Monday, April 5, 2010

The Ohana is here!

My new Ohana TK-20 tenor Uke showed up over the weekend and all I can say it right on!  It may not be a top of the line Uke but I love it so far.  The tone is great although you can tell the is some laminate in the body and the playability is fantastic.  I think I will put some new strings on it but I certainly can't complain about it much. 

The workmanship of this Uke is really pretty good.  I can see more flaws in my more expensive Pono Concert uke that I see in this Uke.  The finish is a bit lacking, no pun intended.  There are spots on the body that feel like it could have been sanded a bit better.  And I'm not a big fan of matte finish that it has but I'm a bit old school and like a nice shiny instrument.  I'm impressed with how well the Uke stays in tune.  When it showed up on Saturday I tuned it to my electronic tuner and it has stayed in tune in the past 3 days since without having to re-tune.

I like the pearl inlay's on the fretboard mostly because they are marked like my Pono on the same frets so finding my way around on the fretboard is not a chore.  The feel of the fretboard is also nice although the A string does tend to slip just a bit. 

Like I said, I want some new strings for it as I don't know how old these are and they also seem just a bit thin.  I'm curious about how a good set of Aquila strings would sound on it.  I'll let you know if there is any significant change in the tone.

All in all I really like this Uke a lot and will probably make it more than just my camping Uke.  I like the larger neck of the tenor and find it easier to play so I've stash my Pono in the corner for the moment.  Don't get me wrong, the Pono is a great Uke but in hind sight if I had know more about Ukes my first one would have been a tenor rather than a concert.  So if you are looking for a little better than average starter Uke you should definitely check this one out.  I think you will enjoy it.

I posted a new video of me playing it on YouTube Tiki Farm Theme.

Enjoy.

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