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Cool, someone is finally starting up an ukulele thread! Ukes are incredibly fun. Been playing one for years and was a member of a ukulele orchestra, so I hope you don't mind if I share some of the things I wish I knew when I was first starting out  Sizes: There are four main sizes to choose from when selecting a ukulele: Soprano (smallest) - Concert - Tenor - Baritone (largest) All of them are tuned the same: gCEA, except for the baritone which (the majority of the time) is tuned like the four highest strings of a guitar: DGBE. There are also two other sizes that are getting pretty popular: Sopranino, which is a smaller soprano, and Contrabass (or Ubass) which is essentially a bass version of the ukulele. They all have their own characteristics and distinctive sounds, but there really isn't a wrong choice to make when you are deciding which size to pick up. If you can, try a couple of sizes at your local music shop to see which one you like best. Personally, I am a huge fan of the tenor. It has a really nice balance between the high and low frequencies so it's really nice to sing along with. Brands: Kala is the biggest brand of ukuleles and are of great quality to boot. I have never played one of their instruments and walked away dissatisfied. They also have a budget brand, Makala, which can be hit or miss. Lanikai, Kona, and Ohana are also great brands to check out. Fender makes some too but I would only buy one on sale, as they tend to be way overpriced. If you have crazy money, Martin (yes, that Martin) has a long history of making ukuleles and still makes some to this day. Strings: Strings come in two varieties: Synthetic (most commonly Nylon) and catgut. Synthetic strings are the standard and are made from the same material as the strings on a classical guitar. They are pretty easy to fret, durable and aren't very expensive. Catgut is the more traditional ukulele string material but is harder to find and therefore pricier. They are made from intestines and have a much softer sound that lends itself well to singing. They are super fragile however, and really don't like humidity. As far as string brands go, the gold standard (and my personal favorite) are Aquila strings. All the major string brands, such as D'Addario, Fender, GHS, etc., also make ukulele strings. One thing that everyone complains about when they first get their ukulele is that it won't stay in tune. While this can be incredibly frustrating, don't worry, it's completely normal! Ukulele strings are incredibly stretchy and take time to settle in and stabilize before they will hold their tuning. How long this takes will change from instrument to instrument, and could be anywhere from a couple of days to a week or two. Tuners: Tuners on a ukulele come in two flavors: Friction and geared. Both come with their own pros and cons, and choosing which style to purchase is entirely up to personal preference. Friction is the most authentic, traditional way to tune a uke and works by using the friction of the tuning peg (made of either plastic or wood) against the tuner hole in the headstock to keep the peg in place and in tune. A lot of these will have a small screw on the bottom of the tuner button that you can tighten or loosen to either increase or decrease the friction of the peg. Good quality friction sets will hold strings in tune just as well as geared sets, so don't let the low-tech approach these tuners take turn you away. Geared tuners are the same as what you would find on any other instrument, like a guitar. They use a grub screw meshed to a gear on the tuning peg to tune the ukulele. It's simple and pretty much bomb-proof. Wood Like an acoustic guitar, the kind of woods a ukulele is made from is going to affect how it sounds. Mahogany has a nice, mellow sound to it and tends to emphasize the bass notes, while maple does the opposite and has a nice, bright sound with a lot of highs. Spruce tops are becoming more common, and give a balanced sound with excellent note definition, though some say that it takes away the uke's distinctive character and makes it sound more like a guitar. The big daddy of them all is koa. Koa is a slow-growth tree that (as far as I am aware) only grows on the sides of volcanos in Hawaii. It is incredibly rare and commands high prices, but it has a really incredibly sweet, complex sound that it really hard to describe. Most sub-$50 ukuleles are going to be made of plywood. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as it makes it nearly indestructible when it comes to heat and humidity, but it won't sound as good as an instrument made from solid wood. What to look for when buying a ukulele: A budget of around $50-$100 dollars will get you a really nice, entry-level instrument. If you can afford it, pushing that budget up to $150 will get you an instrument that will take a really long time for you to outgrow. Look for a tag or sticker that says it has a solid wood top, and that the fretboard has no sharp edges when you run your hand up and down the neck. The distance from the strings to the frets should be fairly small, and the neck should be pretty straight. This isn't to say that cheap (sub-$50) ukuleles are crap. Well, most are, but they can be fun to bang around on and not worry about having to keep a humidifier on you. Just be aware that they won't sound as loud or as nice as an instrument with a solid top. Anyway, sorry for the long post, just really excited about the thread! Siivola posted:the standard-sized (often called soprano) ukulele I hate to be all  , but there really isn't a "standard" ukulele. It's really more of a public perception thing as people tend to identify the ukulele with the soprano, but most professional uke music is performed on tenors.
Chip McFuck fucked around with this message at 02:23 on Nov 9, 2018 |
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Nov 8, 2018 23:06
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This is all really solid advice. I disagree that solid tops are just "marketing", but you're right that no one should feel bad about buying a laminated top. Lam tops today are way different than when I first started playing, and a good one can sound really nice. The ebony-lam tops that Kala has been putting out are really slick! Also, shout out to Ohana, they make really good stuff for not a lot of money. I bought an all-lam mahogany tenor from them when they were just starting out from Music Guy Mic and adored that thing. Really sweet sound and easy to play. fuctifino posted:one instrument that also needs to be mentioned in this thread, the guitalele (mine being the Yamaha model). It's a 6 string uke, tuned the same as a guitar with a capo on the 5th fret. Oh man, ukulele variants are super fun! Have you played an eight string uke? They are one of my favorites, the strings are doubled so there's a chorus effect like you would get on a twelve string guitar. Edit: Just wanted to share the video that made me want to take the ukulele more seriously. Terrible video quality as it was posted something like 10 years ago, but man, it just sounds so good! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puSkP3uym5k Chip McFuck fucked around with this message at 17:58 on Nov 9, 2018 |
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Nov 9, 2018 17:45
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