Some of my family comes from Hawaii and ukulele is a part of my life. They are a great instrument, fantastic as a songwriting tool as well. I move from guitar to ukulele as needed and don't think much of it. One of the finest instruments is made in my father's hometown and those are as nice as any of the finest guitars made. Koa is the most traditional wood for ukes.

I heard through the grape vine that Bob Taylor is now managing the Koa wood "situation" in Hawaii. Like total management of harvesting, growing, re-planting, planning, sales/forecasting etc. Similar to what he has done for Ebony in the African regions. It does seem that there is a lot more Koa available these days, similar to there being more Ebony available also. Even if the Ebony is the "striped" variety, maybe even more beautiful and just as functional. Good on Bob, and good for us!! Cordoba has a factory in California where they make their USA line of guitars. About 7ish years ago they bought the Guild Guitar brand and assets. They hired Ren Ferguson, formally of Gibson, to set up and run the Guild manufacturing there. All the new Guild USA guitars are now made at the Cordoba facility in California with Ren at the controls. He is a Master Luther and has made some awesome custom guitars while at Gibson. Sorry for being so wordy, just thought someone may be interested.?!? Kind regards, 8) --gary

Started off with a cheapo acoustic in primary school and ended up not playing due to my teacher quitting. Just before lockdown one i bought a ukulele to prove to myself i could still learn to play an instrument. Since then I've started playing a guitar and haven't looked back since.

Loved this! Please consider doing banjos next Ben and Lee!

“I need to learn to play” -B Plays the pants of the ukulele!

“I don’t really know how to play a Ukelele” proceeds to play something great

I have the Cordoba and felt it was definitely the loudest ( mine was a gift ), but my choice would be your #2 Alverez for quality of sound. The quality of the tuners, neck, and comfort would be a consideration as well. I think the ones with the darker woods and the cutaway look the best.

I have an AnuiNui. Cost around $150 10 yrs ago. It’s all lam mahogany and very well constructed and sounds pretty good. It’s a soprano body with a concert neck, so they call it a long neck soprano. Uke is big fun. My jamming buddy had a pretty nice tenor of some kind.

I’d love to see a decent tenor ukulele comparison vid please!!!

Really enjoyed the demonstration and comments on the ukes and their tone. While the type of wood and size body make a big difference, I would love to have heard you comment on the type of strings on the ukes. I have found that strings can make a very significant difference to the sound quality. Cheers!

I bet Ben is a great teacher he seems to have a certain way about him!

Ukes are fun...I have a Mahalo soprano, a Kent baritone and two bass ukes (Aklot fretless and UK Dream fretted)...none are top of the line but they all play great...it would be nice if you guys also featured some bass ones

It's so cool that you guy reviewed some ukus. After about 30 years of playing guitar, I pick up a soprano uku in Thailand while on holiday, a cheap 10 quid one. After a few beers and working out the chords, we were rocking by the beach under the stars! Now, to me it's the best travel 'guitar'.

We have a bunch of ukes (concert and tenors). While I’d never proclaim to be an expert, I would suggest you not buy a child a Mahalo uke to learn on unless you want to teach them a lesson. And that lesson is that you don’t love them and you don’t want them to continue playing ukulele. Ben, you should try some tenors too. They have a different tone, are easier to play, and sound great. Also, you may be interested in trying some new strings. Most ukes come standard with Aquila strings, but you may prefer something warmer like Worths (my preference for ukes). Great episode. Grats on the uke.

They are not just for kids lol. I play acoustic, electric guitars and have four ukes. I love the baritones and just recently bought a Fender Dhani Harrison tenor just for the beauty of the instrument. I have a mahogany baritone that I love with no pickup but great sound.

I have had the Cordoba 15TM (Tenor Size) for years and I absolutely love it and I think that Ben made the right choice!

There are also string sets with a low g available. Lots of people get confused about the high g note in the beginning, when playing melodies or scales.

I got an Alvarez AU90T a year ago and absolutely love it. I really think Ben would have got on better with a tenor uke. It's the same tuning as the concert and soprano, but a big bigger, so the fret spacing higher up the neck is actually playable for people who don't have tiny hands.

This is great. Next: Mandolin and Banjo please!

Btw I never got on with picks on uke. Felt or regular. The felt “felt” clumsy and a hard pick just don’t sound right. I use bare fingers.

