SPOT ON BAZ! There is nothing to dislike about it, but nothing earth shattering either (it's been done). It's got a pretty sound and beautifully built, but if not for the unique design, you bring some pretty sweet ukes into the mix at that price point.

Beautiful sounding but the price...ouch! However, looking at this in a positive, Christmas spirit, it is really nice to see a ukulele from Kala that sounds and plays so wonderfully! They need more of that in their line! Thank you, Baz!

Rare and beautiful instrument, both aesthetically and sound wise. What's not to love? Well, the price! If I had £2000 to chuck at an instrument, I might be looking at something beginning with 'K'... Or is that just being brand-posh? Thanks for the review, as always, Baz and if I don't get the chance before hand, I wish you and your family a happy, healthy and peaceful Christmas. 🎅👍

I love this ukulele. ❤❤❤

Excellent instrument, with a rather compelling backstory. I'd still go for a Galileo or a custom from Bonanza long before considering this one.

Cheers Baz. I appreciate your honesty. I would love one of these but not at that price. Looking forward to your last review of the year. Hope it’s the 4SB 👍

Glad you worked through the technical difficulties to get the review out. It was wonderful to hear and see. Totally with you on everything you said.👍👍

Very nice review Barry. I'm not sure but when I was at the factory setting up the production line we ordered in a pile of 'Royal Ebony' which is really baked purpleheart. I suspect this fretboard is that wood though I would check. LMII who sold this stuff is closed now so I don'tmknow what the future is for 'black' fretboards. Also the fretboard is not bound - it has pocket frets. The cnc router cuts the fret slot short of the edges this eliminating the need for binding. As for price? Despite the prep work being machine gmerated there is a tremendous amount of hand work in these anmd a front loke that costs a smalll body part! I personally have not seen the brands you talk of so cannot comment. I have always been a mushroom when it comes to be informed - stay in the dark...

I own this uke and I love it. The matte finish suits my aesthetic: understated beauty. And the sound is just amazing.

Thanks!

Thank you for your honesty!

That's a beautiful uke! I have a chambered Pono Baritone that I string Low GCEA, and it's my primary performance instrument. If they every make these in a baritone scale I'd probably give them a look. Thanks as always for your informative reviews!

Thanks for the review. I’ve been interested in these for a while. Hoping next week is the Flight 4SB 😃. Have a great week.

Tyde learner is pretty much the same uke but better with a single piece of wood for neck and sides. It goes for a lot less and is built by a luthier pair

I've been waiting for this review.... Pete really did good on the design.

Interesting instrument. Nice sound... but... I agree with your take on the cosmetics-- a gloss finish and some sort of finish in the sound hole would definitely improve the look. More importantly, I agree with you about the price. For that money I would rather have a Kamaka or a Kanilea. Thanks for another good review.

you are definitely one of the best uke reviewers out there....bless you for you frank and honest opinions.....and I do enjoy your chord progressions

Thanks Baz, great review, didn’t sound how I suspected, far more complex and self harmonising than I anticipated, that’s what makes the reviews so informative. Out of my league, may give a serious player a different instrument to their anrsenal. Its all about the unique looks and that unique quality sound. Nice Uke and the string choices is on point. Great T shirt, very clever. You have a great week and may I wish you and yours all the best for the festive season.👏👏🎅🏿🎅🏿

Way above my budget, but it sounds divine and I wouldn't need any gloss, it looks lovely!

Totally agree with your price assessment. £2k is way too expensive for a machine-made instrument

Actually, my gloss-finished instruments quickly become fingerprint-finished instruments. If a passive pickup plays well without an EQ/preamp (I have a couple that do), I am all for it. Were it $700-900, I would consider it.

Another good review Baz.. I'm sure lots of folk will love it but I'm not personally keen on the overall look or sound of it....I agree with you that a gloss finish would definitely have helped to show off the koa wood....the headstock could have been a more novel shape, this rounded shape looks too plain and low cost to me....and good quality friction tuners would have given it a sleeker look....and, as you say, there shouldn't be any visible tooling marks on something costing £2k....it wont be on my Santa list but each to their own....😊...have a great Christmas and New Year....oh...small gripe...could you maybe tune the ukes up before the reviews?...

loaded mine up with fluorocarbon strings and unwound g string all tuned half a step down for the perfect mellow tone that isn’t too muddy due to the small chambered design 👌 though i agree it is a bit overpriced at 1.5-2k. agreed on the matte finish being a bit disappointing. i think a semi-gloss would have been perfect.

Kala ukulele's have never appealed to me, and I can't tell you way, but when I first saw you holding this one my heart stoped. To me it's beautiful , and sounds even better. I love it, and once again my first thought was "this is going to be the first Kala I'm going to buy," BUT then the price. That hurt ! Thank you for the great review, take care, and stay well.

