After completing new testing, we have new picks: Kala’s Satin Mahogany is our top pick, and Monoprice’s Idyllwild Sapele is our budget pick.
From kids in elementary-school music programs to residents of retirement homes, people everywhere continue to take up the ukulele in record numbers. The Kala Satin Mahogany is the best all-around choice for most beginners because it plays well, sounds pretty good, and comes in concert and soprano sizes to suit adults and kids alike.
This uke sounds good, plays easily, and comes in the just-right concert size that’s comfortable for kids and adults. But it doesn’t come with any accessories.
How To Choose The Best Ukulele
This soprano uke is a smaller version of the KA-C concert uke. It offers similarly good sound and quality in a more-portable size that’s better for small hands.
This affordable, concert-size uke plays well and sounds almost as good as our Kala KA-C top pick. And it comes with a case, strap, and tuner.
This small uke is a kid-friendly size, and it offers cool styling and an appealing price. The sound quality is solid, but it’s not as loud and rich as what our pricier picks deliver.
Ukulele V.s. Guitar: Which Is Better For Me?
The Kala KA-C Satin Mahogany Concert Ukulele and the Kala KA-S Satin Mahogany Soprano Ukulele are ideal starter ukes for many reasons. They’re easy to play and built well, with no buzzing strings or rough-edged frets (at least on the samples we tried). They both have a full, reasonably loud sound. And unlike many ukuleles, which tend to go out of stock often these days, both of these Kala ukes seem to be in consistent supply at retailers.
The KA-C concert model has a larger size and fretboard, so it’s better for adults and big kids, whereas the smaller, KA-S soprano uke is better for travel and tiny hands. (Check out the diagram below to learn the parts of a ukulele.)
These ukes don’t come with accessories, so if you decide to stick with the hobby, you’ll want to at least add a case. Learn more about uke accessories here.
Ukulele Performances That Showcase Its Surprising Versatility
If you can’t find the Kala KA-C concert uke in stock, the mahogany Donner DUC-1 Concert Ukulele is another good choice. It has a pleasing sound and an unusually wide fretboard, which makes it easier for adults to play but not too hard for most kids. Thanks to its concert size, it’s a good choice for any beginner (or expert), and it even includes a nice case, a strap, and a tuner.
) they break it—we recommend the Idyllwild by Monoprice Sapele Soprano Ukulele. It’s not fancy, but it plays pretty well, stays in tune, and sounds okay, if a little thin.
Remarkably for its low price, it comes with a carrying case, a strap, a tuner, and extra strings. But we do see more stock issues with this model than with our more expensive picks.
Reasons To Play The Ukulele
I’ve been playing ukulele since my Uncle Mac gave me a Harmony soprano uke back around 1969. I have owned more than 30 ukes in my life, and I currently own seven of them (in four sizes), plus a ukulele bass and a double-neck uke/bass. I play uke in jam sessions and occasionally during my jazz-bass gigs. And I also featured it prominently on
Wirecutter supervising editor Adrienne Maxwell, who runs her own ukulele group and plays in her local ukulele orchestra, evaluated all of the top picks, plus some other models.
Over the years, we’ve also solicited the opinions of several professional instructors, including Fred Sokolow, who is one of the world’s best-known ukulele instructors, and Jared Canchola and Phil Ernst, who teach ukulele, guitar, and bass at Anthem Music Lessons in Chatsworth, California.
Best Ukulele For Beginners
To help me evaluate ukulele instructional books, I tapped the talents of John Higgins, a former music teacher with a master’s degree in music from the University of Southern California, and Martha Nelson, who teaches ukulele (and music in general) in the New York City public school system.
If you’ve been thinking about learning to play a musical instrument, the ukulele has a well-deserved reputation as a good way to start. That’s because it’s one of the easiest stringed instruments to play, and many ukes cost less than $100. A ukulele is also highly portable, so it’s easy to take to school or on vacation.
Although the initial enthusiasm that comes with buying a musical instrument can quickly dissipate, the low price of a good starter uke makes the investment risk much smaller than with most musical instruments.
