aNueNue Lani II Concert Ukulele Review
September 30, 2009
Before you read this review, you should know that aNueNue sent me this ukulele to review for free. I’m anyone’s for a bag of Wine Gums, so feel free to take this review with whatever degree of salt you see fit. They asked me which of their ukuleles I’d like to review. My initial reaction, of course, was, “The most expensive one.” But I realised that you can tell a lot more about a ukulele maker’s prioritise by their less expensive ukuleles. So I opted for one of their ‘beginner grade’ ukuleles (yes, I really am that stupid).
So after giving the aNueNue Lani II a good going over (and many hours spent singing ‘a-nu-way-nu-way oh baby’ to the tune of Louie, Louie) here are my impressions.
Stats
Size: Concert
Construction: Laminated Koa
Fretboard: Rosewood
Neck: Mahogany
Frets: 20 (14 to the body)
Tuners: Open, geared Grover 9N STA-TITE
Finish: Matte
List Price: $278
The Sound Tests
Strumming Test
Strumming Test (MP3) – Sister Kate
Picking Test
Picking Test (MP3) – Larry O’Gaff
Intonation Test
Intonation Test (MP3) (12th fret harmonics followed by fretted notes)
The Good Stuff
Construction: It’s a very nicely put together piece of kit. They obviously take a great deal of care with the construction because it’s faultless. The usual areas where things get a bit messy (when the fretboard meets the body, inside, around the soundhole) are perfect.
Playability: It’s a very easy uke to play. Well set up. The feel of it is very slick and the action is very low (lower than I prefer but right for most people’s preference).
It plays well all the way up the neck, there are no dead frets, the sustain is impressive and the intonation is spot on.
The Look: The wood looks beautiful and the design is appealing. I love the shape of the headstock and the little petroglyphs are cute.
The Not So Good Stuff
It’s Laminated: Compared to solid wood ukueles in the same price range, the sound of it is a little disappointing; slightly muddy. It doesn’t have the punch I like from my ukuleles. I do get a better sound from my Kala and Ohana than I do from the aNueNue. But neither of them are made with anything like the care and attention to detail that the aNueNue is (the Ohana looks positively slap-dash in comparison).
It’s an inevitable trade-off and you’ll have your own priorities.
Conclusion
The aNueNue Lani II is massively ahead of the usual laminated, beginner ukuleles. Easily the best I’ve ever tried. There’s absolutely no compromise on the quality of the construction and it plays beautifully. They’re obviously not willing to cut corners in quality for the sake of a lower price. It’s just a matter of whether you want to make that same judgement.
Famous Solos & Duets for the ‘Ukulele by John King – Review
September 2, 2009
I’m a huge fan of John King’s Classical Ukulele book (in an, “OMG!!!1! It changed the way I think about the ukulele,” way). So it was only a matter of time before I picked up his Famous Solos and Duets for ‘Ukulele as well.
The book contains tab and standard notation for 22 tunes (18 solo pieces, 2 ukulele duets and 2 ukulele/guitar duets) and comes with a CD of the tunes faultlessly performed. Most of them are Hawaiian tunes and, despite the cover proclaiming ‘arranged by John King’, many of the arrangements are by the original ukulele arrangers such as Ernest Ka’ai and N. B. Bailey
The full tab list is:
Loke Lani by Ernest Ka’ai Arr. by John King
Haele by Ernest Ka’ai
Hone A Ka Wai by Ernest Ka’ai
Polka-Mazurka by Ernest Ka’ai Arr. by Henry Kailimai
Ka Wehi by Ernest Ka’ai
Funiculi-Funicula by Luigi Denza Arr. by N. B. Bailey
Hene by Henry Kailimai
Ahi Wela by Arr. by Keoki E. Awai
Spanish Fandango by Henry Worrall Arr. by N. B. Bailey
The Blue Bells Of Scotland by Arr. by T. H. Rollinson
Leilani by Ernest Ka’ai
Banjo Schottische by Ernest K. Ka’ai
Lauia by Henry Kailimai Arr. by Ernest Ka’ai
Wailana by Malie Kaleikoa Arr. by Keoki E. Awai
The Good Stuff
Lovely Tunes: For the most part, the pieces are beautiful, lilting Hawaiian tunes. They’re pleasurable to play and repay attention to dynamics and touch – something that I’m definitely guilty of neglecting.
