Ukulele prince?

I took my two daughters to watch "The Princess and the Frog" today at the movie theatres. To my surprise, the Frog is an ukulele playing prince named Prince Naveen. The ukulele is represented correctly with four strings, and at one point in the movie, the Princess told him that he could play the ukulele at her resturant.

Anyway, I just thought that it was pretty cool to have the ukulele represented like this in a fairly major motion picture. It's true that this is a cartoon, but at least the uke is correctly represented and even called out by name, so it's all good right?

Still here!

I didn't even notice that it's been over a month without posting on this blog! For the two of you still checking this blog, I have not abandoned it! And I still plan on finishing off that Ukulele Smackdown. But I have not had much time to post here for a while and I've got lots of other things occupying my time, so it may be a bit slow going around here for a little while yet. I'm still playing the ukulele daily, so it's not because I've lost interest or anything.

Anyway, just thought I'd throw a post up on the o'l ghetto blog to show that's it's not abandoned. For those who stop by, have a safe and happy holidays!

Grail ukes

I think for most people who collects stuff, or has a hobby that involves buying physical objects (such as ukuleles!), there usually exists a "Grail". From what I've gathered it's a term used to describe the ultimate prize in a particular hobby/endeavor for a particular person. There can be one grail or multiple grails. And the acquisition of one grail doesn't necessarily end the chase, often resulting in the formation of another grail.

In terms of ukuleles, one can certainly argue that I've had several grails already. At different times in the past couple of years, I coveted (I know, though shall not covet) the KoAloha Pineapple Sunday, William King customs, Kamaka tenor, and other ukes that I eventually acquired. There have also been grail ukes that I really wanted but for whatever reason never got to acquire. As of today, other than a Glyph that's been on order for over two years, I have not felt the urge or desire to get anymore serious ukes. But I thought it would be kind of fun to come up with a few ukes that I considered grails at one time or another.

-Earnest Instruments La-Paula:
The La-Paula is a concert sized ukulele that looks like a Les-Paul guitar. I can't remember if I saw this one first or the Kiwaya K-Wave Les-Paul uke, but I knew I really liked the looks. In fact, the K-Wave was one of the earlier ukes I bought during my UAS odyssey. The La-Paula, especially the sunburst curly maple version, really looked awesome to me. I've always liked the Les-Paul shape, and I loved the idea of playing a Les-Paul shaped ukulele. But at the time I could only justify spending the money on the K-Wave, as the La-Paula cost some serious cash. Had it been $600 like the Earnest Tululele, I probably would have owned one by now. But I eventually sold the K-Wave and kind of forgot about the La-Paula (had my fun with the LP uke). I was looking at the La-Paula last week and kind of thought "wouldn't it be cool to own one of these?" Maybe someday, but the urge isn't big enough right now.

-Moore Bettah custom:
Actually a Moore Bettah is a pretty recent grail uke. It seems to me in the last year or so, MB's reputation has grown by leaps and bounds. I had a chance to play a couple of MB concerts in Hawaii a couple of years ago and came away unimpressed because the ukes were setup super high (so the player can adjust to their liking) and I really could not play them. However, I do recognize the workmanship and beauty of MB ukes. Not too long ago I toyed with the idea of ordering an MB custom concert with a lot of bling. I had even drawn up a sketch of what my MB might possibly look like. But I realistically could not commit to buying such a uke because I already have way too many. What I had sketched would have cost quite a bit of money, and I think the price has gone up significantly in the last half a year or so, so this idea shall remain just that, an idea. Until maybe I win the lottery some day.

-KoAloha 6-string tenor:
A couple of years ago I briefly owned a 6-string Lanikai model O-6. I bought it from Musician's Friend because it was on sale and I was curious. While it had a cool slotted headstock, I wasn't all that enamored with its sound or playability so I sold it not too long after getting it. I have not given the 6-string ukulele any thought until my trip to Hawaii in 2008. While at the KoAloha factory, I played their 6-string model and thought it was absolutely awesome. It sounded great and played well. Since that time I have always had this ukulele on the back of my mind. I know I probably won't play it much even if I did get one, but the sound was truly pretty special and I can't imagine how much better a 6-string could sound. Maybe it's not as great as I remembered, but it would be fun to find out again down the road.

-G-String Sun concert:
My first serious ukulele was a G-String soprano with honu tattoos (I know, it doesn't sound all that serious). It was a great ukulele and I instantly became a fan of G-String ukuleles. Of the models they make, I was most intrigued by the Sun concert. It has that gorgeous abalone Sun inlaid on the fretboard and the uke was surely a great sounding uke (I sort of confirmed this during that 2008 Hawaii trip where I played a few G-String concerts that were outstanding). Back in 2007 musicguymic occasionally had one of these for sale, and I remember a couple of blowouts where he offered another very nice uke for free with the purchase of this one. But again, I could never justify the money at the time so all I could do was drool. I don't think I have seen one of these for sale in quite some time now. If one surfaces, even in my UAS-remission state, I would be pretty tempted by it.

-Another William King custom:
I know, I already have two, why would I want another? Well, one can't really desire too many King ukuleles. At least that's what I think. The reason I still put a King in the grail category is because I wouldn't mind a fully blinged out and feature laden King ukulele. My ebony/spruce long-scale concert is actually pretty close, but if money was no object, I'd have a few more things put onto this ukulele such as abalone purfling on the back and bound headstock & fretboard, not to mention a few more custom touches. Of course, I'm more than happy with my King ukes now, so this will probably just remain a dream.

Anyway, there are plenty of great ukes out there. I'd love to own one of each, but that's obviously not possible. It's always fun to look and think about them though.

(The Ukulele Smackdown will continue soon....)

Ukulele Smackdown: Mainland vs. Collings Round 4 - Video comparison

Before I try to do some commentary on the sound of the Mainland slotted headstock concert and Collings UC-1, I'll show a comparison video I made playing Going to California using the two ukes. The video is made by cutting and pasting several short videos of each segment of the song. I alternated the two ukes pretty evenly. Both ukes are strung with Worth CD strings. Take a look to see what you hear from the video. I will write more about the sound in a later post, as well as provide more sound samples.

