looks to be a great travel, take anywhere Uke.
 
I'm curious about the weight too. I'm actually considering getting one, to play at the Shriner's hospital. We can't give a wooden uke to a kid to try, so we have 2 Kala Watermans.
But the Watermans, Ugh! I really hate them. We loaned one to a grownup there today, he had never played an ukulele, so that was his 1st impression. I kinda felt bad about it, but I would have been proud to hand him the Enya.
 
Great review.

Hope they induce more people to take up playing a Uke, the price and no doubt the full kit will be attractive.
 
Thanks for great review Baz. I’m wondering what the weight is of this ukulele? Second, love the moulded gig bag.
This Uke is a prime candidate for Graphtech planetary tunes. Light weight, black which would work on all colours and planetary 6-1. Seems like a good fit. I’m in Canada, wish that free shipping applied to North American. I’d give one a spi. Even though I’m a tenor guy. Looks to be a great travel, take anywhere Uke.

Great review Baz, it is much appreciated.

I am a fan of radius fretboards and was glad to hear this has one. I own two Enya X1 ukes, a pineapple and a concert, well made, good playing, fun ukes. I actually followed the link and put one in the cart to find out shipping to Canada was $59.00. I will wait for them to make it to Amazon, that’s where I bought my two others.
 
Great review Baz, it is much appreciated.
I actually followed the link and put one in the cart to find out shipping to Canada was $59.00. I will wait for them to make it to Amazon, that’s where I bought my two others.

Try this since you're waiting. Go through the order process, but don't finalize payment (ie make sure you filled out email and have items in cart). Just wait a few days.

I received the "Hey, you didn't spend money on items in cart" email the first day.
Second day "Hey, get FREE US SHIPPING" . Which was already free, but I know that shop owners on Shopify can do offers based on abandoned carts. So I'm wondering if it will be free to CA too at that point.
 
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