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Umiee Concert Mahogany Ukulele Starter Kit Rating – 4 out of 5!
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I ordered the instrument through Amazon on Friday and it was delivered the following Wednesday afternoon. I was concerned about the rough shape of the Amazon box being crushed in, but the interior box was undamaged.
The Instrument
This set centers around a concert size instrument with a light colored mahogany face.
The joints and edges are all tight and clean. There is a clean white binding on front and back with some additional striping on the face of the instrument. There appear to be some flaws in the face along the binding. The finish is a flat finish. The side of the neck is pretty smooth. There are a number of places on curves next to the head and the bridge that are a bit rough.
The most distinctive feature is nice laser cut design around the sound hole. Fairly standard bridge with string slots in the bottom.
The head is in mahogany with geared tuners. The tuners work smoothly and without any slop in them. It took me less than 2 minutes to initially tune the instrument using the included tuner. There are markers at 5, 7, 10, 12, and 15 and a total of 17 frets. There is no fret marker at three or at the side of the neck.
Here is a video where you can listen to some sound samples as I ran through my standard test run on the instrument in my backyard.
The action is just a touch higher than I like, but won’t prove much of an issue for most.
This is a really good instrument for a new player! It is well made and looks like it will last a good while without problems. With the addition of the gig bag, the tuner and the strap and you have a good starting point for adding music into your life!
The Starter Kit
Gig Bag – A nice gig bag with some padding, double zipper and a zippered pocket on the front. It appears to be black nylon and includes a double shoulder strap and a strap type handle. The bag is all black with orange trim. It is certainly good protection from dings and scratches, but won’t save it from being crushed. I spent a few minutes adjusting the padding on the sides as it had apparent settled in shipping or assembly.
Tuner – Very nice tuner that works well and can be read clearly. It can also be used as a chromatic, bass, and guitar tuner as well as the ukulele.
Strap – Included in the kit was a nice red and white striped strap that fit the strap buttons. The instrument comes with strap buttons already installed on the base and on the side of the neck.
Finger Shaker – Designed to be placed on a finger of the strumming hand, this can provide some nice rhythm while playing.
Microfiber cleaning cloth – It is fairly small, essentially palm sized. The fibers are likely to catch on the rough spots found in some areas of the instrument.
Picks – Three plastic picks are included in the kit. I don’t normally use a pick and found these pretty flexible.
Capo – Large capo included. I have never used one on a soprano or concert sized instrument, and seldom on a tenor. It has a flat padded arm to match the flat fret boards found on most ukuleles.
Speed Winder – Standard plastic design, this can help when changing strings, but I seldom can find one and it doesn’t help that much.
Strings – Yes, there is an extra set of strings included in the kit. They are flat white and all four are rolled up into a single bundle, with no markings or coloration to help you figure out which size is which. You would have to rely on matching the existing strings by size as best you can.
