UkeGuide Ukulele Review: Aklot Bamboo Concert Ukulele
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- čas přidán 13. 08. 2024
- This review looks at the Aklot Bamboo Concert Ukulele, an instrument available only through online options in the United States. It is a wonderful ukulele that doesn't cost too much--and you get a kit of what you need as accessories. Recommended.
To see the One Minute Ukulele Review, visit: • One Minute Ukulele Rev...
Use the time stamps below to jump to various places in the video; chapters should also appear in the video as you watch/scroll through the content.
00:00 Title
00:04 Tuning
00:14 Sound Demo
01:51 Intro
04:25 Subjective Matters
08:16 Internal Uke Cam
10:06 Back to Subjective Matters
14:44 Tonal Energy Harmonic Energy Series (original strings)
15:37 Objective Data
18:47 Summary
21:02 UkeGuide Rating
21:33 Thanks for Watching!
21:45 Outro
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I just bought the concert uke and I’m stunned over how good it is. An unbelievable value for the money.
I like this instrument a lot; I have moved on from other instruments, but this one is one that is likely to stay with me.
Mine is coming. I can’t wait 🥰🥰🥰
I really like my concert. I almost bought the Kala version this summer to compare...but I'm waiting for a used model to pop up on the market, as I don't like paying the full price for a Kala.
Hi! I have the tenor and the concert and am in love with both. Since I spend at least 1/2 my time playing baritone, I'm constantly checking to see if Aklot has come out with a bamboo bari, but, to date, no luck. I imagine it would sound incredible! Thanks very much for your great review, and take care. :)
It might be worth contact Aklot on their Facebook group and requesting a baritone version. I’d buy one.
Kala makes a bamboo Baritone ukulele. I'm thinking of ordering one soon.
I have both the concert and the tenor versions and love them. They have a clear but warm sound, and I’ve never gotten anything bad from Aklot. I don’t mind a plain appearance as long as it plays well.
They evidently listened about the fret and side markers as mine have all black markers now. I know this video was done awhile back.
I think these are great. If I had to sell all my ukuleles out of necessity, I might keep this one and my Enya Nova. Thankfully, that’s not something I have to do.
I love my Aklot Concert bamboo ukulele! I also have an Aklot solid top mahogany soprano as well, which I really like. I agree with what you said about improvements on the bamboo. I could not see the front fret markers either, so instead of marking on or changing out the markers themselves, I stained the fretboard a bit of a darker color brown, just dark enough to now see the markers. I think it looks great too. I changed out the strap buttons for black with gold screws to match the tuning gears. By the way, those tuning gears are my favorite out of all my 8 ukuleles! They look and work great! I also changed out the saddle to black TUSQ, and I’ll be changing out the nut to black TUSQ as well in the future. (I had a uke with really low action, so I was able to use the bone saddle in this uke to replace the short saddle in my other uke, so that bone saddle did not go to waste.). And the final change would be the strings, of course. I put Fremont Blacklines on it and I love how they sound on this uke. It sounds so sweet and clear. Well worth the money and I put a bit more money into it with the changes that I did, but this ukulele is worth it.
Regarding front fret markers: I use 1/4" colored adhesive dots from Amazon. Check out "Colored Labels 3300 count" Cheap, long lasting, don't
damage fingerboard.
Thanks for your comments!
Great review. I bought this ukulele and like it very much. I wish Aklot also makes a soprano version of it.
There is an Aklot group on Facebook. I'd suggest joining it and requesting. I have a good friend, locally, who plays only sopranos or long neck sopranos, and she bought the Kala bamboo soprano because Aklot didn't have one (and she likes it, which does not surprise me).
Hi, another great review thank you. I got one of these and I'm very happy with it, a far superior instrument to the tenor which I bought a few months ago. The strings on the concert are much better (the gauge is a lot smaller) like you I put different strings on my tenor. My strap buttons, side markers and fret markers are black, again much better than the tenor. As for the price, well they were on a deal for a little over £40 so irresistible. Again, thank you for all you do to help others in the uke community. Stay safe & well. Regards, Trevor
You're very welcome . Aklot recently posted that they are discontinuing these, which I feel is a big mistake...but apparently some models experienced some form of separation due to low humidity. Really, is it that hard to throw a humidifier in your case if you know that it will be under 40% humidity where you store the uke?
I agree with you, being in the UK we don't have that problem, lol... 🤣Keep up the good work. Thanks again.
Another great review! I agree about the need to swap out the white markers for black!
It is so hard to see them!
I just bought a Bamboo Kala tenor. I didn’t know of this brand but. Really like my instrument. Would certainly have considered this brand if I had know. I trust the Kala brand and liked a previous Kala Tenor. Good review and certainly very complete
Thanks! I think they would stack up In a similar fashion head-to-head.
I have a Cordoba bamboo concert with cutaway, which I picked up for a couple of hundred dollars back in the day, it's an awesome uke. Now, this Aklot is incredible value for what you get, and very stylish too with the slotted headstock. BTW, what are your thoughts, if any, on the Aklot Banjo Ukulele? Thinking of adding a banjolele to the collection, but don't want to go overboard where it comes to price, and the Aklot is very competitively priced.