Love the tone but a bit pricey but wonderful warm sound. Thanks Barry 😊

I love all your videos (feel like I’ve watched all of them) I Just picked one up in the US can you please give me a link to the strings you recommended for it?

I was fortunate enough to meet Pete and try one of these at GNUF earlier this year. I was blown away by the sound it produces! I'm not crazy about the looks, but it's so tactile and comfortable to hold. Pete told me he had designed it to fit a woman's body, and it certainly fit mine: I found it very hard to put down.

I have an original Howlett built revelator which is great and cost me a lot less than £1999, straight from Pete, in 2021, so I can where you're coming from Baz

Good review, as always, and I agree about the price. Ukulele magazine gave one away, and I submitted 63 entries. I didn't win. I knew nothing about the uke except that it was unique and somewhat revolutionary. I'm not sure what I expected for sound/tone, but it sounds great. After looking at it a bit (submitting an online entry for 63 consecutive days) and hearing your build quality comments, I've come to find the instrument attractive, if not a bit out of my price range.

Thanks for another excellent review but the way!

Disagree about the gloss and the fingerprints that would go with it. Lovely instrument. Thanks for another excellent review. KZfaq always seems to insert a commercial when you say the word "price".

one of the best sounding low G blends in the mix i've ever heard. i forgot it was a low G while you were playing through the demo songs

Gorgeous in looks and sound but yeah, that is a lot of money. If I ever buy a uke for that amount of money I think it will be a K-brand one.

So glad to see a review on these. Purely subjective but I really do not like the looks of unfinished and stamped cut out. Wish that part was finished a little different. Lovely Uke overall.

Wonder if Flight will take some inspiration? You could argue that it's a very, very posh, and way better sounding Enya-style uke. Merry Christmas Baz, thank you for the reviews and entertainment over the last year.

I like it, but agree with you on the price. Great review!

We all know that pricey instruments can sound good. From the musicians point of view the question is, who can make a 600$ instrument sound and look like a 2.000$ instrument. And not the other way around. Anyway, great review as always!

Please do one on the baritone model

It’s like mashing up the Everley Brothers harmonising with a ukulele 👌

Thanks for the review. Lovely Instrument. I do wonder how this compares with the Brogarde Boatpaddle from a few weeks ago. Both are unique instruments with wonderful sound. I would love both. Yet the latter is much cheaper, probably underpriced, and the latter seems overpriced. I would like a top grade ukulele someday but this seems a bit too expensive, especially considering what can be bought for half the price ( I cannot afford that either!).

The wood look on it is stunning. It has a natural warmth and uniqueness to it. To apply a high gloss finish takes away the character of this ukulele.

As a very proud owner of one of the last Revelators made in Pete's workshop in November 2022 I have to disagree with you on the price. The quality and sound of this instrument is testament to the huge amount of skill and attention to detail that goes into the hand finishing and hand carving of this outstanding work of art. It is definitely not "Made By Robots!" and this comment really upset me and gave the wrong impression. Yes, the main body is produced on a CNC router, but that is just one small step in the complete process and no different to all other high end ukes, where machinery is used to cut out most blank parts before assembly. It's the many hours it takes to then skilfully assemble those parts and hand finish them that goes unseen and unconsidered by most. I still consider Revelators as "hand made" because I have been privileged to see them being built first hand as one of Pete's interns. I am not criticising your reviews as I am a huge fan of your channel and donate regularly and realise that your point of view is from a completely different perspective, but I do think you need to revisit this and correct a few errors. For example, the fingerboard is not edge-bound to hide the end of the frets. It is made of one solid piece. The frets are carefully trimmed and the slots cut on CNC in a pocket. This is actually more time consuming and costly as each fret has to be carefully measured and trimmed by hand, individually and accurately. So I hope you can appreciate that when something looks so sleek and simple by design, that it actually takes a lot more to achieve than meets the eye. An excellent analogy is a Formula 1 car and the eyewatering costs there!

Very good but have you test APC ukulele please ? And if yes, your opinion. Thanks

Appreciate the review. You mentioned a builder in Canada and I couldn't grasp the name. Can you let me know who that is please? I am in Canada and looking for an upgrade to my Kala.

Very different looking but I really like it. Looks very well built. It has a nice sound both picked and strummed. You pay for it but it is a very cool instrument… thanks BAZ….DOC

Wonderful sweet sound, good looks! I just wish the price was as compact as the uke... but then everything in the USA is overpriced.

Beautiful sound. I wonder if part of it is precisely thanks to the non-gloss finish?