Strummed and Picked: There are quite a few strummed tunes in the book. And the strummed arrangements are just as much of a challenge as the picked tunes. They involve a whole load of tricky techniques which are explained in the introduction.
Range of Difficulty: While it’s not for beginners, there’s a good mix of difficultly in the tabs. Some, like Hene, you can have a reasonable stab at playing on sight. Others are very challenging.
Introduction: John King is probably the best writer on the history of the ukulele there’s ever been. The lack of his writing in Classical Ukulele is one of my few complaints I have about it. It’s not a complaint that could be made about this book. There’s a big chunk of ukulele history and ukulele tab history (a delight for me, but I’m the world’s biggest uke tab nerd) at the beginning and it’s a great read.
The Not So Good Stuff
Famous?: Despite spending a lot of time playing tunes from the book, there is a noticeable lack of people saying, “Hey, was that Hone A Ka Wai you were playing just then?” I must admit that before getting the book you could count the number of tunes in the book I could confidently hum on the fingers of one finger.
Duets: It’s a little light on the duets, if that’s what you’re looking for. As it happens, there are more duets in the Classical Ukulele book. Luckily, I have no friends anyway.
Tuning: The notation is for a C-tuned ukulele, yet the ukuleles on the recording switch between D-tuning and D#-tuning.
No Campanella – The arrangements are excellent. They sound great and are very playable. But the don’t have the distinctive harp-like sound of the arrangements in Classical Ukulele.
Overall
It’s probably not fair of me to keep comparing this to Classical Ukulele. I regard those arrangements as a work of genius.
This book is really a tribute to the original ukulele arrangers – Ernest Ka’ai in particular – and it has given me a whole new appreciation for those musicians who took the instrument and created new techniques and a new repertoire for it. Playing the pieces the way they played them gives me a more direct connection with its history than any amount of reading. Well worth the price of admission.
If you’ve got the book, let me know what you think in the comments.
Buy Famous Solos & Duets for the ‘Ukulele on Amazon
Kala KA-ASLAS Lacewood and Spruce Soprano Review
August 26, 2009
I bought myself a Kala lacewood soprano ukulele as a reward for finally finishing the How to Play Ukulele Strums ebook. So were the endless hours of sweet and tears worth it? Here’s my review:
The Lowdown
Wood: Kala seem to make a bigger deal of the lacewood but the part that matters, the top, is solid sitka spruce. Everything else (back, sides, body, neck) are all solid lacewood.
Fretboard: Rosewood. 12 frets.
Tuners: Sealed, Geared.
Made in: China
The Good Stuff
- The Strumming Sound: I love strumming out on this ukulele. It’s bright, loud and punchy. As you would expect from a uke with a spruce top. It has just the sort of tone I love. You don’t get the force of it on the MP3, but here it is anyway.
Strum Test (MP3) (Sister Kate chords)
- Looks: The leopard-spot grain of the lacewood is gorgeous. The uke is very cleanly put together. There are some fancy-Dan fret markers. And, as a well documented lover of pink, I’m a fan of the purfling.
- Construction: It’s sturdily built (handy when you’re as clumsy as I am) and well put together (no flaws worth mentioning). And the intonation is good.
- Smell: Oh, am I the only who likes to give the soundhole of a new uke a good sniff?
The Not So Good Stuff
- Fingerpicking: I knew when I bought that it would more suited to strumming than picking. I always find my fingers falling over each other when fingerpicking a soprano. And the uke loses a lot of its bite when picked (unless you really give it some hammer).
Judging by the video, David Beckingham does a much better job than me of picking this uke. But here’s my picking test.
Picking Test (MP3) (Larry O’Gaff tab
- Geared Tuners: I don’t have anything against geared tuners in general, but they always feel wrong on a soprano. They throw it off balance. I understand the need for them on cheap ukes, but on more expensive ukes a good set of friction tuners would be very nice.
Conclusion
This one is definitely a keeper. I have a lot of fun playing it. I bought it because I wanted a quality soprano (rather the el-cheapo bashers I had before) for strumming and it certainly fits that purpose. I’d certainly recommend it to anyone with similar requirements. I like the spruce/sexy wood combination so much I’ve now got my eye on an Ohana spruce/maple CK-70G.