I haven’t played the Aklot Banjolele, but at this point everything I have bought from Aklot is built well and plays well. I think everything they
make sounds good, too. Sometimes they make some odd choices, such as the dove bridge on their solid top models or the name etched on their original bamboo tenor. But otherwise I don’t hesitate to recommend them at all. Great value for the money and great instruments. I would expect the banjolele to be the same.
@@UkeStuff Great, thanks for the insight.
Thanks for the response. I have a Kala baritone acacia and the tenor Kala acacia and just got a Kala tenor mahogany. I try finding them used as well. Have thought about a bamboo and then saw Aklot has them on sale right now and less expensive than Kala. I don’t mind the simple look and would probably dress it up a bit. I’m a lefty. Could the Aklot be easily converted to a lefty? You did a great review on this, by the way.
The Aklot does have a compensated saddle; so if you really want to stick "true" to intonation, you might want to have a custom saddle made for you. Beyond that, other than the tenor with a cutaway (on the wrong side) there would be no reason that you couldn't string it left handed, and the compensated saddle would probably work anyway (after all, there are so many uncompensated saddles on the market).
If you're going to buy it...look on eBay, as the company ships in the US via eBay often at a lower price than its Amazon listings (I'd be willing to bet Amazon charges more than eBay, especially with shipping and storage factored in). The only thing you lose via eBay is easy returns if you don't like it.
Oh...and I'd put fluorocarbons on it immediately, without even waiting.
Thanks for the positive comments. My mission is to provide a resource that will be valuable down the road when these ukulele become available used and there is no current information on them. How wonderful that would be for all the ukuleles from the 1950s and 1960s that come on the market that nobody knows about!
Have you by chance had a chance to compare it to the Kala bamboo? If so, why are the differences besides color of bridge, dots, saddle? Is there any actual difference in the structure of the body? If you’ve compared them, which would you get now?
Hello! I have not had a chance to compare the instruments--Kala did run out of theirs at one point last year and just recently re-stocked.
Also, without complaining about it, I have reached out several times to Kala and asked if they would have any interest in helping me facilitate reviews, and they were not interested in doing so.
For the record, I am not looking for free ukuleles at this point. Instead, I want to develop relationships with companies and their local dealers that can stock instruments the company wants reviewed, letting me review them and return them to the dealer, or even to buy instruments at company cost. Considering that Kala's price point can no longer be considered to be on the "budget" side of things, I just can't buy Kalas to review (and sell them at a 40%-60% loss after a review), so I have to wait for used Kalas to show up on various sites and try to get them that way (This channel earns about $40 a month...not complaining..actually rather grateful...but it limits what I can put into the instruments that are reviewed).
If a Kala bamboo concert ever shows up used at an affordable price, I will definitely buy it, review it, and compare it, as I have no intention of selling my Aklot Concert Bamboo.
I've had my Cordoba Bamboo soprano for a number of years... so I don't think they or Kala copied Aklot. Also, the Cordoba model is slightly better made with nice arching, compared to the Aklot, but it's also more expensive. These Aklots have dropped in price on Amazon because people have complained about the volume.
Thanks for stopping by. Cordoba’s approach was different and might have been closer to the Moselele Bamboo ukulele that Barry Maz reviewed some time ago. Looking at pictures online, the Cordoba seems to be made or “strips” of bamboo strips (first making a wider strip, and then connecting those together) whereas the Aklot and Kala look like one continuous set of thin strips.
But most importantly, Cordoba used its own headstock. And one posting I saw listed it at $340 original price.
The Kala, introduced a year after the Aklot, shares the same headstock and looks to be an exact replica. I need to get a hold of one and do a head-to-head comparison.
As for volume...I haven’t seen that complaint...and prices are dropping as companies get stock in the US after months of COVID restricted inventory. One company told me it is taking two to three extra months to get shipments, and even that is getting better all the time.
Nice review. I don't think the top is solid bamboo though. Bamboo is a grass, so there isn't a single piece of bamboo wide enough to make the soundboard out of it. So I think they glue together several pieces of bamboo and then cut the soundboard off. So they should not advertise the ukulele as "solid top bamboo".
They are strips of solid bamboo, which is different than a laminate ukulele which is strips of some kind of wood with a veneer on top. You can argue that most solid ukuleles with a matched top are not “solid” but wider strips of wood. So solid bamboo is an accurate definition...but you are right in your understanding of the way the bamboo is put together.
Did Kala copy Aklot?
Well, we’ve discussed this in the recent past and there’s a chance Kala had it in the works for a while; however...Aklot was shipping laat year and Kala’s rolled out at NAMM looking very much similar. As did their bamboo “travel” ukulele (Flight TUS). It sure seems like Kala was in the copy/responding mode this year.
Cool i'm a concert player myself im not a fan of tenor for me tenor are more like a guitar .
So are you looking for a baritone?
@@UkeStuff they're a fan of concert, meaning smaller ukuleles.