Uke 101

[Dwayne Martineau]

I want to buy a ukelele for my girlfriend-- nothing fancy, just one of those Mahalos that seem to be everywhere.

I like the baritone ukes, but would there be a downside to gettng a baritone?

-Dm

[Dwayne Martineau]

My terminology may be wrong... by baritone I mean one like the uke on the right, here:
http://www.mevtaylors.co.uk/images/ukeleles.jpg

There are just 2 standard sizes?

[Jeff Watson]

A good source for uke info is Taropatch.net

[Gerald Ross]

I'd suggest a Bushman Jenny uke. These imported ukes are solid mahogony througout and sound excellent. Here is the Bushman website: http://jumpingflea.com/

The more inexpensive ukes at Bushman such as the Engelman or the Echo have also received good reviews. These are not 100% solid wood though.

I recorded my recent uke CD "Ukulele Stomp" using a Jenny Concert sized uke. A concert is one notch bigger than the smallest uke, a soprano. Check out my website for sound clips from the disk.

Beware about buying a baritone uke. Most baritones sound like really bad, cheap guitars. The only baritone I would consider buying would be a Jenny. I've played these and they sound better than most baritones. In general though, I don't really care for any uke larger than a tenor .

If you do buy a Bushman tell them I sent you.

------------------
Gerald Ross
'Northwest Ann Arbor, Michigan's King Of The Hawaiian Steel Guitar'




CEO, CIO, CFO - UkeTone Records
Gerald's Fingerstyle Guitar Website
Board of Directors Hawaiian Steel Guitar Association
<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Gerald Ross on 27 August 2005 at 12:51 PM.]</p></FONT>

[Brad Bechtel]

Moved to Music from No Peddlers. I played one of the mahogany Lanikai baritones the other day and was happily surprised at the quality.

------------------
Brad's Page of Steel
A web site devoted to acoustic & electric lap steel guitars