My Uke Project

By Bill Kumpe

I have been looking for a new acoustic electric uke.  In the past few weeks, I have played dozens of ukes and studied the online specs on just about everything available on the American market.  I have listened to hundreds of ukulele clips on YouTube.   I even ordered the Les Paul acoustic electric and sent it back after one session.

The bottom line is that I probably already have just about as good a uke as you can get for the money I want to spend.  After studying, listening and experimenting at great length, I came to the conclusion that my Lanikai SC concert ukulele, if it had quality electronics, would sound just as good as about anything else available.

The Lanikai SC series are an incredible value for the money.  I paid a hundred for mine. The price has gone up  however and is now in the hundred and twenty five range online.  It is a quality instrument.  The back and sides are mahogany, the binding is maple and the top is solid spruce.  The fretboard is rosewood.  The fit and finish are nothing short of beautiful and the tone is mellow and complex for a uke.  The fact that the top is solid spruce means that the instrument's tone and volume will improve as it ages if it is played frequently and properly cared for.

These ukes do have their problems however.  It took several adjustments to get the string height right on mine.  It had a nasty string buzz on the higher frets which was eventually eliminated by adding a thin steel shim under the bridge to raise the action.  This also had the unexpected and pleasant effect of greatly increasing the volume and projection of the little guy.  (However, be advised that doing a proper set up on one of these guys, especially tweaking the bridge height and polishing the frets, will probably void the warranty.)

Electrifying it was a problem.  I had a Dean Markley transducer pickup professionally installed by a local luthier. It would not stick properly for some reason and also picked up internal noise that you never heard externally. Something buzzes like the dickens in there that an internal transducer amplified like mad.   But, second time around was a charm.  I self installed a much more expensive Shadow transducer pickup externally directly behind the bridge. (The pickup cost more than the uke.)  The volume is amazing and the tone is even more mellow and complex than the acoustic sound alone.  So far as I'm concerned, it's a match made in heaven.

Sample Sounds.