Southern Ukulele Store Review
When I bought the ukulele I promised feedback on the UK’s new uke seller: The Southern Ukulele Store. I can tell you they certainly pass muster. They’re friendly and helpful, the uke arrived very quickly (although the strings I ordered at the same time took a few weeks) and everything was very well packaged.
The only downside was the ordering system. I went through their own site rather than eBay and the checkout looked very unprofessional. And once I’d paid I had an error message telling me I’d paid the wrong amount. A quick email to them sorted it all out.
But I’ll definitely be using them again in the future. I’ll be going through eBay, though.
Paris Ukulele Festival
July 8, 2009
Today I can put my feet up and relax because we have a guest post by Armelle of Ukulele Languages discussing her visit to the Paris Ukulele Festival.
Great day, lovely people, excellent ukulele acts : a day to remember !
This post would be without end if I were to tell the 11-hour-long story of the Paris Uke Fest. But here are some highlights which I’d like to share.
Early arrival :
I wouldn’t miss a minute of the Paris Ukulele Fest after waiting 14 months to meet other ukulele players !
At 1:00 pm there was still plenty of room in the Bellevilloise. It made it easy to meet people, test all the ukuleles on display, chat with the Juste Cordes Team, with Ken Middleton and his Ohanas, and admire Sylvain’s unusual handmade ukuleles.
I then got to put faces on pseudos seen on forums. The room was diffusing a soft ukulele chatter, people trying out each other’s ukes. The atmosphere was very laid back and international so I felt immediately at home.
Workshops :
In a room which had a temperature close to a sauna’s, a first workshop was led by Tim Sweeney who tried to convince our group that playing with a guitar pick had more impact on listeners than standard playing using fingers.
This was followed by a great strumming course by Ukulelezaza. Great feel to hear a group of people strumming ukuleles with muted strings. It felt like a percussion band. Combining all the techniques ukulelezaza explained was rather challenging and my Fluke didn’t really wish to remain silent and persisted making itself heard every now and then …
The Film : Rock that Uke
Weird is what best summarizes it. A portrait of over the edge American ukulele players. I’m not sure if the heat is to blame but I missed the point entirely. But here is what clever people such as writer, director and producer Ethan Coen said about it : ”A rollicking anagnorisis of Ukulele Truth“. Sure… whatever…
The Open Mic session :
In a very casual atmosphere, courageous people went up on stage and displayed their talents in many different styles.
The concerts :
Since a lot of people were about to doze off because of the heat, it was time for a lively ukulele act. The Ukulele Boyz from the South West of France stormed the room in their cliché Hawaiian outfits and played covers of well-known French and Spanish songs, slightly altering original lyrics.
Tricity Vogue and the Sugarsnap Sisters then made sure we kept the energy gathered after the performance of the Ukulele Boyz with a brilliant set of songs and lovely vocal harmonies which I thoroughly enjoyed.
To prevent us from being over cheerful after the previous performances, Kelli Rae Powell reminded us that “There’s nothing bad that can’ t get worse”…
Fortunately, Ukulelezaza and the Red Cats followed to display all the techniques he had showed us earlier on and distract us from our dark thoughts.
Time then for the raffle with Lionel drawing the lucky tickets. The first Prize, a Pete Howlett tenor uke, caused complete amazement to its winner who couldn’t believe his luck.
If there was a background chatter in the room, it ceased when Patti Plinko and her Boy started playing.
This was a really raw and excellent performance which left many of us enthralled. From whispers to roars Patti really looked like a playful lioness with her lion Boy at her side. There was such a complicity between the two of them, intense stares defying each other to play faster… I had heard a few of her songs on her MySpace but it was nothing like seeing her live.
My absolute favourite act of the evening.
The last concert was Swedish Elvira Bira
The concept of punk ukulele with a yellow Makala and a tuba is quite original (she was without her band so her father played the tuba to give her a bass sound) and Elvira certainly had a voice.
This brings us to the end of the Paris Uke Fest and I am already looking forward to next year’s. You should be too.
End of Paris Uke Fest - All artists
This post wouldn’t be complete without a video of the concerts, so here it is.
