Alex, I actually watched this at work with no sound! I was so excited to see the line-up I couldn't wait! What a wonderful list of some amazing Ukulele's. Of course, I will watch again when I get home. Thank you for doing this video for us. Very interesting.
Bought our daughter a real beut for her 30th, six years ago. An enjoyable time with the lads in shop and with a lighter wallet (and a credit card in melt-down) she went home with a beautiful model. Played a few charity gigs - only her and me allowed to touch it!
I was happy to see the Moon Bird at No.1. I came to the same conclusion after trying many throughout the year. My concert choice is Kanile'a KPA-CP and tenor is of course the Moon Bird UT200.
The Clara is amazing but the Baron River's at number 10, sounds SO sweet & melodic, yet loud enough to project that effortlessly, so that it carries further than it should. I've never heard of the brand before but if this is #10.... Phew! 😯
OMG, there's at lease 8 uke that is voted that I want now... NOW i mean, NOW...I'm so jealous and envy. where i am, there isn't much choices of uke. Happy holidays people. May God bless everyone
Best ukulele reviews I've seen. Excellent job. You have featured some beautiful instruments, and I have to go with #1. Looks beautiful and sounds beautiful. Cheers!
i know this is old but we in Australia are about 2 to 3 years behind everywhere else in ukes and trends. i have the Kanilea KSR T and it is the easiest tenor to play and is a gorgeous uke. I just ordered the Snail S60c as it also looks and seems to sound nice. Im thinking of ordering the Kai through you guys as it also looks nice and the soundhole on the sides looks interesting. If you were a local store i would be your best client as you have the best brands and a cool layout. When you play beside all those beautiful ukes they must all resonate slightly in harmony.
Excellent video, Alex. Incidentally, like the “gangsta wrapper” shirt... You and your family have a wonderful holiday season. Best wishes from the San Francisco Bay Area.
my go to is an oscar schmidt baritone. rarely goes out of tune. a great player. i just bought a kmise, thin body, tenor , which i put tenor-bari strings on. an outstanding little thing that i paid $35 for.
hello Alex and others! Did you drop the Barron River Lute spruce featured here as nr. 10? can't find it using the search engine on your site... have a nice day!
You were playing all those right handed ukes left handed! Was the only change to swap the strings round, or did you need to adjust the saddle/nut on any of them?
I play them in the demo videos upside down. It would take me days to film each video if I set everything up left handed and then back to right handed when I was done. If you are left handed, we don't charge to convert an instrument. We have to fill and recut the nut slots and sometimes build a new saddle to correct intonation.
I'm not in the US market to judge what choice you have besides, we ship to the USA. There are several Baritone comparison videos on the channel covering over 30 Ukes so please, please, please seek them out. They can be found on our CZcams channel homepage in a playlist.
I have a Kanile’a Super tenor 19” as my very own ukulele. I learned on a passed down Kamaka concert my sister stopped playing in my twenties. The Kanile’a has a different sound vs the Kamaka, but surprised a Kamaka didnt make the list
Kamaka are the Kings of quiet consistency. They didn't make the list because they haven't released anything new to capture people's imagination. It's not a knock on Kamaka that they weren't featured 🙂
The Risa LP in Cherry deserves an honourable mention and would have likely been featured if Risa had managed to produce more than 8 for us all year (we could have sold 40) then it may have been featured. We also shortlisted the Kala Journeyman which has been super popular but it got no votes. Both great suggestions 👍
Thought id never buy another chinese Uke again, but the Kala 8 string Bari is a phenomenal piece of kit for the money. Im guessing even better without the Aquilas. Yes its a pain to tune, but remarkably easy to play.
only comment i have is you should have included the price of each one because most like value for the price you pay unless you have money to burn like the ones who buy 2000 dollar ukes when others sound almostr as good but dont look like sparkling diamonds lol just my opinionto me sound matters moire than looks however there are some very extravagant beautiful choices thanks for making this video i enjoyed it
I totally understand where you are coming from guys... Let me explain my reasoning for being vague when talking price. I tend not to bring up prices because prices change and here in the UK during the past 3 years of Brexit uncertainty, prices can change very suddenly and with little sense. In early videos for this channel I mentioned the price and when it changed shortly after on the next delivery I had customers messaging asking for the item at the old price. In the end I had to delete several videos that were only weeks old because they were suddenly out of date and irrelevant. The links to these Instruments are always in the description so you are only ever one click away from finding out the price.