Would love it if you guys tried out some baritone ukuleles. They're normally tuned DGBE like the four highest strings of a guitar, which should make your playing skills transfer over more easily. They have such a warm, mellow sound. I myself have an entry-level Cordoba Protege, which plays & sounds quite nice for the price.

Hi, Lee and Ben. Thanks for a great video on the ukulele, and just to suggest checking out the ukulele orchestra of Great Britain on KZfaq , they really are amazing and cover some great tunes, the good the bad and the ugly being one of them. Merry Xmas, thanks, Chris.

Ben You bought the right one and the Alvarez was my second pick...well done guys and interesting..thanks

I always have mine to hand when I'm cleaning windows

Its nice to see some *ukulele* on the channel aswell. Cheers!

Excellent work on the weight loss, Ben!

Interesting video. I wonder if Andertons might encourage cash strapped school to start Ukulele clubs by offering support. Music education is a very much underfunded area in schools today.

Its more than likely more to do with the resonance being impacted by the fitted pickup.. some resonance will be lost due to the shape of the pick up and battery compartment within the body of the guitar....

Just ordered the koa Laka!

My sons elementary school taught them ukulele. It was a surprise to me that one day we were sitting around the fire at home and we brought out a couple ukuleles and started jammin.

I have a Kala all mahogany concert size. So much fun to play, and a very "happy" sounding instrument. Cheers.

Ben, the new Roy Smeck ? !!! :-O

Shopping for a Uke for daughter. Thankyou so much for the Honest Review/Demo. Cheers

That looks hysterical using all those Hercules stands for those dainty ukes. I use one for my G&L 5 string bass.

Agree on you can get cheap ukes doesn't mean you should! To start yep £30 likely won't play well and you'll give up or loose interest but you can. I would reccomend £100 from a music shop for a serious consideration for a uke. Make sure it's set up properly. Some guitar brands are ok. They do tend to be a little heavily built though. There are definitely better quality and sounding instruments out there for the money.

Good to see some ukulele love on the Andertons channel. You need to get some solid bodied electric ukes and get Rob to do some shredding on them. :)

The different sizes of uke--i.e. soprano, concert, tenor, baritone--are based on scale length rather than physical size.

Hi, It will be great if you can show detailed measurements, because there is a marked difference between Cordoba and the others, (like soprano vs concert). Take care.

Number 4 was my favorite. For tone that is.

The Cordoba is maybe the loudest but to my ears not the best souding of the lot. The Alvarez you rated 2nd sounded quite a bit nicer and also less detuned across the frets, on top of the great look.

You should try a Kala Koa Ukelele if you get a chance. They have deep loud sustain like crazy for such a small instrument.

In the US elementary school goes 1-5 grade, 5-11 yr olds. Middle school is 6-8 , 11-14 yr olds. Then high school is 9-12. 13-18 yr olds

Fun video! Now can you do one on a few different types of ukes? Tenor, etc...

I have played on dozens of different ukulele models, of every one I found the Cordoba brand to be my favorite!

Definitely Liked them All The lower priced had an Awesome Tone. Although for My Choice of Woods Would be Koa. 👍👍🎶🎶🎸

Great vid. Please do tenors and also add some low G options!

Merry Christmas Acoustic Paradiso peeps!! 🥰

I have been looking for the Reno RU320E. So this video was great as inspiration....

Wow, the koa one gave a true sound. However the first one was the only without a cutaway. The koa did sound like what you hear when you hear a great player. But, that's just me...

I bought a Kamaka Tenor Ukulele in Kauaii, Hawaii around 12 years ago. It was quite expensive (700$). It‘s perfect, i play guitar and own quite a few acoustics and electrics. I often get drawn to the ukulele, there‘s something in that instrument that makes me play completely different. And the koa wood sounds brilliant and warm at the same time. Are the Concerts bigger than the Tenors or smaller? I don‘t know anymore. If i would buy another one it would be a soprano (smallest size). It‘s the original size. It‘s the loudest, more high tones to cut through an acoustic. It‘s not the bigger instruments that are louder, they are just more bassy and warmer.

My Hawaain friend let me hold his Kamaka ukelele a while back. made of Koa. way more expensive than i thought ukes could be.

Rather seeing ukulele is a gateway, I see them as an enabler because they have less of an instrument to fight with that enable then to make music sooner rather than later. So the road to finding enjoyment in playing is much shorter in my opinion

I would have thought intonation and tuning stability would be factors in price point on the more expensive ones?

