The Kala Utar is Kala’s version of the guitarlele (I don’t quite know why they felt the need to switch the order round – perhaps they were continuing the trend from the UBass). It is tuned exactly like a guitar capoed at the fifth fret i.e. ADGCEA with no re-entrant strings. So the top four [...]

The Kala UBass is the size of a baritone ukulele but has the range of a bass guitar i.e. it is tuned EADG in the same octave as a standard bass guitar. It achieves this through polyurethane strings. The original bass ukulele was the Road Toad. The downside is that it was very expensive – [...]

The Ukelin is one of the strangest instruments ever invented. The name suggests it’s a cross between a ukulele and a violin, but it’s closer to a zither and a violin. Although rather than being a ‘cross’ it’s actually two instruments stuck together and you’re supposed to play them both at the same time. Bowing [...]

As the name suggests, the guitarlele is a cross between a classical guitar and a ukulele. It is tuned like a guitar capoed at the fifth fret (ADGCEA). This gives the top four strings the same tuning as a low G ukulele. The guitarlele sounds closer to a classical guitar than it does a ukulele. [...]

The charango is about the same length as a tenor ukulele in total. However, a good proportion of that is taken up by the head and the scale length is closer to that of a soprano. The neck is much wider than that of a ukulele to accommodate its ten strings arranged into five courses [...]

The cavaquinho is a scion of the ukulele family. It developed from the same Portuguese instrument as the uke: the machete. The machete developed into the Cavaquinho in Brazil. Hence, today there are two distinct types of cavaquiho: the Portuguese cavaquinho and the Brazilian cavaquinho. Like the uke, the cavaquinho has four strings but these [...]

Ecuador might not be the first place you think of when it comes to ukuleles, but that’s where Oceana’s Zac Steimle. He says the mountains of Ecuador have, “the perfect year-round relative humidity and tempter to build instruments. All their ukuleles are made by hand (not even using any power tools) using traditional techniques. You [...]

Akulele are based in Bolivia so it’s not surprising that they take many of their design features from the Bolivian charango. Like the charango, Akuleles are one solid piece of wood and are often very ornate. You can find out more about them on their website. On Video

A ukulele tuner is a useful bit of kit to have. But they’re by no means essential. A cheaper option for making sure you stay in tune is a set of ukulele pitchpipes. A ukulele pitch pipe has four holes. Each one representing one string on the ukulele. You blow into it and tune your [...]

Ukuleles, like anything made of wood, are vulnerable to damage through humidity. Experts take the ideal humidity level to be between 45% and 65%. You can gauge the level of humidity where you are using this humidity map. If you are in the dark blue zone, this means the humidity is too high. This is [...]