Paris Uke Fest 2009 – The concerts
Thanks a lot to Al for inviting me to write on Uke Hunt. It’s been an honour to write here. It was very intimidating at first.
Mahalo Flying V Ukulele Review
May 20, 2009
I wasn’t going to write a review of the Mahalo Flying V. My brother got me one for Christmas. It was a nice thought and he wasn’t to know it’s the WORST UKULELE IN THE WORLD.
The Good Stuff
The Look: It does look good. Even close up. The way the neck attaches to the body is a little inelegant, but nevertheless.
… erm… The intonation isn’t too bad for the price.
The Bad Stuff
The Sound: The sound is awful. Weak and flat.
Playability: It’s very hard to play without buzzes and scratches. The neck feels nasty. It’s almost impossible to find a comfortable strumming or picking position. Which brings me on to…
The Shape: The shape makes it impossible to hold and strum comfortably.
When you’re sitting down it’s hard to avoid getting spiked in the groin. Which isn’t an experience I enjoy (and anyone who tells you I do enjoy it and that I regularly pay for exactly that experience is lying).
The only way I’ve found to play it standing up is to stick my arm through the middle of the V. Which makes strumming tricky, picking impossible and you look like a divot.
Tuning Pegs: Argh! Cheap friction pegs.
Tests
Strumming Test
Picking Test
Intonation Test
Overall
If you are thinking of getting a Mahalo Flying V as your first ukulele please, please, please don’t. I can’t think of a worse ukulele to learn on. If you must have a ukulele that looks like a guitar, get a Mahalo Les Paul instead. They’re a much better instrument.
If you have a decent uke or two already, get one for the novelty value. But buy one of these while you’re at it.
Ukulele iPhone/iPod Apps Review
March 11, 2009
I am completely in love with my iPod Touch. Not in that way. It’s not like I make out with or anything (and everyone who tells you they’ve seen me making out with it is lying because I always make sure the curtains are shut first). It’s a deep, caring, understanding love that will never die (until something better comes along – just like with person love). So, of course, I availed myself of the various ukulele related apps available and here are my findings (the prices are those in the UK, but I expect the US ones are comparable).
UkeChords
What it does: Shows you how to play chords. It’s similar to Sheep Entertainment. You select a pitch and a chord type and it has shows you how to play the chord on a fretboard.
Good Stuff: Simple, attractive, easy to use layout. Comprehensive. Shows three chord inversions for each chord. Indicates the interval (root, 3rd, 5th etc.) for each note. Lets you hear the chord.
Not So Good Stuff: If you try to select a chord with more than four notes it craps out on you. Granted you’d have to drop a note, but it would be useful to be shown suitable options. C tuning only. Vertical display only.
Price: £1.19
Overall: Excellent app. The best one I’ve tried for the uke.
Scale Buddy
What it does: Show scales for the ukulele and many other instruments. You select the key and the scale and it displays all the notes in that scale on a plain text style fretboard (with the root notes in green).
Good Stuff: Good selection of scales – 16 in all from essentials like minor, major, pentatonic and blues to more unusual scale such as super locrian and kumoi. Includes C tuning and baritone.
Not So Good Stuff: Fairly nasty to look at. Can’t hear the scales being played. In the vertical display the fretboard is cut in half – so best to use it horizontally. Goes with ‘ukelele’.
Price: £1.19
Overall: It’s a handy reference but there are a lot of improvements that could be made. Worth the money.
PocketGuitar
What it does: Virtual ukulele (and guitar). You can watch Gio Gaynor rocking out with his here.
Good Stuff: Fun to have a mess around with – particularly dialing up the reverb and distortion.
Not So Good Stuff: It takes a lot of practice to get the hang of it – more than I’m willing to put in.
Price: £0.59
Overall:
Lelele no Onsan
What it does: Plays notes for you to tune to.
Good Stuff: Simple. Free. Low and high G tunings.
Not So Good Stuff: The notes don’t sustain for very long. It would be much easier to use if you could just switch the tones on and off.
Price: Free
Overall: It’s free. Why not?
Guitar Rock Tour
What it does: Guitar Hero/Rock Band game. Blobs come rolling down the screen and you have to touch them at the right time to play the music. Not strictly a ukulele app, but it has four strings, so I’m claiming it.
