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.

Hurry up and wait

Still waiting for my new Uke to come in the mail.  I was finally able to contact the seller through ebay after 3 attempts and he said his first attempt to mail it failed due to postage.  He supposedly sending it again today so hopefully I'll have it by the weekend.

Meanwhile I've been researching a bit more about the Eleuke.  I'm really interested in hearing what the SL-KOA sounds like.  It sure is pretty but I want to know what it sounds like.  According to the Eleuke page on FaceBook this hasn't been released yet so I haven't been able to find one on YouTube so I can hear it.  So far of all the Eleukes I've heard on YouTube, I think the Jazz Eleuke is the nicest sounding.  I may order the SL-KOA anyway just because it looks so cool and because its supposedly a limited edition Eleuke.  We'll see.  I need to pay Uncle Sam before I even think about purchasing any of them.

Ohana TK-20 Tenor Ukulele

As I write this I'm bidding on the above uke on Ebay.  I'm not publishing this until the auction is over because right now I'm the only bidder on a Ukulele that sells for about $269 brand new and this uke is practically new and bidding is only at $75 right now with just over 7 hours left. 
Here are the specs from Ohana's web site.

• Solid Mahogany Top
• Mahogany Laminate Back & Sides
• Rosewood Fingerboard & Bridge
• Die-Cast Geared Tuners
• GHS Strings
• Body Binding, Top and Back

So it comes with a gig bag so I might add a hard shell case for this if I do win it.

Woohoo!  The bidding just ended and I got it for a whopping $77.  What a steel!  Now I can do a proper review of it so more to come.  This will probably end up being my camping Uke cause I don't want to take my solid Mahagony Concert size Pono out in the weather.

More to come on this when I get it.

I want an Eleuke!

Amazon describes this uke this way:

"THE ELEUKE IS a solid-body electric ukulele built to go from unobtrusive to in-your-face as the player's needs require. Features MP3 input. Nominated for Best at NAMM show. This uke comes equipped with an under-the-saddle piezo pickup and a 1/4" jack to plug into an amp, mix with effects pedals, and blast anything from punk rock songs to jazz standards to traditional ukulele ballads. For quiet practice or just some quality alone time, the EleUke features a headphone jack so the player can plug in headphones and play like nobody's listening."

So there are a lot of things that attract me to this uke but the two biggest things are the fact that its a solid body electric tenor and that I can plug it in to practice quietly with out disturbing my partner.  The other things that attract me are the looks of it and the fact it has piezo pickups.  The MP3 feature means that you can input an MP3 player and play along with your favorite songs which sounds like fun but I'm not sure how much I'll use that.  What got my attention about this uke was the review done by Ukulele Underground at the NAMM show this year.  They had a video of it and I was impressed.

So as soon as I can afford to I plan on purchasing this uke and doing a detailed review of it here on TheUkeBlog.  We'll see if its all that its hyped up to be.

I love the Ukulele

So I decided to start blogging about it. I've only been playing for about 5 or 6 months now but I'm completely hooked. I plan to add music, tabs and chords and uke reviews and uke book reviews here so stay tuned for more.