@@SouthernUkuleleStore yes nothing ever lowers in price sadto say lol i was looking at big island then i did the conversion rate to us dollars way to high for a big island.thanks for the reply .
At £200 it feels better than many of the other Ukes at the price. The all solid wood Acacia one is also excellent but because we are still waiting to receive a tenor version here in the UK it has had a bit more of a limited appeal. Not nearly as many people are buying solid Acacia Concerts as Solid Spruce or Cedar top Tenors... That's why the KTI-700 made our list and not the 5000's.
Southern Ukulele Store thank you for a Quick and good response. For me The trick is, that Denmark is a bit of a 3rd World country, when comes to ukulele stores. You’ll get The usual suspects.. lover range Kalas/Makalas, cordobas and so on.. I have to rely a whole lot on CZcams 😝 I’m thinking buying a tenor (my first) and right now I Can actually get The 5000 on sale a Price close to 200£
Most of them yes. It would have to be something really complicated like a fan fret instrument or something with a fixed bridge saddle for it to be not possible... Like a Magic Fluke for example or something with a preamp on the side which would be majorly annoying on the underside of a uke. We do conversion on instruments to Lefty's for free when you order. It takes about 45 minutes to refill and recut a nut and build a new saddle with the correct compensation.
@@SouthernUkuleleStore Wonderful. By this weekend I will be ukulele rich. I have one coming tomorrow, an Oscar Schmidt in flame mahogany and Saturday a Kmise Tenor. Now, if I don't cut off a finger or something by the weekend I should be good til July 4th? :o)
I'm commenting before the video is done, so maybe this will be answered before the end. I will edit if it is. I am looking at that beautiful orange/red resonator on the left of the video. I want a resonator, and I want that so bad suddenly. Can you/ anyone provide the brand?
I like how Asian brands are getting the attention they deserved. All top three are from Asia. The Rebel-Tailand/Snail-China/Moonbird-Taiwan. My Uke collection includes two ACE ukes (Hong Kong brand), they are more popular than Ponos in Asia. You should check out their K65, A3/A65 models.
@@lalagab2491 I merely want to point out the brand is from a different city. ACE brand is based in Guangzhou. You cannot pinpoint them as the same. Mainland China is very often simply referred to as China; it is just a matter of usage, nothing related to logic.
@@SouthernUkuleleStore hi there! i'm a classical guitarist, so i'm used to the 12fret to the body setup. i was wondering why almost all tenor ukes are built in the folk guitar style. more sound board, better tone i think.. what i've found so far are: 1. vintage martin style 1 tenors (1930s-40s) 2. vintage gibson TU1 (also 1940s) 3. Farida KTT-2NC tenor (currently in production) 4. Hive tenor ukes (not certain about this one) ps did you guys finally hire someone? may i send my resume? i majored in music in college
So the positioning of the bridge on the body is going to be a key reason for not seeing 12 frets to the body Ukes often. It's probably just the evolution of the uke - the Hawaiian style of Tenor remains the popular style. Both the vintage Martin and Gibson Tenors are rare for a reason and part of that may be because putting the bridge so low down warped the top. Either way it's not something I can make a video on 🤷🏻♂️ Send a CV. 🤙
We have made 30 concert videos this year out of 70 videos. Sopranos are trickier because they only make up about 6% of our sales. It's worth going back through the channel - the content is there.
If it helps, you can safely assume if we recommend the Tenor model of something that the Concert version will also be good... If 60% of our sales are Tenors then the choices will naturally curve in that direction. The Moonbird Concert, Kai KCI-700 and Kanile'a models featured would more than hold their own in a concert size against the competition. I will try and feature more Concert ukes this year 👍
TIME STAMPS - (SPOILERS BELOW)
Intro 0:00
10 - Barron River Lutz Spruce Tenor 1:15
9 - Kala ABP-8-CTG 3:22
8 - Kai KTI-700 - 6:15
7 - KoAloha KTM-00 9:16
6 - Blackbird Clara 12:52
5 - Romero Grand Tenor 15:47
4 - Kanile'a KSR-T 18:33
3 - The Rebel Particle - 21:35
2 - Snail S60C Acacia - 23:48
1 - AnueNue UT200 - 26:37
Outro 30:30
Alex, I actually watched this at work with no sound! I was so excited to see the line-up I couldn't wait! What a wonderful list of some amazing Ukulele's. Of course, I will watch again when I get home. Thank you for doing this video for us. Very interesting.