Good Stuff: Top game and very addictive. May yet rescue the guitar solo from oblivion.
Not So Good Stuff: “Ouch, my thumbs”. Liable to lead to rockstar tantrums. P!nk and Avril. Loading… Loading… Loading…
Price: £3.49
Overall: I’ve wasted far too much time on this game. Don’t buy it if you’ve got things you need to do (except buy it anyway).
There are also some tuning apps, but I haven’t tried them out as I don’t have a mic for it. So if anyone has, let us know your opinion in the comments.
Ohana Tenor Ukulele TK-35G Review
February 18, 2009
No need to stretch to outlandish reasons to buy a new ukulele for this one. I needed a tenor (and, no, a Fluke with a tenor neck doesn’t count) particularly for fingerpicking. The Ukulele Shop had a sale on the Ohana TK-35G and after watching Ken Middleton’s review of his tenor Ohana.
Sound: A lovely warm tone to it. The sound is plenty strong enough for single note playing. But when you’re strumming chords, the sound isn’t as sharp and defined as I’d like.
I’m not too sure how useful MP3 examples are once they’ve been through all the equipment, but here are some anyway.
Sustain Test (open C string then A string 12th fret) using the Aquila strings it came with.
Construction: Solid mahogany body. Rosewood fretboard. Rosewood binding on body, soundhole and headstock. Chrome geared tuners (MGM lists them as friction tuners – unless there’s some funky mechanism in there, I’m pretty sure that’s not the case). Genuine bone nut and bridge (that’s how it’s listed but they seem quite plastic-y to me – and obviously to Ken too; he refers to them as being plastic in his review). It’s reasonably well put together but not perfect – more on that later.
Playability: Like Ken mentioned in his video, the action is very high. I wouldn’t say it’s ‘unplayably high’ though. I quite like the high action – it means a whole lot less fret buzz and cleaner fretting. But it does mean it’s not an easy instrument to play. I’m tempted to lower the action a little.
A gripe I have with it is the fret marker is at the ninth fret (guitar style) rather than the tenth fret (ukulele style). It has thrown me off on a number of occasions and I’m still not used to it. Looking at the Ohana ukuleles on eBay, it seems like TK-35G is the only model with this. Very annoying.
Intonation: I’ve got no complaints here. It’s playable all the way up the neck.
Looks: It’s a pretty sexy ukulele. The mahogany and gloss finish look great. But, like most of the girls I go for, it’s pretty on the outside and a complete mess on the inside. There are splashes of glue all over the place and some splintering around the joints. It is the sort of slapdash stuff you’d expect from a Chinese made instrument, but it doesn’t worry me unduly.
Overall: I’m very pleased with it. It is my first choice fingerpicking uke. It was less than £150 for a solid tenor ukulele and a very sturdy case – I’m a happy bunny.
New Zealand Ukulele Festival
December 1, 2008
Garry Copeland attended the New Zealand Ukulele Festival and was kind enough to send back this report for us.
It’s a couple of hours since the second annual New Zealand Ukulele Festival kicked off at Auckland’s Mount Smart stadium and the joint is jumping.
Welcome to ukulele heaven.
As promised by organiser Kevin Fogarty, it’s proving to be a four-string feast and the menu is positively dripping with a mouthwatering selection of top international and home-grown fare.
As head chef, Kevin has been zooming around backstage and in the green room kicking ass, in the nicest possible way, to make sure the customers are kept satisfied.
And why wouldn’t they be?
Entry to the festival is free, the weather is warm and sunny and in the cavernous stadium, home to Auckland’s Warriors rugby league club, around four thousand guests are partying.
At least half are families, here to watch their ukenik kids in Kevin’s mega-band, the Kiwileles. There are so many of them – three hundred or so — that when they perform later they have to move to the seats surrounding the sportsfield because there isn’t room on stage.
The kids are pupils from fifty or so schools in the city where, thanks to Kevin and his music teacher colleagues, the uke is all conquering.
The multi-coloured Mahalo Army is on the March and some wag has promised from the stage a few minutes ago that at next year’s festival they’re going to make a bonfire of school recorders.
“We’re tired of hearing London’s Burning,” he quipped to a cheering crowd.
