Customer Reviews

Hilo Baritone Ukulele, Mahogany

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Basically I am still in the stage that lasts 1-2 weeks where (as in all ukuleles) the strings are still stretching, so you have to tune it constantly. However, when it is in tune, I find it quite nice. The action (how high the strings are over the frets) is good, the machine heads work well, frets are good, and tone is nice. At first the bridge buzzed a little on the e string, but after the sting stretched somewhat the buzz left. Beng a baritone, the sound is not as high pitched as the more typical concert or tenor. And nothing like the plinky soprano. So the sound is inbetween a guitar and a regular uke sound. If you were used to a Gibson guitar neck, like I was, it is not as wide as the four strings on a Gibson. So I'm missing a few finger placements at first. The less wide Fender guitar users should feel more at home. In all, not a bad first uke at all. Not a Stradivarius, but a lot better than most $50 guitars.

I've read the other reviews and that is why I decided to buy this item. Big mistake. At first I was really psyched when I got it. It has really great timbre, very similar to an acoustic guitar, but that is all it has going for it. After a very short period of time I realized that there was something very wrong with the instrument (if you can call it that) because none of the chords sounded quite right and many of them sounded completely awful. If you don't want to read how I got to finding out what was wrong, and just want to know what is wrong, just skip to the last paragraph.

I was constantly tuning the strings thinking that it is new and many string instruments need time to settle, so the strings are probably just falling out of tune. I know this was not the problem because I would often go to tune the strings after playing an "ugly chord" (as I've come to call them) and the open strings would be in perfect tuning. To get a better understanding of what was going wrong, I changed out of standard baritone tuning (DGBE) to CGCE (the second c being middle c, also known as c1). If you were to play C on any instrument (C - capital c - is the second c below c1) the resonating pitches would be C, c (the c below c1), g (the g below c1), c1 and e1 (the e directly above c1). So, tuning this way, is kind of like tuning to an open chord, so that when you go up each fret, you have another chord in that same key. In this case, instead of having chords (when I say this I mean triadic chords), you have the all the resonating notes of the one note an octave lower than the lowest note you're playing. This should make a very harmonious sound if all the strings are in tune and make a notably unharmonious sound if not.

In this new tuning, I find that each fret has fairly pleasant sounding harmony, which means that the bridge is off and the intonation needs to be adjusted and/or the frets are incorrectly spaced (one of the frets needs to be filed, but that's the least of the uke's problems and is an easy fix). When comparing each open string to their corresponding 12th frets, I know that the bridge needs to be moved down because the notes are way to sharp. I compared all of the other frets and if it were only the bridge, they should all be proportionately sharp, but they're not (for just one example: the 5th and 9th fret are both more sharp than the 7th). This means that some of the frets are also misplaced.

On many other stringed instruments you can adjust the intonation, just by using a screw driver to move the bridge. You can't do that on this uke because the strings merely sit on top of the bridge and are knotted to stay in place. This means I can't fix the intonation. As far as the misplaced frets, all I can really do is file all the frets out because there's no good way to move them and it's totally not worth it for something that cost $50. After filing them out, I will probably draw in my own frets, so at least I know where to put my fingers (I'm not good enough to play without any like some bass players do). I'm going to keep it in CGCE tuning because at least it sounds kind of pretty (it sounds really nice with all the strings open).

In conclusion, this uke had several problems, the worst two being the intonation and incorrectly placed frets. Both of these problems are more-or-less not fixable. You should buy this if you are giving it to a child as a toy and don't want something that COMPLETELY sounds like a toy, though I'm sure there are probably less expensive versions of this of similar quality (like get the kid a toy guitar and take the bottom two strings off). So buy this if you don't mind it being a waste of money. DO NOT BUY THIS IF YOU ARE AT ALL INTERESTED IN LEARNING THE INSTRUMENT. This is not a good beginner model and will not help you learn. To learn correctly, the notes need to be in tune. If you really want to learn and want to try it out before investing much money, I suggest that you borrow someone's acoustic guitar and just use the top four strings; it might be a whole lot bigger, but at least it should sound right.

A really sweet deal! I wanted something that was going to be easy to carry around, was reasonably well constructed and not a lot of money. I looked at a number of smaller guitars but they were all either too expensive or too shoddy. I then considered buying a standard Ukulele and found out that the bari uke is tuned like a guitar! After reading the reviews here I was sold on the Hilo. I could not be happier with my purchase. It also seemed like fate because I have the same last name as the first reviewer and grew up in the same city as the second reviewer. It has a real, non-plinky tone, is easy to play, keeps in tune, has a good, solid feel and is well constructed. My only cons are small ones. There's a small rough area on the lower front that feels like it caught the edge of a grinding wheel and the tuning machine on the B string is just a little crooked. Nothing deal breaking, just a bit annoying. All in all I give this deal 4 stars. I highly recommend it.

i ordered this uke by chance and couldn;t be happier with it. for a laminate (as opposed to solid wood, it has a surprisingly good tone. looks great. i switched out the factory strings for aquilas, which made a big difference sound-wise. some frets buzz a little unless you hit them just right, btu tht's my only complaint. hard to go wrong for $45 with this instrument.

What a great instrument, worth the price. Must remember that baritone Ukelele's don't tune to My Do Has Fleas. LOL

Just a wonderful instrument.

The uke i received had a crack in the base and was a pretty terrible glue job. It doesn't stay in tune at all. Not much to say about this one. Try another brand if mine is any indication.

Great job shipped on time via UPS and was received in good condition. Thank you very much I appreicate it.

The instrument arrived without being glued together properly. I had to take it to a luthier to have it re-glued. Return shipping costs are too high to make the return worthwhile. Even cheap instruments like this ought to have a higher standard than this. Pay a little more; or at the very least; go for the 'Rogue' or 'Savannah' brands instead. They are cheapos, but of a half-decent quality.

Received my Hilo Ukulele last Friday 1/20/12. It worked great for 5 days. By working great, I mean it was in tune for the entire length of the fretboard. Then on Wednesday (1/25/12) it developed a "twangy" sound. The glue under the fretboard gave way, and I also noticed that the fretboard was bowed. I contacted Amazon and the unit is currently in transit to Amazon. Amazon was very good about delivery and also the return and refund process. I elected to go with the refund instead of replacement.

If you want a cheap baritone uke, this is it. sounds pretty blah, but would probably improve with some decent strings.
Mine arrived with a broken neck, i was offered a refund vs replacement. I live a long way, shipping return would have sucked, and no stock left to replace it, so this was the smart thing to do.
Since I have a friend who works with Ukes, he fixed it for me, and got it going again easily enough (Just applied a bit of glue and let it set).