There's no doubt that Pete has created an absolute rock n roll, sexy beast of a ukulele!... But that is also the problem! For me i would want to play that everyday, sink a few pints and strum along to hey jude on a saturday night. But would i want to wake up on sunday morning to find 2000 quid of uke covered in beer, pizza and whatever else?! The temptation to go full kurt cobain with it would be too great so i would have to pass at that price point. Id rather get a plastic enya for thrashing and for a bit sophistication, probably an anuenue (for half the price). Thanks for the review, really enjoyed it as always. 👏

I have a Howlet Revelator in Koa, very nice and cheaper than the Kala (bought in 2020 I think)

I thought you said 199 and I was wondering why you thought it was so expensive, seemed like an excellent price. rewound......ohhhhhh... THREE NINES

Better off getting a Bonanza ukulele from Minnesota millennium series he makes some really unique ukuleles and you can get a millennium for $699 and Bonanza has other ukuleles for $450 and so on

The biggest problem with the price is that those Kala revelator or not much less pricier than the Pete Howlet were. So what will be the point of buying one from Kala when you can probably find a real Howlet for the same price on the used market ? Especially taking into consideration than the Kala one are likely to loose a lot of value, or even most of their value on the second hand market ? Alex at Sus is saying that an Asian made line of Kala revelator is going to be unveiled soon. But I do not see why Kala even bother to release those American ones in the meantime which are, in my opinion, destined to fail at that price point. Maybe only for the sake of advertisement before releasing the far east made one ?

$3400 Canadian plus tax is closer to 4Gs for a factory build....nope! Custom made will get you better for the same $$ or less. It better have good sustain for that money.....however it does sound nice!

Kala are still keeping their prices high, then, but at least they give a bag this time.

That price in lunacy. Maybe $1200 USD is acceptable. Nice uke overall though.

Great review, & a great instrument with a lovely sound. At 1500, it's (maybe) a deal but two grand?! For a small, simple, largely machine made instrument that's far too much.

What country is it made in?

Pixelator❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

The price threw me off but it is a cool uke.

Not a huge fan of the routed out slimline bodies. They always sound a little thin to me. Although this does have a lovely tone. Tastefully done. But I can get a quality luthier built ukulele, made in the USA, built to my specifications, for less money.

It is very nice looking and sounds good, but not $2000 worth good. You have recently reviewed some wonderful handmade instruments that are, in my opinion, much better purchases based on their quality. For this kind of money, there should be NO scruffiness at all. If I had all the money in the world and serious UAS, I might consider it. But I’m not in that category. Thanks for your great review!

Nice ukulele but far too expensive even if I had that budget 😂

No, your not making too much of it Baz. The original, hand made by Pete himself, was a lot less. Way too pricey...

While this is new, it isn’t revolutionary. I’d probably give $1300 to $1500 for it with a radiused fretboard. But $2 grand is too much money for this as it is. I’ll bet it cost all of $500 to build, if that. Happy holidays to you and yours!

that price is ridiculous, nice sound but its £1,999 what else would you expect. CNC made with some hand made details. Wow...

Honestly, the Revelator does nothing for me. A charmless “clunky” look, the “master grade koa” is actually kind of boring looking (I have 30 ukuleles, most are “4K,” and the “master grade” here likely wouldn’t even get out of the “Select” shelf at Kanile’a - maybe “Deluxe,” but nowhere near “Premium,” let alone “Master” grade), and frankly, the sound seems “deader” than pretty much ANY Kamaka, KoAloha, or Kanile’a in the $1,300 price scale (there really aren’t any Ko’olau ukes in the price point). If one were to choose this over a Kamaka HF-3, a KoAloha KTM-00, or a Kanile’a K-1T (all in the $1,300-$1,500 range), they’d be both crazy and, on top of that, will have simply “thrown away” $500-$700 for the $2,000 price tag of the Revelator. My guess is that there is almost no likelihood that the Revelator will hold a resale value anywhere close to its as new cost. Seems kind of an overall dud in the long run.

Baz You are falling for the Marxist labour theory of value here. Value is what the market will pay, not cost of manufacture plus profit. (I imagine a large chunk of koa suitable for routing is not cheap) 1600-2000 these will only sell in limited numbers, that alone will increase costs as any cost is spread over lower numbers of units.

I really like the fact kala went all in on a really cool model but US dollar to lb. that's 2500 dollars and I'm sorry that wood set not worth$2500/what one company calls mastergrade another calls premium the price will keep a lot of people from ever owning one what a shame a $1000 less would more appropriate

For maybe half the money.....yeah

2k$, nope.

Maybe it was a Hawaiian CNC machine, programmed by a Hawaiian.

I can't pay $2000 for a Kala. Just can't do it.

When the most generic Ukulele manufacturer gets a kick of personality.

agree these are to expensive way to expensive .all models its like kala thinks they are luthiers building these by hand not so they could have sold many as opposed to a few but it is nice and looks cool but way over priced .but evryone has a choice .thanks for the review keep them coming

Thanks!