Ukulele Smackdown: Mainland vs. Collings Round 3 - Appearance & Workmanship Part 2

Before we continue on with the physical comparison between the Mainland and Collings concerts, I would like to briefly discuss the setup of each ukulele. I personally do not consider setup as a characteristic of a particular brand, since it's something that is usually user adjustable and not everyone has the same tastes. I've also personally seen great variations in setup from the same model of ukulele, and I don't think that's a reflection on the builder. The two ukes I have here came with good setup, with identical string height at the 12th fret. I do believe both Mainland and Collings do setup work before shipping out their instruments, so in most cases you should get a fairly playable instrument when you buy one of these ukuleles.

Continuing on with the Ukulele Smackdown between Mainland and Collings concerts, let's take a look at the body. The Mainland features a solid mahogany body with gloss finish. A matte finish is also available from mainland, but I opted for the glossy finish because in my experience, parts of the matte finish usually shine up when handled a lot. Since I knew this uke may be a candidate for future contraction of my collection, I went for the finish that would keep a better appearance. The mahogany used on this ukulele is relatively dark, similar to the Collings. The grain looks good on the front and sides, where it is pretty straight and does not really have the ribbon appearance common to many imports (a plus in my book), but kind of strange on the back, where it doesn't have a uniform straight appearance. I would have preferred that the front and back look a little more similar. Both the front and back are one-piece construction, which is considered a plus in that there is one less joint that can potentially fail. The Mainland's weight seems to be about average, maybe just a little bit on the heavy side.

Front of Mainland.


Back of Mainland. Notice the random grain pattern.


The body of the Collings features a dark mahogany with what I consider pretty attractive grain pattern. There is no ribbon effect to be found and the grain appearance is very uniform. The front and back are bookmatched, but because the grain pattern is so uniform, it's actually kind of hard to see the joint without looking very closely, especially on the front. My UC-1 has a matte finish. I did not have a choice on the finish as at the time of purchase, there are no UC-1's with glossy finish. I'm not sure if there are now, but I'm pretty sure it would cost more and I would still be getting the matte finish since it's already a very spendy ukulele. The matte finish looks really good but as with all matte finishes I've encountered, it shines up with use. The upper bout on my UC-1 has already acquired several shiny strum marks, and the neck appears to be a bit shinier than when I first bought it. This wouldn't be a problem if you do not have any plans to sell the ukulele later on. But if you do, the wear that shows on this finish will likely decrease the resale value, if that's of any importance to you. As of now I do believe I will be keeping the Collings for the long haul, but I'm certainly aware of the the hit it will take if it's ever put up for sale. The Collings is feather light and clearly lighter than the Mainland despite having a slightly thicker body. Collings probably tried to mimic old Martin ukes and built them as light as possible.

Front of Collings.


Back of Collings.


The Mainland features white plastic body bindings with a rope pattern purfling. I can't tell what kind of wood made up the two-color rope purfling, but it is a very light colored wood and a dark, almost black, wood. I suspect the black colored wood is dyed as some of the black color seems to have "bled" onto the surrounding wood a little bit. The rope purfling generally looks good, but I believe the rope binding found on various Pono models have a higher quality appearance. The rosette is the exact same rope design as the purfling.

The rope purfling & rosette of the Mainland.


The only decorations on the body of the Collings is the rosette. It is a simple b/w/b/w/b ring around the sound hole. It does not have any body bindings or purfling. The Rosette looks very well crafted. I think the ukulele would have looked just fine without the rosette, but it doesn't hurt the appearance.

The Collings rosette.


Looking around the inside of the Mainland's body reveal signs that it is a mass production instrument. The body is held together from the inside with solid kerfing as opposed to the more traditional individually cut kerfings. I don't believe there are any big structural differences in using the solid kerfings compared to individual kerfings, but I'm pretty sure it costs less to use the solid kerfings. I'm fairly certain of it because a Kelii tenor I had also had this type of Kerfing, and Kelii is able to offer their ukes at a lower price compared to the other Hawaii "K" brands. I suppose there is a possibility that there are more internal stress in those solid kerfings, but probably not enough to make much of a difference to the structural integrity of the instrument. The workmanship is fair. You can see some glue seeping from the joints in some areas. The bracing I can see does not appear to be sanded. Of course, one would not expect expert craftsmanship from this ukulele, and it doesn't really impact the player.

Inside the Mainland. Notice the solid kerfing and the small amount of glue seeping from the joint.


Mainland soundhole label.


The interior of the Collings is very nearly perfect. It is very clean, with no glue residue that I can see, and everything looks very well sanded and crafted. It uses the individual kerfings that's found in most ukes for gluing all the body pieces together from the inside. This is probably the cleanest interior of any ukulele I've owned with the possible exception of the Honu XXX concert I had. A clean and well executed interior may not mean all that much to the ukulele player, but it does convey a sense of high craftsmanship and I think it can be considered an indicator of the caliber of the instrument. I mean, if a builder is taking the time and effort to make sure something that most people don't even see is nearly flawless, it stands to reason that they are putting in the work to make sure it sounds good too.

The interior of the Collings. Looks almost perfect to me.


Collings sound hole label.


Moving back to the outside of the body, we have the bridge & saddle. The Mainland has a rosewood bridge with bone saddle, which is the same as the Collings. The Mainland bridge is a classical guitar style tie-bridge, where the Collings is a traditional ukulele style slitted bridge where you tie a knot on the string and insert the string into the slits. I don't really have a preference between the two types of bridges. Both work and look good. Neither bridge feature any wild KoAloha-style designs and are rectangular in shape. The Collings does feature a compensated saddle. The compensated saddle is a fairly fancy feature on ukuleles, but in my experience, I can't really tell much of a difference a compensated saddle makes. I do like them though.

Mainland bridge.


Collings bridge. Notice the compensated saddle.


So I've gone through the exterior and interior appearance of the two ukuleles. While it's pretty clear that the Collings hold the workmanship advantage, I would like to point out that the Mainland isn't necessarily bad in that regard. It's pretty solid in most cases and if you're not closely scrutinizing it, it certainly looks very attractive. Below are a couple more side by side pictures of the two ukes.

Backs of the Collings (L) and Mainland (R).


Body thickness. Collings (R) is a little thicker than Mainland (L).


