Ukulele

I'm a guitar, piano and bass player, as well a private music teacher. I also received formal training in guitar-building and have been commissioned to build instruments for amateur and professional musicians.

I ordered this ukelele on the strength of the reviews here at Amazon, and I was pleased with this instrument when it arrived. I was really surprised at how loud this particular instrument is for its size. It's only about 19" long (approximately) with nylon strings, but it really puts out a strong volume and really nice tone. It has geared tuners, not peg-style tuners that seem to go out of tune easily.

Although I've never played ukelele, I was able to play songs like Brown Eyed Girl, Old MacDonald Had a Farm, and Do You Wanna Dance in about a 1/2 hour using the chord book that comes with the book. I did this drawing on my guitar-playing knowledge.

Also, my daughter, who is a piano player and 11 years old, picked up the ukelele. In about 15 minutes was able to play Row Row Row Your Boat, which is in the instruction booklet which comes with the uke. I see this as a good buy for beginners and a good starter instrument for young children who might like to move over to guitar eventually.

Two concerns though -- mine came with a couple small dents in the back of the ukelele -- nothing major, but I could see them -- looks like someone hit it on something. Also, most stringed instruments go out of tune for a short while after you put new strings on them. This one wouldn't stay in tune for more than one song when I started playing with it. I yanked on the strings to stretch them, kept retuning it and playing it, and it would still go out of tune. This is improving, and I'm trusting the reviews here that say it goes out of tune "at first". I'm expecting the tuning problem to disappear as the strings get stretched and the windings around the tuners tighten out any slack.

[note: Two days later, after about 8 hours of playing the instrument is staying in tune better and better; I expect the problem to correct itself as the string get stretched]

The little 5-page booklet has basic chords and songs-- Row Row Row Your Boat, Are You Sleeping, He's Got the Whole World in His Hands, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Amazing Grace, and When Irish Eyes are Smiling. There was also a blurb about a famous ukelele player who authored the pamphlet on how to play the ukelele and is the founding member of Louisville Ukelele Association Unlimited (LUAU!)-- a ukelele band.

Overall, I'm happy with this ukelele, and fully expect the tuning problem to go away with use