Outstanding! I a have wanted to get a Uke.

fun fact about acacia , we use gum acacia for all kinds of food stabilizers and chewing gum. You can play what you eat!

Great playing!

I kept waiting for him to play Margaritaville. lol

Uke Paradiso ...get one with an output so you can fry the fretboard through a Hi-Gain Marshall LOL

And 29 Acacia Road is where Bananaman lives 😂

My daughter was in her Uke club and now has a much nicer uke. We went to Fiddlers Green here in Austin TX and tried about 30 out and one just spoke to her. On the same line, get one with 6 strings and your guitar playing skills feel more at home.

Uku's are great fun.

OK, now I see another video coming where the Cordoba is the baseline, and you put it up against some Tenor models. Have to do some more exploring here ... 🙂 Grammar School, Elementary School (used most often), or Primary School. I think it's a regional or colloquial thing ...

I've got one of the alvarez grateful dead ukes and effing love it for the price point that it was.

Intonation is critical. Cheap ones don't intonate well and sound crappy. So check this when buying any instrument

Interesting. I will have to try the felt picks. Dhani remarked that George Harrison had a collection of ukes. The Fender I have has a Fishman pickup. Thanks for this video!!

The ukulele has its origin in the XX century , whose ancestors braguinha the machete and Rajão , instruments carried by the Portuguese, when they emigrated to Hawaii to work in the cultivation of sugarcane in the islands.

This video made me think there was trick photography where Lee and Ben were superimposed in large perspective to make standard acoustic guitars look tiny 😂

I thought Ben second name was Dover .........I'll get me Coat

Cordoba makes a Portuguese style uke

You should play a use with fingers.. If you use a pick it should be a soft pick

I would lose the pick and go for a tenor with a low g 😉

Lee been down the gym

It's pronounced "ooh-coo-leh-leh." Hawaiians are very happy when you pronounce it correctly.

Super cool man

The dreadnought beats all the cutaways....

Koaloha opio over here. I couldn’t want more in a uke

Please check into Jake Shimabukuro. He will definitely get you to accept the ukulele as serious a musical instrument as anything else.

I thought Ukuleles are strummed with fingers?

The Cordoba doesn’t have a cutaway. 🤔

Every actual ukulele player saw the plectrum in his hand and cringed....

I knew you were talking private schools....there's no way my son's state school could afford buying £40 ukes for a club! 🤷‍♂️

Acacia wood = ark of the covenant (as in Raiders of the lost …) Noah used gopher wood. Neither could play like Ben. 👍

I use finger's (San's pick ) I buy the kids in my family ukeleles SSI they're infected young (I have two new great nephews and I've got their uke's already) didn't George Harrison write "Strummthing in the way she moves"?...just saying 😀👍🇫🇴☮️

I’ve been wanting a ukulele for awhile now, I kinda like the idea of being a lazy bum laid out on the couch. Just noodling around.

It was all the wood Noah had left..

I wonder if another reason why the cheapest Uke sounded best might be because of the absence of a stupid big hole in the side for a pickup system... Also there's an implied suggestion that Koa is used on all good Ukes. This is far from true. Koa was used on nearly all Ukes from Hawaii for a long time as it was the only commonly available suitable wood on the islands but a huge number of Martin Ukes were all mahogany and highly regarded. Now, the companies have fairly uniform access to any woods they care to use.

Certain species of acacia can be used to extract DMT - the Australian Govt once discussed banning the cultivation of wattle for this very reason...until they realised that banning something that's actually on our national Coat of Arms would be a bad look!!!! 😆😆😆

cmon captn have a go!

You can't beat #Cordoba at their game, they make Some of the best nylon instruments in the world

Or just get one from Thomann for half the price.

👍

Oh geez give me a break on content

It doesn't have a cutaway. That's why. A cutaway shouldn't be on an instrument that size.

Ben are you losing weight? or is it the beard?

I never even wondered if a Ukulele has a truss rod. Probably not, yeah?

Is Ben ill ?

No uke will sound its best if you use a pick.

Every time I consider whether I want a ukulele, I pick up my kalimba and the consideration ends. (:

lol. Lee just ruined any working class credibility by calling Primary School 'Prep School'. I'm tempted to get a Ukulele actually. Sadly, no left handed at all. I imagine it could be converted, but probably needs the nut messing with or sounds like pants. Not the best for trying to get kids started.

What an odd looking guitar!?