Review Details

KoAloha Soprano Tenor Neck (T2, TUS #17333)

Product Rating:

Product Review (submitted on May 29, 2012):

Love this purchase from Hawaii Music Supply. Comparing it to a longneck concert fretboard soprano body, I have reached a couple of conclusions.

I got a tenor necked model (first link above) because I already own tenors and am familiar with that fret spacing. I wanted a soprano sound, though, hence the soprano body. I think it's a swell combination. When I saw the ukulele on HMS with hard case, I was sold on it.

The tenor fretboard is dark mahogany (not light colored like the concert), it has the new small black geared tuners, the flat fretboard end (not scalloped), and (key to me) the new KoAloha tie-bridge (rather than the knotted bridge--I dislike knotted bridges very much for the damage that can be done from the knot). So, those features alone sold me on tenor over concert neck soprano, before even talking about sustain, loudness and extra frets.

I thought the only downside would be head heavy, and it does balance out at the 8th fret (most tenors cannot balance on the fretboard at all--they are all body heavy), but it doesn;t seem to affect play or holding as much as I thought. It seems to balance well, and I am surprised by this. I generally use a strap, though, for all my ukuleles. The sound samples with Corey here tell the story of this ukulele--it's heaven.