This concludes the appearance & workmanship portion of this Smackdown. To summarize, I think both ukuleles look very good from a distance, but the closer you look at them, the strength of the Collings workmanship becomes clearer. Based on this ukulele, I can see why Collings has earned the stellar reputation it has enjoyed in the guitar and mandolin world. The Mainland, being a budget instrument, does well for itself, especially the overall exterior appearance. Some of the small details that it is lacking such as better tuners and cleaner interior, isn't something that anyone who buys a Mainland is going to be overly concerned about. From my personal point of view, I'm happy with the workmanship of both ukes given their price bracket.

Up next will be some sound comparisons. Stay tuned!

Gypsy Ukulele....finally

(The Ukulele Smackdown will resume soon)

About a year and a half ago, I mentioned on this blog that I wanted to learn Gypsy Ukulele by Acoustic Soul. I loved that song and thought it would be really cool to be playing it on my Gypsy Rose concert ukulele. I tried learning the song in anticipation of the ukulele (it arrived on October, 2008), but kind of gave up as I couldn't seem to get past the half way point of the song. Even with the arrival of the Gypsy Rose, I kind of lost my motivation to learn the song and moved on to other songs. Recently I saw a post from Mike Okouchi on Ukulele Underground and it rekindled my desire to learn the song. I busted out Dominator's tabs and to my surprise, was able to make it through the song after a couple of days. (...maybe I have improved a little in my ukulele playing....) I then recorded the backup chords, played on the Gypsy Rose, using Audacity and started my attempt to record a video of this song. It was easier thought than done! I must have gone through 20-30 takes before arriving at the video you see below. And it's not all that great either, but I don't think I'll be able to record a better video for the time being. To be perfectly honest, I don't think it's that hard to play anymore, but I keep screwing up various parts when trying to film this video. I guess when you try to get things perfect it just doesn't happen. So anyway, here is the long awaited (by me) video of Gypsy Ukulele on the Gypsy Rose!

Beware of scam artist

It was brought to my attention on Ukulele Underground that a member by the name of BabiiDrew671 claiming to be from Washington state has copied a picture of several ukes from this blog and posted them up for sale. This is a scam and please do not deal with this person. If you see a "for sale" picture that's taken off of this site, do not deal with that person. I have never actually sold a uke with pictures from this blog. I've always taken fresh pictures of all ukes I tried to sell. It's disappointing to find that someone out there is trying to take advantage of others using pictures I've posted. I sincerely hope that no one has been affected.

Ukulele Smackdown: Mainland vs. Collings round 2 - Appearance & Workmanship Part 1

Let's dive right in to the appearance and workmanship of the Mainland and Collings concert ukuleles. Starting from the headstock.

The Mainland slotted headstock mahogany concert features, as its name suggests, a slotted headstock. It's a pretty well executed slotted headstock with a nice conventional Martin-esque shape. It is formed with fairly sharp edges, which I personally prefer to the softer edges found on some imports. I think it could have benefited with a bound headstock with rope binding similar to the regular mahogany concert that Mainland offers. I'm not sure how easy it would have been for the binding to be added to the headstock, and perhaps the additional cost would have been prohibitive, but it would have really completed the look of the ukulele. As it stands, it's a good looking headstock that's perhaps a bit plain thanks to the lack of binding and the rather large space between the Mainland logo and the slots. I had some inlay stickers sitting around so I put one in that space as you can see in the picture below. I'm not sure it looks so good but maybe I'll leave it there for a little while.

Front of the slotted headstock (w/ghetto sticker)

Back of slotted headstock


As far as functionality goes, I feel the headstock contains perhaps the biggest weak point of the ukulele, which are the tuners. These slotted headstock tuners are really cheap. My daughter has one of those $30 Makala dolphin ukes and upon examining the tuners on her ukulele, I'm pretty sure they are from similar sources, if not the same source. These tuners do work, but they feel pretty rough in their operation, and each tuner has a different level of roughness to them. They also look pretty rough, as you can see the machining marks on the "stem" of the tuning buttons. I certainly don't expect Waverly or Gilbert tuners on these ukes, but I think it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect something of similar quality to Grover tuners that are found on plenty of inexpensive imports. On the plus side, these tuner sets appear to be specifically made for ukuleles as they have two tuners on each mounting plate. I guess the bottom line is that they work and hold the tuning, so that is probably all that should matter for this ukulele. But that doesn't change the fact that these tuners are of pretty low quality.

Here is the tuner on the pink Makala dolphin uke.

Notice the similarity between the Mainland tuner and the Makala tuner.

Mainland tuners on mounting plate made for 2 tuners.

Besides the tuners, the slots look good but all four strings touch the slot ramps on their way from the nut to the tuner posts. Some luthiers consider this a no-no since the strings are touching part of the headstock and could rub against the finish and either scrape the headstock or damage the strings prematurely. However, this condition exists on my two William King ukuleles that have slotted headstocks. I'm of the opinion that while it is not desirable to have the strings touch the headstock, and my King tenor does have some scrapes near the slot ramps, it isn't a big issue with nylon string instruments and a trade off for not having the slot ramps being too close to the nut, causing possible weakness in the neck. This is, of course, very debatable and not everyone will share this opinion, but it's something that does not bother me personally and I don't anticipate any problems arising from this on the Mainland concert.

The headstock of the Collings is fairly radical. My copy of the UC-1 has what's called a "haircut" headstock shape. The headstock is formed perfectly and has a rosewood veneer with the Collings logo inlaid with plastic. It also has sharply finished edges like the Mainland, but there's an air of perfection about the work on the edges of this headstock. It's hard to describe in words but it really is perfectly formed like it was made in a precision mold instead of hand carved at the Collings factory (I can't verify this, but as far as I know, Collings has a person that specifically does the haircut headstocks). I find the headstock to be very attractive and unique, and it was a big reason why I bought this uke at the time since future UC-1's after the initial production run has the traditional Martin headstock shape.

Front of Collings headstock


Back of Collings headstock


This headstock features PegHeds tuners that look like violin friction tuners but actually are 4:1 geared tuners. These are some of my favorite tuners because they offer the precision of geared tuners but because of the much closer gear ratio, it doesn't take as long to change strings as a few turns are all that's required to tune it up. PegHeds can look a bit plasticky up close, especially the buttons. But Collings did a nice job in removing the mold lines on those plastic buttons so they really don't appear that much like plastic (I know PegHeds have those mold lines because my Kepasa Gypsy Rose's PegHeds have them). Just be looking at this headstock you can tell how much attention to detail Collings puts into their instruments.

Note the lack of mold line on the plastic tuning button.