Kevin and his other band, TeachUkes, are on stage at the moment showing the kids how it’s done. They’re all music teachers, so they should know.
With a slick and stomping set that includes at least one show-stopper – Rock That Uke – they go down a storm.
Kevin dashes back to the green room to grab a slice of pizza and talk to Ukulele Hunt, apologising a few minutes later for having to break off for a TV interview. When he returns he munches on the same slice of pizza, looks down at the crowd and grins broadly.
“We’re waiting to hear from the Guinness Book of Records about the Kiwileles,” he says. “Today’s performance might be the biggest group of uke performers ever assembled.”
He’s used to big crowds. In a previous life, as lead guitarist with the pop-rock group Knobz, Kevin took on the then Prime Minister of New Zealand, Rob Muldoon, one of the great philistines and bigots of the 20th century, when he declared that music wasn’t culture and imposed a stinging sales tax on records.
Kevin wrote a song about it and the band recorded it.
Don’t Give Me Culture hit the charts and stayed there for seventeen weeks much to Muldoon’s annoyance.
“We performed it at a festival once and had 80,000 people singing it back to us,” says Kevin, his grin widening at the recollection. “That was quite something.”
Today, he acknowledges modestly, is quite something, too – another stage in a ukulele campaign that began in 2001 when he introduced the uke into music lessons at his school in Auckland. Now the uke is on the syllabus in 50 schools in the city and Kevin aims to have similar success in schools all over New Zealand.
He has the backing of the government, thanks largely to a little Fogarty groundwork. In 2002, Kevin flew to Wellington, the nation’s capital, and held a ukulele workshop for MPs. The result was a promise of funding.
Attendance at today’s festival is proof that the campaign is working.
“Everyone’s having so much fun,” says Kevin, somewhat stating the obvious, before heading backstage again to marshal the kids for the first of the Kiwileles’ two performances.
The main stage, of course, is the focus of the crowd’s attention. In addition to TeachUkes, we’ve already seen SEGUE, an eleven-piece outfit from Australia, whose material ranges from Robert Johnson blues to Lou Reed, by way of the Kinks and the odd bit of skiffle. They have a nice line in self-deprecating humour which goes down well.
On offer for the rest of the day is a non-stop parade of class acts, including Azo Bell and the Old Spice Boys (also from Oz), The Nukes, Cook Islander Chuck Upu, Sione Aleki from Tonga, the Big Muffin Serious Band, the Dukes of Uke, Jordan Luck, up-and-coming young singer songwriter Thom Jackson whose original stuff sits well with the obligatory Iz version of Over the Rainbow/Wonderful World, and US fireball Uni who tears up the stage and pumps out enough adrenalin to take the crowd to a new high.
Upstairs in the stadium’s entertainment suite, there’s more music from keen amateurs who have turned up from all over New Zealand to do floor spots. In between acts there are workshops provided by performers who have finished their main stage stints.
And when they feel the need to stretch their legs, the crowds can look at entries in the Paint-a-Uke contest or check out the stalls in the market where dozens of ukes are on sale, many of them cheap and cheerful like the Mahalos and the budget end of the Kala range. But there are Martins, too, and pricy Fleas and Flukes.
Competing with them all is New Zealand luthier Ian Milne, whose concert ukes, tastefully decorated with mother-of-pearl, are show-stealers. But his piece-de-resistance is his banjo-shaped concert model, with a cedar top and back and sides made from reclaimed kauri, a wood that has an almost sacred significance for the Mauri.
The design is based on a DIY kit Ian designed for New Zealand Scouts. You can check out his stuff on his website.
Meanwhile, backstage Kevin Fogarty is briefing the troops for the final performance of the day – an all-join-in version of the festival theme song. Appropriately enough, it’s called Ukulele Heaven and, of course, Kevin wrote it.
By four in the afternoon, it’s all over bar the shouting for more.
And you can bet your last Kiwi dollar that Kevin Fogarty will provide it. Plans for next year’s festival are already on the drawing board.
Kevin’s seen the future.
And it’s ukulele.
Mahalo Les Paul Ukulele Review
September 3, 2008
I felt like a Burmese monk that hadn’t been through Poy Sang Long, I really did. It’s a rite of passage for any UK uke player to own a Mahalo ukulele and I never did. Back in my day, there was no useful website to tell you which ukulele to buy, so I ended up with a real piece of junk.
