New Uke Day (NUD) Enya Nova U Soprano

[Captain Simian]

I’ve been interested in getting one of these Enya Nova ukes for a while now and I’m glad I waited to see if it would be on sale for Black Friday. It was marked down to $40 but after applying a couple of additional coupons I got it for $17.25 shipped. So far I mostly like it; it sounds ok but the tuners feel a little cheap and the strings aren’t great as well, they’re just not very good IMHO. Not sure if fluorocarbons are the right strings for this uke, I’m probably going to order some Aquila’s and see what happens.

 

[Pissodes]

Awesome! Mine is out for delivery now. Would be interesting to see which strings you select.to replace the stock ones.

PS. The tuners on my Enya HPL are not great either. Must be cutting corners to keep that price real low.

 

[badhabits]

Congrats! Gotta love a great deal.

I wish for a traditional double bout nova.

 

[Captain Simian]

Awesome! Mine is out for delivery now. Would be interesting to see which strings you select.to replace the stock ones.

PS. The tuners on my Enya HPL are not great either. Must be cutting corners to keep that price real low.

I’m curious to know what you think of the stock strings when it shows up. Right now I’m debating between some standard Aquila’s, the Lava’s, and D’Adarrio Titaniums which I’ve never tried before. I’m already looking for new tuners as well. I know I have a decent set of friction tuners hiding somewhere in my parts bins.

 

[Pissodes]

The uke came in right before we headed out to buy a new mattress (necessary evil), but now I've got it tuned up. I can't say the sound is the best I've every heard, but not terrible. I'll have to see what strings I have for sopranos. I was supposed to use these Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales to get some more strings but the savings wasnt enough to justify a purchase at this time. I may just start with a set of M600 strings.

On a separate note, I just put some Titaniums on one of my tenors that I've been struggling to find the right set. I think these are a winner. Thought of getting some Lavas for it, but these D'Addarios have me putting that idea on hold.

 

[man0a]

I think Enya has installed different strings on this ukulele at different times. I thought the ones that came with mine (a year ago) were pretty good. I think they are medium-tension clear fluorocarbon. I think earlier versions of this ukulele came with low-tension nylon strings, which I think are too floppy for a soprano ukulele.

 

[Captain Simian]

The uke came in right before we headed out to buy a new mattress (necessary evil), but now I've got it tuned up. I can't say the sound is the best I've every heard, but not terrible. I'll have to see what strings I have for sopranos. I was supposed to use these Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales to get some more strings but the savings wasnt enough to justify a purchase at this time. I may just start with a set of M600 strings.

On a separate note, I just put some Titaniums on one of my tenors that I've been struggling to find the right set. I think these are a winner. Thought of getting some Lavas for it, but these D'Addarios have me putting that idea on hold.

I have some Martin strings on hand but I think something heavier would be better. When I tuned the Enya up to D the sound really jumped out.

 

[Spicysteve]

I was not happy with the Enya strings either (Floppy, low tension). I tried Aquila Super Nylguts and they were close but not quite the right sound. Then I tried a set of Hannabach 235MHT's....... DONE!!! Great tension and sound fantastic.
I have UkeLogic hard tensions on a Concert Nova U, but haven't tried them on a Soprano. I am guessing they would be a good choice as well.

 

[besley]

My $15.99 Enya Nova U Soprano arrived last night! I don't play sopranos, but I really like the Nova U tenor, so I figured why not. Unfortunately I found that they have rather cheapened the Soprano a bit. The sound port is gone, and the saddle is not removable but rather molded into the bridge. Which might have been OK if the action were good, but it was 3.2 mm (~0.125") at the 12th fret, which I just find uncomfortable. So I figured what the heck, and sanded down the TOP of the saddle to get the action down to 2.2 mm (~0.085"). But in doing so I obliterated the intonation built into the saddle. Interestingly before sanding down the saddle all the strings were flat, showing that the saddle was perhaps to far from the nut? At any rate I tapered the sanded-down saddle to a point on the leading edge and the intonation actually improved.

 

[Pissodes]

My $15.99 Enya Nova U Soprano arrived last night! I don't play sopranos, but I really like the Nova U tenor, so I figured why not. Unfortunately I found that they have rather cheapened the Soprano a bit. The sound port is gone, and the saddle is not removable but rather molded into the bridge. Which might have been OK if the action were good, but it was 3.2 mm (~0.125") at the 12th fret, which I just find uncomfortable. So I figured what the heck, and sanded down the TOP of the saddle to get the action down to 2.2 mm (~0.085"). But in doing so I obliterated the intonation built into the saddle. Interestingly before sanding down the saddle all the strings were flat, showing that the saddle was perhaps to far from the nut? At any rate I tapered the sanded-down saddle to a point on the leading edge and the intonation actually improved.

Interesting. I measured the string height at 2.75mm at the 12th on mine. I would think that being fully moulded with an integrated saddle would result in consistency across different instruments.

 

[besley]

I sure would have thought so too. But then if you read recent posts here there are players whose intonation on these is perfect, and those (like me) for whom it was off. Go figure?

 

[gustophersmob]

I assume the coupons are now over that got the price so low on these?

 

[besley]

Yes - the promotion is over.

 

[Captain Simian]

After mulling over what strings to get for the Enya over the last couple of days, I ended up switching them out to my old standby, Martin M600’s. The CFO pointed out that I have M600’s on all my plastic ukes as it is, why should this one be different? Couldn’t argue with that so I put them on and it was definitely a vast improvement over the stock strings. I still don’t think they’re ideal but they do sound pretty good. Eventually I’ll put something heavier on it.

 

[Jerryc41]

I’ve been interested in getting one of these Enya Nova ukes for a while now and I’m glad I waited to see if it would be on sale for Black Friday. It was marked down to $40 but after applying a couple of additional coupons I got it for $17.25 shipped. So far I mostly like it; it sounds ok but the tuners feel a little cheap and the strings aren’t great as well, they’re just not very good IMHO. Not sure if fluorocarbons are the right strings for this uke, I’m probably going to order some Aquila’s and see what happens.
View attachment 161961

Enya makes nice ukes - not something you have to worry about in terms of damage.

 

[don_b]

The tenor nova comes with ddario titaniums stock, so I imagine they would be fine on soprano.

 

[besley]

After mulling over what strings to get for the Enya over the last couple of days, I ended up switching them out to my old standby, Martin M600’s. The CFO pointed out that I have M600’s on all my plastic ukes as it is, why should this one be different? Couldn’t argue with that so I put them on and it was definitely a vast improvement over the stock strings. I still don’t think they’re ideal but they do sound pretty good. Eventually I’ll put something heavier on it.

I just put a set of M600s on mine, and it was quite an improvement. Well worth the $5.99.