Moving down to fretboard, both ukes have a 1-3/8" nut, which is narrower than my preferred 1.5" nut width. However over time I've found that I can manage this nut width just fine. The Mainland has a rosewood fretboard with simulated pearl position dots (I'm guessing that it's not real mother of pearl at this price). The rosewood appears to be of good quality and doesn't seem to be much different than the rosewood used on the Collings. There are no side position dots, which is expected at this price point. However, I can't help but think that it wouldn't take much to have some side dots (the Collings appears to have silver painted-on side dots) and that would really make the Mainland appear more upscale. The fret wires ends are not exposed at the edge of the fretboard, making it something like a pseudo bound fretboard. However, the top edges of the fret wires are not quite finished perfectly, and I can feel a little bit of jaggedness when running my fingers up and down the fretboard. It's not bad, but it's there, and I definitely feel it.

Notice the fret ends are not exposed on the edge


The Collings feature a radiused fretboard. Collings did not advertise the actual radius of the fretboard as far as I know, but I think it's around 16"-18" since it looks about the same as my King concert's radiused fretboard. The radius is supposed to make it easier to fret bar chords by making the fretboard so that it curves with your fingers. I personally like radiused fretboards and believe that it does make a small difference in playability. However, I don't think it's a night and day difference and I can see some people not feeling the effects of the radiused fretboard at all. There are plastic position dots on the fretboard with the dots getting smaller as you go up the frets. There are side markers that appears to be painted silver. These markers are not fancy but are nicely done and do their job. The fretwires are exposed at the edge of the fretboard. However, unlike the Mainland, I do not feel any jaggedness or protrusions whatsoever. This is an exceedingly well finished fretboard.

You can see the side dots and the radius from this view


The neck of the Mainland joins the body at the 14th fret. This makes it a good ukulele for music that requires playing past the 12th fret. Since I enjoy playing a lot of tunes that go past the 12th fret, the Mainland offers better playability in this regard. The neck itself is a two piece construction, with the heel being a "stacked heel", which means it is made from two pieces of wood glued together and then shaped into the heel. The headstock is one piece, which is pretty rare in this price range. But since this ukulele has a slotted headstock, that pretty much prevents the normal two piece headstocks found in most production ukes. Structurally, I don't think there are any differences between a stacked heel and a one piece heel, but a one piece heel/neck is more high-end since the neck is made out of one piece of wood instead of gluing multiple pieces of wood together. The construction of the neck is decent. The neck has a somewhat flat "C" profile and feels pretty good in the hand but does not feel perfectly rounded. I can feel the contour of the neck where the curvature changes very slightly as I run my hand up and down the back of the neck. The heel is also not symmetrical on my uke, which probably can be attributed to lower workmanship standards. Despite the things mentioned above, I don't have any issues with the neck of this ukulele. It's very playable and more than sufficient for it's price.

You can see the seam of the stacked heel on the Mainland


The neck of the Collings joins the body at the 12th fret. I believe this is a nod toward the traditional ukulele such as vintage Martins and Kamakas, where they are also joined at the 12th fret, as well as Collings belief that the 12th fret neck-join places the bridge at the sweet spot of the soundboard. I don't have enough knowledge to say whether a 12-fret neck or a 14-fret neck makes a better sounding instrument, but in my experience, I think 14-fret neck joins can make very good sounding instruments. By having the neck join at the 12th fret, it makes the ukulele a little less friendly if you like playing around the 12th fret region as access is more limited compared to the 14-fret join of the Mainland. I would personally have liked the Collings to have a 14-fret neck, as it would make it easier to play some of Jake Shimabukuro's tunes, but I can also respect the belief that a 12-fret join results in a better sounding instrument. The neck itself is of a one piece construction. Given how relatively expensive this ukulele is, I would have expected nothing less. The heel has a fairly low profile, so it does help slightly with higher fret access. The neck is very well carved with a nice "C" profile. It's smooth up and down the neck and pretty much perfectly rounded. It is comfortable to hold and has a high quality look.

Collings' one piece heel

Well, this post is getting to be pretty monstrous, so I'll end it here and write about the rest of the ukulele's appearance and workmanship in the next post. I think one thing that is becoming clear is that the Collings clearly has the upper hand in terms of workmanship. I doubt this comes as any surprise to anyone, give the big price gap, but it is something to keep in mind as you continue to follow the Ukulele Smackdown.

Ukulele Smackdown: Mainland vs. Collings round 1 - Background and stuff

So the Smackdown begins! Sort of. We'll start with some background stuff about the two ukuleles.

The Collings UC-1 was introduced by Collings Guitars in April of 2009. I'm not sure why Collings all of a sudden decided to build ukuleles, but one guess is that given the poor economy toward the end of 2008, perhaps Collings was looking for ways to diversify their product lineup. Whatever the case it may be, Collings has a reputation of building very high quality guitars and mandolins. Their workmanship is considered some of the very best among factory guitar builders today. I became immediately intrigued by the new Collings ukuleles because of their sterling reputation and because I thought they could be the "vintage Martin ukes" of tomorrow. I paid pretty close attention to the developments of the Collings ukes and found out that they will be offering several varieties called UC-1, UC-2, UC-3. Each model is more expensive and features more decorations and exotic woods. Collings guitars and mandolins costs a pretty penny and the ukes are no different. The only model I was going to be able or willing to get would be the UC-1, which retails for right around $1000. I found out that the only UC-1's that will have the Collings "haircut" headstock were the first production prototypes, and jumped at one that was on sale at Gryphon Strings as I much preferred the haircut headstock than the Martin style headstock that normal UC-1's will have. I got the Collings in May, 2009 and have owned it for about 5 months as of this writing.

I had been interested in a Mainland mahogany concert since January, 2009, as evident by this UAS forecast entry I had written at the time. Back then I was interested in it because it was pretty inexpensive and I thought the rope binding looked pretty good. I also was still experiencing a lot of UAS. I made it through that UAS stage without getting the Mainland (but quite a few other ones) but when I noticed that Mainland was coming out with a slotted headstock concert a couple of months ago, I was again interested. I love slotted headstock ukes and having it on a concert is even better because it's fairly rare. In fact, I believe this is the first ever factory production concert scaled ukulele with a slotted headstock. One time I had checked with MP Ukulele about a concert with slotted headstock and he said he only makes them on tenor & baritones. Yes, I do have my King concert with slotted headstock, but as far as I'm concerned, you can't have too many slotted headstock ukes. I also had this comparison in mind already. So last week I pulled the trigger on a Mainland slotted headstock concert uke.