But my Mahalo deficiency was set to change when I saw their Les Paul copies.
Mahalo don’t have a great track record when it comes to Gibson copies. Their version of the Flying V looks awful and sounds worse. But when I saw their Les Paul copies, I just couldn’t resist.
The Good Stuff
- The Look – The uke looks great. It’s available in tobacco sunburst, cherry and black (I went with the black – to match my heart). They all look great. From a distance at least. As you’d expect from a cheap, Chinese made uke, the attention to detail isn’t quite there. There are a couple of areas that are a little messy up close. But they’re nowhere near bad enough to spoil how it looks.
- The Price – Not as cheap as the cheapest Mahalos, but at £35 it’s irresistible.
- Plays Easy – The action is low and it feels right.
- Good sound – Even with the strings it comes fitted with, the uke sounds great for the price. These mp3s were recorded without any adjustments other than tuning up.
Strumming test:
Strum Test – Sister Kate (MP3)
Picking test:
Picking Test – Staten Island Slide (MP3) (written by Craig Robertson)
The Less Good Stuff
- Intonation The intonation leaves a bit to be desired. I don’t know why they’ve bothered with a compensated bridge if they’re not going to take care with setting up the intonation. Having said that, the problem doesn’t rear its head in the first seven frets. So it’s fine for basic chord strumming.
In this example, I’m playing a harmonic at the 12th fret then playing the note at 12th fret itself.
Overall
While there’s no danger of the Mahalo becoming my No. 1 uke, I’m very happy with it. It’s perfect little strummer to have lying around. And it looks like a Les Paul for chuffs sake.
More Mahalo reviews on buy a ukulele.
It’s obviously a very popular uke as it’s pretty tricky to find one right now. They’re few and far between on eBay and ‘Out of Stock’ signs are appearing on websites.
Search eBay Germany (as I write, they have an electric ukulele version of the Les Paul Mahalo which I haven’t seen anywhere else).
Search eBay Australia (oooh, their Mahalos have solid cases)
Also, for those who’ve asked about my tabbing software: Guitar Pro Review.
UPDATE: The little lick I throw into Sister Kate goes like this:
Review: Aldrine Guerrero – Suite 409
July 21, 2008
You probably already familiar with Aldrine Guerrero from his YouTube videos and his lessons on Ukulele Underground. Aldrine has just released his debut CD, Suite 409, and Ryan from UU (the album’s Executive Producer) was brave enough to send me a copy for review.
The Good Stuff
Bandito Tyler (Unplugged): A phenomenal tune. A stone-cold ukulele classic. It’s played with real force and energy. It fizzes out of the speakers.
The album contains two versions of Bandito Tyler: a solo version and a band version. The solo version is by far the most exciting. The tune is so strong and forceful that the band dilute it rather than add to it.
The Instrumental Tracks: As well as having impeccable technique, Aldrine has a way with a tune. The instrumental tracks are instantly catchy.
They’re also nicely varied. Schizophrenic Snowflakes is light and atmospheric. Uke on a Stick is great fun. It starts out as a 21st Century Greensleeves, kicks into some Dick Dale tremelo, launches into Santana-style soloing and recalls the solo from Hotel California before it’s done. Cecilia is steady and meditative. Each of them a huge success on their own terms.
The Not So Good Stuff
The Vocal Tracks: In contrast to the variety of the instrumental tracks, all the songs are mid-tempo, easy listening RnB. Whether he’s lonely (Buttercup), in seduction mode (Red and Silky with Danyo Cummings and Ariki Foster), or resigned (Ducky Adores Me), it never really shows in the songs. Lyrically, the songs don’t ring true. It feels like he’s holding back most of the time.
Listening to the songs made me feel like the girl who feel for the cock-strutting MoFo of Bandito Tyler and ended up with the limp lothario of Red and Silky. I wanted the same passion and honesty of the instrumental tracks in the songs.
Overall
Suite 409 announces Aldrine Guerrero as a serious contender in the ukulele world – up there with the very best. If he can get the same passion that he has in his playing into his songs, he’ll be unstoppable.