Top 17 Best Ukulele Brands In 2023
With the above criteria in mind, I scanned online retailers like Amazon, Guitar Center, and Elderly Instruments, and I also tried new ukuleles during my annual visit to the NAMM Show in Anaheim, California.
In the testing sessions we conducted for this article, we considered a total of about 100 ukes and tested over 40 of them. To test each uke, I first tuned it and played it for about half an hour to make sure the strings were reasonably broken in and thus less likely to go out of tune while others played the uke. I kept the original strings on, figuring a beginner would be unlikely to change them—in part because nylon uke strings last much longer than steel guitar strings.
I checked each uke’s intonation, or the degree to which all of the notes played in tune with one another and with the open (unfretted) strings. Fortunately, any intonation flaws I found were trivial.
What Are The Best Ukulele Brands In 2023?
After the testing was complete, I revealed the prices, which in some cases inspired the panelists to elevate a good, affordable uke over a slightly better but much more expensive model.
Choosing a musical instrument is a matter of taste, and our testers’ tastes might not agree with yours. You might visit a music store and find a model you absolutely love that isn’t one of the ukuleles we picked or that we didn’t even consider. If you do, buy it and let us know about it in the comments section, below.
Kala’s KA-C Satin Mahogany Concert and KA-S Satin Mahogany Soprano ukuleles are both great to get started playing the uke. They both sound good and play very well, and, unlike many other ukuleles, they’re reliably available from a wide variety of retailers. The larger, concert model will be more comfortable for adults and teens to play, while the smaller, soprano model is a better choice for kids.
Best Ukuleles To Buy For Beginners
They play great. We found nothing in their design that makes these ukes difficult for a beginner to play, which is something we can’t say of many under-$100 ukuleles. They have smoothly finished frets, so you won’t scrape your hand as you’re shifting positions up and down the fretboard. The action (or string height) is low enough so the strings are easy to press down, and all of the samples we’ve tried—whether supplied by Kala or encountered in music stores—have been free of buzzy notes caused by uneven frets.
We think the wider fret spacing and larger neck of the KA-C concert model will make it easier to play for most people, including most adults and teens. However, young children and those with small hands will likely prefer the KA-S soprano model. The KA-S’s small size also makes it a little easier to transport.
Both of these ukes have a pleasingly full sound that will blend well with ukulele groups. They’re also especially appropriate for accompanying vocals because their tone is a little on the mellow side, so they won’t draw too much attention away from the singing. But they still play fairly loud for their size, so you shouldn’t have to strum too hard to make your playing heard in a group.
The 6 Best Travel Ukuleles: Lightweight, Compact, & Weather Resistant
We liked their traditional look. Their appearance recalls the elemental styling of vintage ukes from the mid-20th century. The finish on the mahogany plywood body looks beautiful, and the white binding around the body is a nice touch.
Another big plus of these ukuleles is that they seem to stay in stock. Throughout the history of this guide, we’ve had problems with many of the models we recommend going out of stock often, sometimes for many months. Kala seems to be able to keep its basic models in stock with a wide variety of retailers.
The classical-guitar-style bridge makes these Kala ukes harder to restring, but beginners probably don’t need to change their strings often. Photo: Michael Murtaugh
Ukulele Buying Guide For Beginners
All of our testers liked the Donner DUC-1 Concert Ukulele, and none of them voiced a major complaint about it. And that was before they found out that it’s one of the least expensive concert ukes we tested and that it comes with a nice case, a clip-on electronic tuner, a strap, and an extra set of strings. This uke is a great choice for anyone who wants to keep their total investment well under $100.
It’s a well-made uke for the price. The DUC-1 is made of mahogany, and it has fully enclosed tuners, position markers along the side of the fretboard, and a slotted bridge that lets you easily change strings. It includes preinstalled strap buttons on the bottom and on the heel of the neck, a feature rarely found on a
0 Response to "Top Ten Ukulele Guitar"
Posting Komentar