For the purpose of this Smackdown, you should keep in mind that since I've had the Collings for quite a bit longer, it may have "opened up", as opposed to the one week old Mainland. However, since getting the Collings in May, I haven't really spent all that much time playing it. I don't have any idea about the actual playing time, but I'd guess somewhere in the 10-15 hour neighborhood. Maybe less. So perhaps that's not much of a factor, but still something to keep in mind.

Coming up next will be some comparisons of the appearance and workmanship between the two ukes. Both ukes have been played a bit the last couple of days and I need to snap a some pictures for the next section, so stay tuned!

Mainland vs. Collings Smackdown: The weigh-in

To kick off my planned comparison between the Mainland slotted headstock concert and the Collings UC-1, I will go over the vital statistics of the two ukuleles.

Mainland Slotted headstock gloss concert:
-Height: 24"
-Weight: 1.25 lbs.
-Scale length: 15"
-Nut width: 1-3/8"
-Body material: Solid Mahogany
-Fretboard/Bridge material: Rosewood
-Nut/Saddle material: Bone

-Neck material: Mahogany
-Headstock veneer: Mahogany
-Logo: Decal
-Finish: Gloss (poly)
-Tuners: Generic slotted headstock tuners w/pearloid buttons
-Fretboard position markers: 3, 5, 7, 10, 12 (no side position markers)
-Fretboard radius: None
-Fretboard binding: Simulated
-Number of frets: 19
-Neck join: 14th fret
-Binding: Plastic w/rope purfling

-Made in: China
-MSRP: $239.50 (no case included)
-Price paid including shipping: $$249.50

Collings UC-1 (prototype):
-Height: 24"
-Weight: 0.9 lbs.
-Scale length: 15"
-Nut width: 1-3/8"
-Body material: Solid Mahogany
-Fretboard/Bridge material: Rosewood
-Nut/Saddle material: Bone

-Neck material: Mahogany
-Headstock veneer: Rosewood
-Logo: Plastic inlay
-Finish: Matte
-Tuners: PegHeds
-Fretboard position markers: 5, 7, 10, 12 (side markers at 3, 5, 7, 10, 12)
-Fretboard radius: 16"~18"
-Fretboard binding: None
-Number of frets: 18
-Neck join: 12th fret
-Binding: None

-Made in: Austin, Texas
-MSRP: $990 (mine is a prototype w/haircut headstock that cost $1050, Panther case included)

-Price paid including shipping: $1100 (yeah, I got jobbed on the shipping)

These two ukuleles represent a high-end production solid mahogany uke (Collings) and an inexpensive import solid mahogany uke (Mainland). While they do not actually compete in the marketplace, I think it would be interesting to compare them because they are technically in the same category if you ignore price. Both are solid wood mahogany ukes in the concert scale. The Collings is about 4 times more expensive than the Mainland, but is it worth the extra cash? Should someone who owns a Mainland concert be lusting after a Collings? Or should be Mainland owner feel content that his/her ukulele is just as good? These are interesting questions and I hope to have some answers by analyzing these two ukes head to head.

What I hope to do in this comparison is to compare these two ukes in as many categories as I can come up with. I'm not sure about the format I'll do the comparison in, but it'll at least cover the looks, build quality, and sound. I'll try to mix in a video comparison of these two ukes somewhere too.

What this won't be, is a sugar coated evaluation of either brand (something I see entirely too much of in reviews online). I will point out all the good and bad points in my personal opinion and try to give you an unbiased view of both ukes. You may wonder how I could not be biased given that I paid 4 times as much for the Collings. All I can say is that if I'm biased about it, doing this comparison would be both a waste of my time and your time.

So stayed tuned for the first installment of the Ukulele Smackdown between Mainland and Collings! I will start with appearance and build quality and should have something up within the next week.

Mainland arrival

The brown truck brought me the Mainland slotted headstock concert today. It shipped in a huge rectangular box that contained the small wedge shaped box that held the ukulele. I went for the gloss option because in my experience matte finish shows scratches easily and the parts of the uke you touch a lot tend to shine up. Since this uke is probably a candidate to be moved down the road, I figure I might as well go for the more durable option. Besides, I like glossy finish anyway. I have not had much of a chance to play it but got a few quick pictures of it. Initial thoughts:

-I like the mahogany grain and color. A lot of imports use mahogany/sapelle with ribbon appearance, which I dislike. This one does not have the ribbon appearance is of a nice dark color, similar to my Collings UC-1.

-The slotted headstock is well executed. It has nice sharp edges, which I prefer to rounded edges. The slots are nice and clean, and the overall shape looks good. The tuners are just OK, but I don't expect too much from this price range and they do work.

-Initially I thought it sounded similar to the Kala tenor neck soprano I had, but a little more stumming revealed a characteristic mahogany "pop" in the sound. Pretty good.

-My initial feeling is that this is a pretty good value for $250 shipped.

This uke will be going up against the Collings for some no-holds-barred comparison between mahogany concert ukuleles. I will switch out the strings to Worth CD's and probably do a few rounds between the two. I'm also thinking of putting this Mainland up against the William King LS-concert for some slot-head to slot-head comparison just for fun. So stay tuned to the ghetto!

**For whatever reason I got this picture at an angle where the back didn't reflect any light. The back is indeed glossy like the rest of the uke.

Five Dollars Unleaded??? I wish...

Well, I guess it's been a while since you could actually move a vehicle with five dollars worth of unleaded gasoline, but that didn't stop Jake Shimabukuro from writing "Five Dollars Unleaded". I think he said this was a song written about when he was a kid and his dad would go to the gas station and tell the attendant to put in "five dollars unleaded" in his car. Needless to say, it's now about $50 unleaded to fill most cars and a lot more for trucks and SUV's. But anyway...

