Sunday, February 19, 2006

A Good, Cheap Uke

In a previous post your faithful correspondent praised the value of cheap musical instruments for the average amateur player. Earlier this week a parcel arrived at Bloody Nib Manor containing a Mahalo uke. Mahalo ukes, unfortunately made in China as is everything else these days it seems, cost less than thirty dollars (not counting postage and handling) over the Internet. WWW.MotelMusic.com sells them, as does Ukulele World. They are available in about a half dozen colors.

The uke I received is not of the quality of a Martin or Kamaka, but it's better than some I've seen over the years. My only problems with the uke are: 1.) it has machine tuners instead of pegs, which makes working the upper part of the fretboard a bit difficult for me, and 2.) the strings. The strings seem to be some sort of fishing line instead of proper uke strings. They go out of tune within a half hour. But changing the strings will change that problem.

It's a decent little uke for practice. I bought mine as a work uke. In other words, it's the uke I leave at work for practice. So, if you're looking for a cheap musical instrument to start your rock and roll career, you might consider the Mahalo uke. If nothing else it'll make people think that you're doing something artistic.

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