Bought our daughter a real beut for her 30th, six years ago. An enjoyable time with the lads in shop and with a lighter wallet (and a credit card in melt-down) she went home with a beautiful model. Played a few charity gigs - only her and me allowed to touch it!
I was happy to see the Moon Bird at No.1. I came to the same conclusion after trying many throughout the year. My concert choice is Kanile'a KPA-CP and tenor is of course the Moon Bird UT200.
Glad to see the Clara made it on the list again. I couldn’t agree more!
The Clara is amazing but the Baron River's at number 10, sounds SO sweet & melodic, yet loud enough to project that effortlessly, so that it carries further than it should. I've never heard of the brand before but if this is #10.... Phew! 😯
OMG, there's at lease 8 uke that is voted that I want now... NOW i mean, NOW...I'm so jealous and envy.
where i am, there isn't much choices of uke.
Happy holidays people.
May God bless everyone
This was a great list...so many ukes I am not familiar with. Alex you make me want them all LOL! Oh and I love the gansta wrapper t-shirt :D.
I wish there was a music shop like yours within my area. Some people who just care about the instruments, and are knowledgeable.
Best ukulele reviews I've seen. Excellent job. You have featured some beautiful instruments, and I have to go with #1. Looks beautiful and sounds beautiful. Cheers!
Thanks very much
@@SouthernUkuleleStore you're welcome (noʻu ka hauʻoli!)
i know this is old but we in Australia are about 2 to 3 years behind everywhere else in ukes and trends. i have the Kanilea KSR T and it is the easiest tenor to play and is a gorgeous uke. I just ordered the Snail S60c as it also looks and seems to sound nice. Im thinking of ordering the Kai through you guys as it also looks nice and the soundhole on the sides looks interesting. If you were a local store i would be your best client as you have the best brands and a cool layout. When you play beside all those beautiful ukes they must all resonate slightly in harmony.
Excellent video, Alex. Incidentally, like the “gangsta wrapper” shirt... You and your family have a wonderful holiday season. Best wishes from the San Francisco Bay Area.
Thanks Tim... Had my honeymoon in San Francisco. Always had a soft spot for the area. Appreciate you watching
my go to is an oscar schmidt baritone. rarely goes out of tune. a great player. i just bought a kmise, thin body, tenor , which i put tenor-bari strings on. an outstanding little thing that i paid $35 for.
Hahahaha! AnueNue. "I bet if you look hard enough on CZcams, you could find an animal playing them!" Totally cracked me up!
great list! most of the brands I have never heard before, really interesting! thanks!
Come, Long Awaited Video
The Barron River sounds gorgeous, will there be any more in the future?
Not at SUS I'm afraid but they are still available direct from the luthier himself.
I like the snail it’s beautiful🤪👍
hello Alex and others! Did you drop the Barron River Lute spruce featured here as nr. 10? can't find it using the search engine on your site...
have a nice day!
It was a one off instrument... We haven't been able to get one since 🤷🏻♂️
@@SouthernUkuleleStore I see. Thanks for explaining!
I have a moon bird and absolutely love it, I completely agree with everything you said about it, the neck is so comfortable to play.
Hi
Sou do BRASIL
você prefere qual marca KALA ou OHANA
Tenor elétrico
?????
You were playing all those right handed ukes left handed! Was the only change to swap the strings round, or did you need to adjust the saddle/nut on any of them?
I play them in the demo videos upside down. It would take me days to film each video if I set everything up left handed and then back to right handed when I was done.
If you are left handed, we don't charge to convert an instrument. We have to fill and recut the nut slots and sometimes build a new saddle to correct intonation.
Hello there. What is the stunning uke in the cabinet behind the closeup or behind you to the left? Thanks
I think you're talking about the Sumi Ukuleles.
NIce Job !! I enjoyed that :-)
Rebel, number one.
Hello there.. What four stringed baritone would you recommended in the American market?
I'm not in the US market to judge what choice you have besides, we ship to the USA. There are several Baritone comparison videos on the channel covering over 30 Ukes so please, please, please seek them out. They can be found on our CZcams channel homepage in a playlist.
My favorite on the list was the Snail 🐌
Thanks for such a great post. I gotta know, what the heck is that fun looking reso model in the back? With the immense sound hole?