So a couple of months ago I watched a few videos of this song on Youtube, including this fine cover, and decided that I would like to learn it. Since there are no tabs available to my knowledge, I thought I'd try to learn it from Youtube videos. Besides that cover, I found a few videos of Jake playing this song. Between watching the videos and listening to the notes, I think I was able to play a reasonable version of this song, and here is the result. This is a fairly easy song to play, but there are a couple of finger stretcher parts, including a note that reached the 18th fret. I discovered that both of my sopranos do not have an 18th fret while trying to play this on them. The ending passage was also a bit of a challenge, since it has to be played pretty fast. Otherwise I didn't find it overly difficult to learn. That's one thing about most of Jake's songs. They seem pretty hard to play but if you really give it a good shot, they are not too bad. Of course, 3rd Stream is still extremely difficult no matter how I slice it...

UAS-less streak broken...

I have managed to fend off UAS since the end of April, which represents the longest UAS-less streak since I started the ukulele journey in the beginning of 2007. But that has come to an end. The uke you see above is the latest one, a Mainland concert with a slotted headstock. So why this one? Well, since I learned that such a uke was in the works, I became interested. Obviously, I'm a slotted headstock nut, but I also felt that the price was very good. Something that I can take a chance with without too much financial burden. Another thing is that I'm interested in comparing a Chinese mass produced solid wood mahogany uke such as this one against a high end semi-mass produced solid mahogany uke such as my Collings UC-1. Finally, I happen to have two pretty nice concert sized cases sitting around that I got for free (an Oahu case that came with my King concert and a foam/canvas rectangular Kiwaya I won from MGM in a contest) so this uke should fit in nicely (nice excuse huh?).

Actually, it'll be interesting to compare the Mainland to the Collings. The Collings costs 4X as much as the Mainland, but I'm pretty sure the Collings won't be 4 times the ukes the Mainland is (this is not the same as saying the Collings isn't worth 4 times more). Should make for an interesting comparison.

To be perfectly honest, even with this purchase, I haven't really lusted after any ukes of late. I'm pretty sure this won't touch off a UAS frenzy for me. And with the addition of this uke, I'll be parting with my LoPrinzi mahogany tenor pretty soon. I can't believe I still have 15 ukes! My uke rotation is pretty much down to about 2-3 these days, so most ukes gets some token playing time if even that. But it only gets more difficult when trying to decide what to sell now because most of what I have now are really nice instruments and just about all of them bring something different to the table.

Anyway, stay tuned for the no-holds-barred smackdown between Collings and Mainland in a (ukulele) ghetto near you!

Quick update

It's been a while since I've lasted posted. I've been kind of lazy but also been kind of busy. So not much is going on. I've been meaning to take a video playing Jake Shimabukuro's "Five Dollars Unleaded", but haven't gotten it down good enough to shoot a video without major screw ups. I'm getting there though, so hopefully it'll happen soon.

I have not bought a new uke for a record 5 month! (last uke was the Collings UC-1) But I think that streak might be coming to an end soon. I'm pretty set to get one of those upcoming Mainland concerts with the slotted headstock. If you've read this blog you know I love slotted headstocks. It's amazing that I have not bought a Kala Acacia tenor yet, with it's slotted headstock, but I think I already have too many tenors and I've been playing the concert scale a lot more lately, so I've refrained from getting the Kala Acacia tenor. One of the things I'd like to do is to do a comparison between the Mainland and Collings concerts. I'm fairly confident that the Collings isn't going to be 4 times the uke the Mainland is (Collings costs over 4 times as much as the Mainland), but it could be fun comparing them in various categories. So possibly look for that down the road if I'm successful in acquiring the Mainland concert.

Even if I don't get the Mainland, the ukeless streak is bound to come to an end soon as my Glyph mezzo-soprano is finally due to get started at the end of the year, I think. It will have an all koa body with, you guessed it, a slotted headstock. Since ordering it over 2 years ago, I have completely overhauled the design once and made a couple other changes, including adding and then removing a Mi-Si pickup option. I think the design is pretty much set now. To give you an idea on what it will look like, it will kind of look like a mini version of Jake Shimabukuro's Kamaka. Hopefully it comes out good and be worth the wait. Check back in, oh 5-6 months to see the results!

Just today I found a new ukulele blog called Ukulele Perspective. The blog owner posted to my last post. It seems to be an interesting blog and should be a fun read for ukulele enthusiasts. There's a survey that gives you a chance to win an ipod shuffle, so be sure to check that out.

Anyway, that's it for the quick update. As fall and winter draws near, hopefully I'll have more to post on this blog. Thanks for reading!

Jay Chou (周杰倫) on the ukulele??

Several weeks ago I saw a video on Youtube by kenlou1274 playing a song called "Dandelion's Promise" (蒲公英的約定) by Taiwanese singer Jay Chou (周杰倫). I've listened to several of Jay Chou's songs as he is a very popular singer in Asia, but I wasn't familiar with this one. I thought it was a cool arrangement and I actually found this song on my iPod (got tons of Chinese language songs on it that I haven't even listened to). So I decided to try and learn this by watching kenlou1274's video. It was a fairly straight forward arrangement but it wasn't easy for me to learn for some reason. It took a couple of weeks before I can play it all the way through reasonably. Since I got some time this afternoon I decided to give it a shot and made a video playing this song. It's not quite as good as kenlou1274's (check out his skills on his channel. I dream of being able to play 3rd Stream some day.), but I'm happy with it.

By the way, I seem to be more of a visual learner. I have learned a few songs by watching Youtube videos where the fretboard is clearly visible. I don't think I can quite learn by ear yet, but a clear video definitely helps me a lot. A few people have commented to me that they've learned a few songs from watching the videos I've posted, and I'm very happy to have been able to help out a few people out there wanting to learn more ukulele arrangements.

Happy strumming to all!

It's almost like I'm cheating...

That's how I'd describe playing the William King long scale concert ukulele that I received 3 months ago. Why would I say that? Read on!

It was around November of 2008 when I received an email from William King informing me that he is opening his 2009 build list. At the time I had no intention of ordering another custom ukulele as I had been enjoying my King long scale tenor and I also had a DaSilva soprano in the works. However, that email kind of got me thinking about what I'd order if I had commissioned another ukulele from William. Since I already had a LS-tenor from him, I thought it would be good to have a LS-concert. At roughly 16" scale, it would slot in nicely between a standard concert (15") and tenor (17"). I would want it to have a slotted headstock with Gilbert tuners, 16" radiused ebony fretboard, and a Mi-Si pickup. For the body wood material, I wanted something other than koa since the LS-tenor was already made from koa. It didn't take long for me to make a sketch of the ukulele and send it to William for a quote and some suggestions on body wood. I was interested in an Macassar ebony body since I've seen some pretty sweet ebony ukes from William and KoAloha and William responded that he does have a concert Macassar ebony set left. For top wood, he suggested either redwood or Adirondack spruce. I've read a lot about different species of spruce and liked the idea of having a uke with an Adirondack spruce top, so it was decided that the uke will be made from Macassar ebony and Adirondack spruce. I quickly reserved a build slot and started waiting for the completion of the uke.

