Ukulele Reviews, Raves and Rantings Page

That being said what ukulele should one get. Especially when most music stores and chances your local store will not have much, if any of a selection. An Internet search on for might turn up a dealer in your area.

For a selection of dealers that Curt Sheller Publications ie: Curt Sheller, me has had experience with visit the dealers page right here at www.CurtSheller.com

What Size

There are four sizes of ukulele. All capable of various tunings.

For guitar players the larger concert and tenor are popular sizes. But, soon then later you'll want the smallest soprano as well. The bottom price range of ukulele affords you to have more than one ukulele.

As a guitar player as well as a uke player the one thing that just about all production ukuleles hare are flat necks like a classical guitar. if you are doing much more than basic open position chords a radius fingerboard like found on most non-classical guitar would be nice.

One price range of ukulele to stay away from is the cheap tourist ukuleles from Hawaii and online. These are typically painted with palm tress and island scenes. these ukuleles will NOT play in tune or stay in tune.

Under and Right Around $100

Most music store can get Hohner's Lanikai brand ukulele. These are available in all four standard sizes.

My first tenor was Lanikai laminated Koa.

$100 - $300

Can't really go wrong Hohner's Lanikai brand ukulele. Kala Ukulele is a company started by the same fellow that create the Lanikai brand for Hohner. I haven't played these but the look just like the Lanikai. Some are a step up.

If you are getting near the top of the $300 range a Pono is a quality ukulele from the Ko'olau Guitar and Ukulele Company. A Ko'olau is the top of the heap as far as custom ukulele go and range from a little over $1000 and on up the $10,000 if you really go nuts with the wood and custom feature you would like on a ukulele.

Also in this range are ukuleles like the Fluke and Flea from Flea Market Music. I had a Tenor Fluke that was pretty cool. The neck was very no-guitar like. Flat front and back. Tended to hurt my hand with extended playing.

$300 - $999

$1000 and up

If you are spending more than a grand on a ukulele I would suggest that you go the custom builder route. There are a bunch a great builders that will build the ukulele of you dreams. I have mine speced out for a Ko'olau or GString tenor. Just need to hit the lottery.

Bottom line to make things easy for new uke players.

• Under $300 - Kala Lanikai
• $300 to $999 - Pono, Flea Market Music, G-String, Bushman, Kala, Mele, Ko Aloha, Kamaka and many more...
• Over $1000 go custom - Ko'olau, G-String, more...

After you get hooked with you first uke or two then the chooses get a little overwhelming. My Ukulele Builder page has over 80 manufacture and luthiers listed.

December 2006 by Curt Sheller

This is the second Pono tenor that I have owned. the first was a tenor without an undersaddle pickup. I sold that one to get the model with the undersaddle pickup.

( Update 3-15-2007 ): Sold this Pono and will be getting another one soon.

( Update 10-15-2007 ): Third Pono is a Tenor Cutaway with solid top. Sounds Great!!!. I'll keep this one.

The first tenor that I had and still have is a Lanikai laminated top Koa cut-away with the Shadow pickup. ( SOLD June 2007 )

The fit and finish of the Pono is second to none - except for the what might be called the seam where the sides meet at the tail end of the uke. It is not perfectly vertical and is off-center. This is totally cosmetic flaw and does not affect the sound of the instrument.

When I first got the Pono the string spacing was wider than what I had been accustomed to on the Lanikai. The neck width is the same on both instruments but the spacing makes the Lanikai seem narrower. I though I wouldn't like the wider string spacing of the Pono but know prefer it for my fingerstyle arrangements. For faster pick style playeing the narrower Lanikai string spacing is a fraction of a second faster as the distance from string to string is not as wide. I would summerize the spacing as more steel string guitar like on the Lanikai and more classical guitar like on the Pono. I do like the Pono and it has become my daily driver uke and goes with me everywhere.

The passive undersaddle pickup really needs an external preamp to get the full potential out of the uke. But this is true of any passive system and not a drawback for the ukulele.

I like this Pono so much I'm thinking of getting one each of the new solid top models. I'd call them the three tenors. Although what I really want is a Ko'olau 400 with all the fixins';-)

The Three Tenors

Solid Mahogany, Solid, Koa and Solid Cedar Top

I had the pleasure of playing various models of different woods by builders Augustino LoPrinzi and his daughter Donna at the 2008 New York Uke Festival. I played a Cedar, Mahogany, Koa and Mango and was surprised at the Cedar modal. Very nice.

I would like to compare and record a builders Cedar, Mahogany and Koa models.