Haha that would be the Ben Bonham
www.southernukulelestore.co.uk/bonham-design-tenor-resonator-ukulele-the-queen-with-hard-case-043/
@@SouthernUkuleleStore wow!!!!
+1 for Rebel ukuleles!
I have a Kanile’a Super tenor 19” as my very own ukulele. I learned on a passed down Kamaka concert my sister stopped playing in my twenties. The Kanile’a has a different sound vs the Kamaka, but surprised a Kamaka didnt make the list
Kamaka are the Kings of quiet consistency. They didn't make the list because they haven't released anything new to capture people's imagination. It's not a knock on Kamaka that they weren't featured 🙂
Great reviews, it is the Rebel that suits my tone preferences.
Why no Bass or all electric ukes in the review, my Risa ST is my go to.
The Risa LP in Cherry deserves an honourable mention and would have likely been featured if Risa had managed to produce more than 8 for us all year (we could have sold 40) then it may have been featured.
We also shortlisted the Kala Journeyman which has been super popular but it got no votes. Both great suggestions 👍
Thought id never buy another chinese Uke again, but the Kala 8 string Bari is a phenomenal piece of kit for the money. Im guessing even better without the Aquilas. Yes its a pain to tune, but remarkably easy to play.
Yes, across all the sizes people tend to really dig fluorocarbon strings on the cedar top Kalas!
only comment i have is you should have included the price of each one because most like value for the price you pay unless you have money to burn like the ones who buy 2000 dollar ukes when others sound almostr as good but dont look like sparkling diamonds lol just my opinionto me sound matters moire than looks however there are some very extravagant beautiful choices thanks for making this video i enjoyed it
I totally understand where you are coming from guys... Let me explain my reasoning for being vague when talking price. I tend not to bring up prices because prices change and here in the UK during the past 3 years of Brexit uncertainty, prices can change very suddenly and with little sense. In early videos for this channel I mentioned the price and when it changed shortly after on the next delivery I had customers messaging asking for the item at the old price. In the end I had to delete several videos that were only weeks old because they were suddenly out of date and irrelevant.
The links to these Instruments are always in the description so you are only ever one click away from finding out the price.
@@SouthernUkuleleStore yes nothing ever lowers in price sadto say lol i was looking at big island then i did the conversion rate to us dollars way to high for a big island.thanks for the reply .
What makes The Kai KTI-700 better than The solid Wood 5000-model?
At £200 it feels better than many of the other Ukes at the price. The all solid wood Acacia one is also excellent but because we are still waiting to receive a tenor version here in the UK it has had a bit more of a limited appeal. Not nearly as many people are buying solid Acacia Concerts as Solid Spruce or Cedar top Tenors... That's why the KTI-700 made our list and not the 5000's.
Southern Ukulele Store thank you for a Quick and good response.
For me The trick is, that Denmark is a bit of a 3rd World country, when comes to ukulele stores. You’ll get The usual suspects.. lover range Kalas/Makalas, cordobas and so on..
I have to rely a whole lot on CZcams 😝
I’m thinking buying a tenor (my first) and right now I Can actually get The 5000 on sale a Price close to 200£
Well it's definitely worth that...
Would you recommend the Kai for a beginner?
Yes
What was that tune you played on the Clara please?
One of my main demo songs I play on dozens of videos. It's just a riff based around the C chord. I will do a tutorial for it one of these days
You should know, if anybody does. Can any brand or make of Uke be set up right or left handed?
Most of them yes. It would have to be something really complicated like a fan fret instrument or something with a fixed bridge saddle for it to be not possible... Like a Magic Fluke for example or something with a preamp on the side which would be majorly annoying on the underside of a uke. We do conversion on instruments to Lefty's for free when you order. It takes about 45 minutes to refill and recut a nut and build a new saddle with the correct compensation.
@@SouthernUkuleleStore Wonderful. By this weekend I will be ukulele rich. I have one coming tomorrow, an Oscar Schmidt in flame mahogany and Saturday a Kmise Tenor. Now, if I don't cut off a finger or something by the weekend I should be good til July 4th? :o)
I'm commenting before the video is done, so maybe this will be answered before the end. I will edit if it is.
I am looking at that beautiful orange/red resonator on the left of the video. I want a resonator, and I want that so bad suddenly.
Can you/ anyone provide the brand?
Beltona
@@SouthernUkuleleStore Thank you! Those are super expensive, but seem nice! But I know now roughly what I should save for!
