Gear Reviews

Kanilea KSTP ukulele

Kanile’a KSTP Tenor Ukulele Review

The Kanile`a KSTP is an heirloom ukulele. It’s the kind of instrument that you can reward yourself with and keep for a lifetime of fun and exploration.

Gretsch Camp Uke and Long-Neck Soprano Uke

By Ken Hughes Like a handful of other storied, American instrument manufacturers, Gretsch participated in the first uke boom nearly a century ago, and the fact that the company is still around to take part in the current surge in…

Blackbird Clara

The idea started with having an instrument for the maker’s four-year-old daughter and turned into a concert-sized ukulele that’s collecting design awards. Made from an new bio-based composite material called Ekoa, the Blackbird Clara is an innovative new ukulele from…

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Seagull Merlin

Let us be the first to say, the Seagull Merlin—it is not a ukulele. It’s not even an instrument that really existed before Seagull invented what it calls the “strummable dulcimer,” but it’s so charming and user-friendly that ukulele players…

Collings UC1 Concert & UT2K Tenor Ukuleles

By Adam Perlmutter [Editor’s note: Collings has put ukulele production on hiatus since this review appeared.] In its four-decade history, Collings Guitars has made smart, modern interpretations of the widest range of golden-era guitar designs—acoustic and electric, flattop and archtop—not…

These LuLus Are Real Head Turners

It can be hard being the guy that brings a ukulele to a jam session. Though true lovers of the jumping flea know what joy the instrument can bring, they also know the pain of the groans and guffaws it…

Two Kala Tenors Up For Review

By Breeze Kinsey / Excerpted from Ukulele No. 6, Fall 2014 The word kala has a handful of meanings in Hawaiian. According to Mike Upton, the founder of Kala Brand ukuleles, the connotations range from “a unicorn fish” to “slang for…

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D’Addario Planet Waves NS Ukulele CapoPro

As with many parents of small children, the last several months of my life have been filled with songs from Disney’s animated film Frozen. The story of two sisters coming into their own has struck a chord with my little…

Kala UBASS-SSMHG-FS and Bakithi Kumalo Signature U-Bass

If there's any instrument that can match the ukulele for soul-stirring goodness and deep emotional power, it's the bass. The folks at Kala must have felt that way, too, because when the company created the U-Bass by mixing ukulele and bass together in one instrument, it was a genius move up there with combining chocolate and peanut butter.