A welcome return to a ukulele brand that I thought had given up on ukes. This is the new Eastman EU1-C Concert Ukulele. I've looked at a couple of Eastman ukes before, both doing very well on the reviews. They were both extremely well made vintage style instruments with sublime woods and even more sublime nitro finishes. I regularly recommended the tenor in particular and then... well... then I heard that Eastman were dropping them. A crying shame if true as they were making, in my opinion, instruments that were criminally under-rated. Then I heard a rumour about a couple of new lines and ..read more

As I hinted in my last ukulele review, this week has seen the arrival of something quite special indeed. This is the Kanile'a KRT-T Master Grade Koa Tenor Ukulele. I suppose, a bit like the recent Magic Fluke review I have to say something about unconscious bias with this brand too - and that's because I own one and have always said that they are one of my favourite ukulele companies. That said, I think looking back over the several Kanile'a ukulele reviews I have written the instruments really speak for themselves. They are a stellar brand and they don't need me to tell you how good they ..read more

This week Barry at Got A Ukulele realises that he has now 'played them all'... Say hello to the new Magic Fluke Baritone Ukulele.  CONSCIOUS BIAS WARNING!... Regular readers will know that I have, for a long time, talked about my love of the instruments made by the Magic Fluke Company in the USA. Heck, if it wasn't for me buying a Flea many years ago following my first uke disaster with a Mahalo, I may never have stuck with the ukulele and be here now writing this. It's the uke I've played more than any other as it represents my first serious foray into the uke world all those ye ..read more

Back this week with a ukulele brand that i've not looked at since 2018 and it's sending me down quite a pleasant memory lane. This is the Clearwater UCW7MT Spruce  Tenor Ukulele. Clearwater are a brand who are (mostly, if not only) carried by a UK supplier called the Really Useful Music Company and back then the couple of instruments I looked at that really caused a stir were the bowl back models including the UCW7B Baritone. What was really staggering about these was the price to quality ratio, something noted by some professional performers on the ukulele circuit (Zoe Bestel used to ..read more

Got A Ukulele isn't just about the brands that I personally like, but rather tries to cover all bases for ukulele buyers to consider. This week we go back to a brand that is, sadly, yet to impress me with the Luna Uke Henna Dragon Concert. Or more specifically the imaginatively named UKE HEN DRA MAH C..  Luna are a USA brand dealing with Chinese made instruments that usually come with striking top designs. There are a huge number of them out there with players, but I think that speaks more for some clever distribution and getting them in the large high street outlets rather than in th ..read more

A ukulele hop back over to North America, and once again I am blessed to look at something from this Canadian Luthier. This is a Martin Beck Spruce and Mahogany Concert Ukulele. Martin is Martin van Humbeck from Vancouver Island who builds under the name 'Martin Beck'. I've been very lucky to see his work before as I say, and they were two different tenors I looked at in 2021 and 2022 which both went on to receive the highest scores i've ever given in ukulele reviews (do go and refresh your memory for more background on Martin). Sublime was not the word. So when World of Ukes in the UK (who ..read more

Back this week with a ukulele from a brand that has grown to be extremely popular in the uke world. This is the Snail UKC-470 Quilted Ash Concert. After a few weeks at the more expensive end of the scale, this offering from Snail is more at the value end, being made from all laminate tone woods in the body. That's cool with me and as I always say, i'd take a good quality laminate over a poorly made solid wood uke that is 'solid for the sake of it' any day of the week. Yet for laminate, this is clearly not a boring hunk of brown saplele but rather a striking ukulele made from a wood I have ..read more

Well it IS St Patrick's Day after all! With this weeks ukulele we hop over to Ireland to look at the 'Synergy Uke' Harp Ukulele from Emerald Guitars. Hold on to your hats.. there's a lot to get through here! Emerald Guitars are instrument makers based in Donegal, Ireland set up by luthier Alastair Hay and well known for their carbon fibre instruments and out of the ordinary designs. That material choice seems to run deep with Alastair who originally worked with his father in his fibreglass engineering company. That led to Alastair doing a work exchange to St Louis in which he worked with ..read more

It's always nice to get a ukulele brand that surprised me out of the blue back on the site with another offering. This is the Caravelle Kitchen Jazz Manouche Concert Elite Ukulele. Caravelle Kitchen is the home made brand of Matthieu Theuret from the south west coast of France, and if you want to know more about the intriguing back story (and name) take a look a the Monoxyl Mezzo Soprano of his I looked at recently. I liked that one a great deal so was excited when he offered to lend me another style of his he has become well known for. And striking it is - a gypsy jazz guitar inspired uku ..read more

It's not often I look at two ukuleles from the same series, but with my desire to give more exposure to baritone ukes on this site, when the invitation to borrow this one from Kala came along, I couldn't say no. This is the Kala KA-CT-SA-BG Baritone from their new 'Contour Series'. Another mouthful of a name (Kala names are always cumbersome, but do make some sense when you decode), but these are already recoginsable to uke players as the 'Kala Contours' which are a new set of modern shaped ukuleles in tenor and baritone in a variety of wood options. You may recall I looked that the Contou ..read more