The ukulele arrived around mid-April and I was thrilled with its looks (pictures here). The Gilbert tuners required a thicker headstock, which I absolutely loved. The headstock of the LS-tenor always seemed a bit thin for some reason, and now I know why. The Macassar ebony looked very classy, with nice chocolate stripes running evenly throughout the body. The Adirondack spruce top looked great too, with nice silking that makes it look almost like curly spruce from some angles. The rosette looked marvelous as well. I had specified an abalone rosette, but William added a thick Macassar abalone border and some b/w/b lines around it to make it look just outstanding to my eyes. It was built with the Nunes style body shape and looked wonderful. I was extremely satisfied with the appearance of this ukulele. Because the uke was built out of Macassar ebony, a very dense wood, it is significantly heavier than similar sized ukes built out of more traditional wood such as koa or mahogany. Of course, that's all relative and even with its added weight, this is still a pretty small instrument we're talking about and I have no issues at all holding it while playing.

When it came time to play it, I have to admit I was initially a little bit disappointed in the sound. Prior to receiving this ukulele, I had been playing the King LS-tenor almost exclusively. While waiting for the LS-concert to arrive, I imagined a ukulele that sounded a lot like the LS-tenor but in a smaller package. I've read that guitars made from Macassar ebony and Adirondack spruce produces a very powerful sound, so I figured that I could expect it to be similar to the LS-tenor, which offered some seriously powerful sound from its koa and Swiss spruce combination. That was decidedly not the case when I first started playing this uke. The sound was very clear and pleasant, but it was very very different from the LS-tenor. It did not have the punchy percussive quality that the LS-tenor had, and it didn't sound especially loud. Instead of a punchy sounding instrument, it had a more complex tone and crystalline feel that was more similar to the KoAloha Pineapple Sunday. I thought it sounded great. The notes feel like they spring right off the fretboard whether its picked or strummed. I feel that the notes have real depth and the sustain is excellent up and down the fretboard. It just feels alive when being played. Basically, the only thing I wished for was a little more volume, and being a spruce top, I figure it would open up from frequent playing, which is something I planned on doing.

Speaking of playing, I don't think ukuleles could be much easier to play than this one. For me personally, I've always found the concert scale to be the easiest of the standard ukulele scales to play. Adding an inch to the standard concert scale proved to have no effects on playability at all, as far as I'm concerned. William had set it up with very nice and low action, and combined with the 16" radiused fretboard, every song I know just felt so easy to play on this ukulele. To wit, I learned Jake Shimabukuro's Piano Forte, which required some serious finger stretches, earlier this year. Of all the ukes that I own, it was far and away the easiest to pull off on this ukulele. Whether I played it on tenors, standard concerts, or sopranos, I couldn't pull off the song as cleanly as I can on this uke. Perhaps it was a combination of the factors above, but I just know that this ukulele makes every song play with less effort on my part. It is truly a great player.

So now I've been playing it almost daily for 3 months, I appreciate its qualities more and more each time. I'm not sure if it has increased in volume or not (and if I've made it sound like it's a quiet uke, it's not), but I've come to realize that's not what this uke is about anyway. It is all about sublime sound quality and great playability. Since I got this uke, even the mighty King LS-tenor has taken a back seat. This is simply the uke I reach for the most when I want to play. Why do I say that it feels like I'm cheating when playing this ukulele? Because it lowers the level of difficulty of playing songs, and it makes my playing sound better than it is. I'm actually kind of afraid that I won't be able to handle playing other ukuleles if I'm too used to this one and have consciously tried to rotate my other ukes more. So I think this is the highest compliment I can give to this ukulele: I almost feel like I'm cheating playing this uke...

For sound files, check out some videos I've posted with it: Stars & Stripes Forever, Piano Forte, Dragon, ghetto Gently Weeps performance.

The King's throne

Ok, so it's just the Ameritage case. Well it finally arrived today to house the King ebony/spruce LS-concert. I decided to order a custom Ameritage case because the LS-concert is just a little too long to fit comfortably in the Oahu case that it came with. The order was placed with Finecases on April 17th, so it took 3 full months to arrive from order placement. I had to specify more headstock room for the LS-concert and decided to change the exterior color to make it more of a custom case. The standard Ameritage case has a burgundy handle and trim with a grey body and brass hardware. I thought I'd make this one all black so the trim and body color were changed to black. The hardware was kept brass because I like the gold color against the black case. Most of the black cases I have has silver hardware, so this would be a little more unique. The interior is the standard burgundy color because it cost too much to change the interior color too and I thought the color worked very well with the black exterior.

Even though I had sent in the measurements of the King LS-concert, I was still a little worried that the uke might not fit well. But I thought the worst case scenario would be that the case has the same dimension as the standard Ameritage case. I had test fitted the King LS-concert in the Ameritage concert case I house the Pineapple Sunday in, and the uke fits, with the headstock right up against the case. Fortunately, the dimensions I sent in was right on and the custom case has room to spare in the headstock area (see picture below).

These Ameritage cases really cost quite a bit of money, as much as some decent solid wood ukes. However, with its humidity control system, it gives me the peace of mind of knowing that my custom ukes can make it through the harsh Minnesota winter and its very sturdy construction ensures that the uke will be well protected against just about anything. So for me, this is money well spent.

Case exterior


Case interior


The King fits nicely in the case


Plenty of headstock room

Mahogany, mahogany, mahogany...

Besides the Hawaiian koa, mahogany is considered the traditional ukulele wood. This probably stemmed from the fact that Martin Guitars built most of their ukes from mahogany in the old days. It also doesn't hurt that mahogany does offer a nice sound and good durability to an instrument such as the ukulele. By most accounts, mahogany isn't really all that abundant anymore. However, most people still consider it the cheaper alternative to koa ukuleles and you will usually find them costing a lot less than comparable koa models.