I like how Asian brands are getting the attention they deserved. All top three are from Asia. The Rebel-Tailand/Snail-China/Moonbird-Taiwan. My Uke collection includes two ACE ukes (Hong Kong brand), they are more popular than Ponos in Asia. You should check out their K65, A3/A65 models.
Thanks for the tip
@@SouthernUkuleleStore I think this model is A65Y, but it sounds pretty to me. czcams.com/video/1U0o-pFw4nk/video.html
ACE is not a Hong Kong brand but a China workshop make.
@@SmallUkeBigWorld You mean mainland. HK is part of China. Your logic is off.
@@lalagab2491 I merely want to point out the brand is from a different city. ACE brand is based in Guangzhou. You cannot pinpoint them as the same. Mainland China is very often simply referred to as China; it is just a matter of usage, nothing related to logic.
What about the aNueNue LOUT Lion Orange 🍊 Tenor Uke. Its very similar in sound to the ut200
That came out after this video was made. First one we had was in July 2020... It is on my shortlist for this year
I bought the LIon LOUT 3 months ago cos I coiuldn't get the UT200. very happy with the sound. How do you find it compared to the UT200.?
You should watch our recent AnueNue video where we compare the two and discuss it. It sounds like a video you would enjoy.
What are the names of the ukulele brands that are behind you? The ones in the glass case.
Sumi Kobo
Southern Ukulele Store still available?
Nope. Sorry.
could you make a video about tenor ukes that have 12 frets to the body?
Can you give me a list of Tenor Ukuleles that have 12 frets to the body? I can think of maybe one I've seen ever...
@@SouthernUkuleleStore hi there! i'm a classical guitarist, so i'm used to the 12fret to the body setup. i was wondering why almost all tenor ukes are built in the folk guitar style. more sound board, better tone i think..
what i've found so far are:
1. vintage martin style 1 tenors (1930s-40s)
2. vintage gibson TU1 (also 1940s)
3. Farida KTT-2NC tenor (currently in production)
4. Hive tenor ukes (not certain about this one)
ps
did you guys finally hire someone? may i send my resume? i majored in music in college
So the positioning of the bridge on the body is going to be a key reason for not seeing 12 frets to the body Ukes often. It's probably just the evolution of the uke - the Hawaiian style of Tenor remains the popular style. Both the vintage Martin and Gibson Tenors are rare for a reason and part of that may be because putting the bridge so low down warped the top. Either way it's not something I can make a video on 🤷🏻♂️
Send a CV. 🤙
KTM00 should have been 1 !
Anuenue is Taiwanese brand !
Designed in Taiwan made in China. It's written on their website.
www.anuenuemusic.com/en/about
Southern Ukulele Store That's right, but it is still our brand in Taiwan! Many products are now manufactured by Chinese or Vietnamese foundries!
Well, wherever they are made - you can be proud of the way they represent Taiwan!
not the c1K ?lol
Lol
Lol
I found that you guys don’t feature sopranos or even concerts🤔
We have made 30 concert videos this year out of 70 videos. Sopranos are trickier because they only make up about 6% of our sales.
It's worth going back through the channel - the content is there.
@@SouthernUkuleleStore i meant for this list. looks like the winners are mostly tenors?
Pugaholic , number 6 and number 2
If it helps, you can safely assume if we recommend the Tenor model of something that the Concert version will also be good... If 60% of our sales are Tenors then the choices will naturally curve in that direction. The Moonbird Concert, Kai KCI-700 and Kanile'a models featured would more than hold their own in a concert size against the competition.
I will try and feature more Concert ukes this year 👍
You look like the toy collector guy from Toy story 2 xD
I look fantastic in a chicken costume and I have no problem stealing your favourite childhood toys - good day to you sir!
Guys for future videos, please use a microphone! Can hardly hear you unless my headphones are plugged in.
Yes I'm not sure why it's so much quieter than normal... Sorry about that. I used our normal two mic set up
Audio was perfectly fine on this video, most likely you forgot to turn your device volume up.
No
...Ok 👌
The Best Ukuleles that were ever made were Most Vintage Martin's, and Collings Ukuleles made in Austin Texas. No Ukulele comes close to either.
Two words. Moore Bettah.
Whenever i see someone sighting a neck of a stringed instrument from the lower bout i know they don’t know what they are doing.
You got me. Absolutely clueless, the past 11 years have all been a big lie 😂
Perhaps it just made a good photo? Just a thought.
😂😂😂😂