I love koa as much as the next guy and most of my ukuleles are made from koa. However, right now I do have a trio of very nice mahogany ukuleles, one in each of the 3 GCEA sizes. While they don't compare to nicely grained or curly koa in terms of looks in my opinion, I do find some of the darker colored mahogany ukes to look very classy and beautiful. The three mahogany ukes I have are the Kiwaya KTS-7 soprano, the Collings UC-1 concert, and the LoPrinzi model A tenor. Each of these ukes offer great sound and good playability. To me, a good mahogany ukulele offers a good balanced tone with nice "pop". This is most evident in the Collings among the three I have, but all three offer excellent volume and great tone. Of the three, I'd rate the Collings for having the best sound followed by the Kiwaya then the LoPrinzi. You might notice that they happens to be ranked in order of their retail price (Collings = $990, Kiwaya = $975, LoPrinzi = $550), but I assure you that's purely coincidental. If anything, I think they are priced correctly in relation to each other. And of course, you could argue that the Kiwaya is more expensive given that it is a smaller uke for only $15 less. In my opinion, the Collings and Kiwaya ranks with the best of the factory made ukuleles I've played, while the LoPrinzi is a step above a good import solid wood ukulele but a slight step below a good Hawaiian made solid ukulele.

In terms of looks, mahogany is pretty much a no-nonsense looking wood. While curly mahogany is available, a great majority of mahogany ukuleles have uniform straight grain that doesn't have a lot of variance like koa does. A lot of Asian made mahogany ukes have a ribbon pattern and are fairly light colored. From the picture above you can see that the LoPrinzi is of a lighter color with a bit of the ribbon pattern while the Collings and Kiwaya has a darker appearance and uniform grain. I personally prefer the darker colored mahogany so I prefer the looks of the Collings and Kiwaya over the light and slightly ribboned look of the the LoPrinzi.

Mahogany is very light and has great strength to weight ratio. The Collings in particular feels extremely light compared to its size. I don't quite get that sensation with the LoPrinzi but that may be because it is a larger uke so even if it's light for its size, it still has a little weight to it. The Kiwaya feels about as light as it looks. I also at one time owned a 1930's Martin style 1 soprano that felt light as a feather. It was definitely lighter than the Kiwaya, but the Kiwaya is just as loud and has a more refined and complex sound. To me the Kiwaya sounds a lot like what I expect a concert to sound like.

Koa will always be THE ukulele wood of choice, but mahogany definitely doesn't give up anything to koa in terms of sound. I think every ukulele collection could use a mahogany uke because of its sound qualities and to give a nod to tradition. The three ukes presented here are on the spendy side, but there are plenty of good quality import mahogany ukuleles offered by the likes of Mainland, Ohana, Kala, and Pono.

To see and hear a couple of mahogany ukes, here are videos of the Collings and Kiwaya.

Some "studio shots" of the mahogany ukes:

Kiwaya KTS-7

Collings UC-1

LoPrinzi model A

Juke-alele?

The third member of KoAloha's Masterpiece collection, dubbed the "Juke-alele", was recently unveiled on the internet forums by musicguymic. Having owned the Pineapple Sunday (Masterpiece #1) and played a few examples of the Sceptre (Masterpiece #2), I knew the next one would be a great sounding and playing ukulele. However, the Juke-alele really took me by surprise in terms of appearance. I have no doubt that it's a great sounding and playing uke, but the design is really over the top. Too much so for me, I think. It is literally a jukebox shaped ukulele and for me no matter how great it plays and sounds, it's more or less a novelty item due to the appearance. I don't know the story behind it, and I'm sure there's a wonderful story behind it, but right now the jukebox shape and decorations on this uke doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. What's next? The Speaka-lele (speaker shaped)? How about the Ipod-lele? I guess the possibilities are endless. Don't get me wrong, I love KoAloha and I like their spirit of innovation, but I'm not seeing the point of ukuleles made to look like other non-abstract objects (the Sceptre to me is barely an abstract object).

Who knows, maybe one day I get one of these in my hands and it blows me away and I want one, but I guess based on the pictures I've seen, I have not been moved to desire one. And that's a good thing because in addition to it not feeding my UAS, it's hefty (reportedly $4000) pricetag would definitely take a big bite out of the o'l wallet!

Guava Jammin' on Collings

I wrote about the Collings ukulele so much a while back I almost felt like a Collings salesman. But despite those posts, I had never put up any sound samples. Until now! Yes, I finally got around to making a video with the Collings UC-1. Since I'm running out of songs I know how to play, I had to dig into my "repertoire" for a song that I had learned a while ago. It is Guava Jam by Ka'au Crater Boys as transcribed by Dominator. It's a song that requires a lot of picking and I had never really tried to get it down totally. Since I wanted to post a respectable sound sample for the Collings uke, I've been practicing this one over the last few weeks on and off and I think I can now play it decently. This is a weird song for me because it feels like it should be very difficult, but I can play most of it passably without looking at the fretboard. I guess that's what they call muscle memory or something.

Regarding the Collings UC-1, despite not having played it all that much lately (spending most of my playing time on the King LS-concert), I still feel that this is a top notch uke. It certainly plays well and has that nice mahogany "pop" (for lack of a better way to describe it). I'm very happy that this one is in my collection.

Anyway, here's the video:

Sneak peak of a custom case

Shortly after I received my William King ebony/spruce LS-concert, I decided to get an Ameritage case for it. The uke had come with a pretty nice Oahu concert case, but it was an extremely tight fit and the headstock was solidly against the wall of the case. The reason for the tight fit is because the neck is slightly longer than a normal concert with its 16" scale. When ordered through Fine Cases, it is possible to make custom specifications for the case and I took the opportunity to specify the dimensions of the uke for a custom fitting case. Since this is a custom case, I decided to alter the colors slightly as well. The upcharge for exterior and interior color changes from the default color is quite steep at $44 each, so I opted for just an exterior color change to an all black exterior. It may seem pretty boring to specify an all black case, but I have not seen an all black Ameritage ukulele case yet and I wanted to keep with the "ebony" theme of the ukulele itself.


The case was ordered on April 17th and having ordered a custom Ameritage in the past, I knew it would take a while for the case to be completed. I had almost forgot about it but today I was pleasantly surprised by an email from Fine Cases with a few pictures taken by Ameritage of my case. It looks great and I'm looking forward to putting the King concert in its proper throne. I just hope I didn't screw up the dimensions!


Now the pictures: