Customer Reviews

Oscar Schmidt OU5 Concert Ukulele

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I bought my first beginner ukulele only six months ago, but enjoyed enough that I decided to move up from the toy class to something a little better. The OU5 was on sale at under a hundred dollars, but I have to say that the leap in quality and sound far outweighed the $70 price difference between this and my first ukulele. Like others who have rated Oscar Schmidt products, I have been impressed by the beautiful finish of this instrument, but it's the improved action and sound quality that totally won me over. Go ahead and buy your $20 Rogue instrument to see if you like the ukulele, but when you're ready to step up to the next level (but perhaps aren't ready to shell out $250), this is a solid stepping stone. I'm really happy with this instrument. Keep your really cheap one to take to the beach, though. You'll like this one enough that you won't want someone grinding sand into the finish or spilling beer on it.

One night I'm watching Joe Versus the Volcano... and Joe is afloat on his steamer trunks playing the Cowboy Song on his ukulele... and it hits me: I want to learn to play the ukulele just so I can play that song! I've played guitar casually for many years, but I had no clue about the guitar's little cousin. I knew that I wanted something better than a toy ukulele, but also knew I had no plans to play this professionally. After looking around online, I decided to order the OU-5 Oscar Schmidt by Washburn from Amazon.

Summary: I could not be happier. This is a wonderful instrument for both the first time user and the semi-serious amateur. The ukulele is beautiful. The woodwork is gorgeous. Everyone who has seen it says "wow". It sounds just like a ukulele should. And it is a blast to play!

The worst thing about this ukulele is the product description page. The description provided by Amazon is terrible. At the time of this writing, there is no photo of the product (I bought it on faith based on reviews of a couple others here). The product description is a single, incomplete sentence and uses the word "founf"... and the description is so bad, it's not at all obvious that you're getting an OU-5 (look in the item details under model number), but that is what you get. But please, don't be fooled by what may be the worst page on Amazon's otherwise wonderful site... this is a great product.

One user complained about the strings not holding their tune, and I've seen at least one complaint about the tuners. Well, the ukulele comes with nylon strings, and there is a fair amount of stretching before it will stay in tune. My first couple of attempts were frustrating... the top string would be badly out of tune by the time I had tuned down to the bottom string. It took a couple of days of constant tuning before the strings were properly stretched. There's probably some trick to pre-stretching nylon strings, but I just kept at it and eventually prevailed. Now it stays in tune comparable to my guitar. The chrome tuners appear to be of good quality. They are solid and have a good feel.

The Koa wood is stunning, and has a wonderful finish, especially for an instrument in this price range. The detail in the inlay really makes this uke visually impressive.

I grabbed a chord chart off the internet to learn chords and fingering... there are plenty out there. I decided to learn to play songs from movies featuring the ukulele. A quick search and I found the chords (all two of them) for Joe's Cowboy Song... awesome! It sounds great! Tonight You Belong to Me by Steve Martin was next, followed by Forgetful Lucy featuring Adam Sandler on the uke. I suggest looking for ukulele performances on YouTube for inspiration. You haven't really, truly played a string instrument until you've played Rawhide on the ukulele.

I have been playing guitar for almost 5 years and to be quite honesty, I'm still not as great as Carlos Santana or Slash. I'm just pretty much an average player. When I wanted to learn how to play the ukulele, I was skeptical on which brand/type I should get. After three months of debating, I finally wised up and bought this one. It looked like the one I borrowed from a friend and the brand name sounded familiar to my ears. After much anticipation for four days, it finally arrived and it is an incredible ukulele. I couldn't be more satisfied with it! The frets are placed perfectly for someone that's familiar with playing the guitar, not to mention someone that's beginning, it's easier to place your fingers when you can see them (the soprano ukulele is really small compared to this concert size). Overall I love my uke. I suggest getting this if you know how to play guitar already.

I purchased this as a starter uke for my niece. I wanted a decent playing instrument without investing too much money, considering I don't even know if she will maintain any interest.

This ukulele looks great. It is a Koa wood laminate with a very nice glossy finish. It also has decent grover tuners. Unfortunately, it doesn't play well because a few of the frets are set improperly resulting in places on the neck where the string bottoms out on the next fret. It is borderline unplayable in it's present condition.

I have consulted with my local guitar tech who generally advises that every new stringed instrument can benefit from a proper set-up - especially the lower end instruments like this one. He indicated it would cost about $50 to adjust the frets, bridge and nut to get the uke into nice playing condition. So, rather than hassle with returning it and hoping the next one is better, I am opting for the professional set-up on the one I already received. This all reinforces my opinion that it is definitely optimum to purchase any instrument in person, if possible.

My only basis for comparison on ukes is the one I own, which is a solid Koa (not laminated wood) tenor made by Cordoba (about as inexpensive as solid koa gets at $350). Compared to that, the tone on the OU5 is just ok. It is a little dull sounding without much sustain or projection.

I looked at other ukes at my local music store in the $100 range and all were flawed in some way or another, so even with it's limitations I still feel the OU5 is a decent deal. The fact that it is very attractive to the eye will hopefully make it more appealing to my niece.

In summary, I would say in the $100 to $150 price range this is a pretty good option. Make an effort to buy in person, as there is so much variation between different copies of the exact same make and model instrument. Also, if you can afford it, I would recommend considering moving up a couple hundred to a solid wood instrument.

UPDATE: After getting the $50 dollar set-up, this uke is now very playable and sounds a lot better. It has better sustain and decent tone. It almost makes me want to upgrade to 4 stars...but not quite. If it sounded this good out of the box I'd go with 4 stars, so, if you're careful and get a good one, you should be quite happy with this uke for the price.

I can hardly be considered a musician and playing the ukulele is only a pastime involving some enjoyable minutes of strumming through a few cords, but I must say a few words about the Washburn (Oscar Schmidt) OU-5 ukulele I just bought from Amazon.com.

My previous ukulele was a nice low end soprano box that served me well for several years. It looked OK, it stayed in tune and sounded fine to me. However, I wanted something a bit better and the concert sized OU-5 caught my eye. I researched the heck out of ukuleles in the same price range and decided the Washburn OU-5 was the best.

When the ukulele arrived I opened the box and was absolutely amazed. The uke was a beautiful thing--a work of art. Its highly lacquered finish and distinctive Koa wood construction was stunning. I was looking at a true musical instrument. At that moment I knew my old ukulele was a piece of junk--a toy. I suddenly hated it.

The OU-5 sounds ten times better than my previous ukulele and the somewhat larger size makes it easier for me to "play" and move about the fret board. The mellow and resonant tones that come from the OU-5 are stunning. I know my judgment about that is not based on a lot of musical know-how, but the contrast with my old uke was certainly remarkable. I can recommend this Washburn ukulele to anyone who appreciates fine workmanship, a great sound and wants an fine instrument at a bargain price.

Oh, one other thing--the picture of the Washburn OU-5 ukulele in the Amazon.com description is not a picture of the OU-5 with the Koa wood top. The illustration is probably (a mistake) the Washburn OU-13 with a spruce top. Don't be put off by this apparent error. The product is indeed a Koa wood OU-5.

I have had my OU5 Laminate Koa for about 3 years. I have a Martin Soprano my dad gave me, but wanted another uke to play so I didn't wear out my vintage Martin. I got this with the case for less than most places sell just the uke today and I can tell you both are incredible values. The uke looks like a custom uke costing 10 times as much, and the case is better quality than most soft cases for other stringed instruments. Being a laminate, I was especially surprised by the sound. After installing Aquila strings, tone and sustain for a uke in this price range are incredible. If you are a beginner, or even a seasoned player looking for a uke in this price range, this uke is a no-brainer. Get one.

I picked this uke out based on reviews from other websites and then came to Amazon to see if they offered it. They did, through Musician's Friend, so I ordered it. It is now six weeks later and the thing FINALLY arrived. Over the course of the six weeks, I called Musician's Friend three times. Each time they explained that they had moved to a much larger warehouse and that the larger warehouse's previous staff were supposed to stay on as new employees of the company. The former staff apparently didn't get that info and on day one nobody showed up for work. Musician's Friend was forced to hire a whole new warehouse staff and train them. That, according to them, was the cause for the shipping delay. Take it with a grain of salt. However, each time I spoke to them they were very professional and, in the end, they took appropriate measures to convince me that they are, indeed, concerned about customer satisfaction.

Anyway, about the ukulele, it was worth the wait. Front, back and sides are all book matched koa. The sides are half heartwood and half sapwood which makes some dramatic contrasts. The back has some light figure to it. The finish is flawless polished high-gloss. The mother-of-pearl inlay is beautiful. It's almost like a new car...I'm going to be on needles and pins until it gets it's first scratch...then I'll be able to relax a bit. After the strings settled in it seems to be holding tuning well and intonation seems very good. The tuners are very nice and make precise tuning very easy. This thing sure is pretty! You can take this second paragraph with a grain of salt as well, this is only my second ukulele, however, I did sleep at a Holiday Inn Express last night :)

i have played classical guitar for 25 years. most my guitars are high-end classicals and electrics ($1000 +)

so when i wanted a uke i did'nt want the $40 toy.i wanted something to last me a life time.i bought the ou-5 after much research.i have read comments from other dime-store "experts" say "oh you should forget the oscar uke and go for the solid woods bla bla".....nonsense.
the intonation was perfect on my OU5 (checked with digital tuner not my lying ears) the fit and finish is beutiful.as for the build quality,i have a unique perspective;see my house caught on fire and exploded a few months back and after digging through the collapsed ceiling in my destroyed bedroom i found my OU5 with a fist sized pick-axe hole in the side from a fireman searching for wall fires. just today i rounded out the new "soundhole" in the side with a dremel and put some martin strings on.the old ones had melted off because there was charcoal from the burning ceiling in the sound hole/body of the OU5. the OU5 has perfect intoniation and even WITH a huge hole in the side sounds very good.i will replace with worth strings soon as they REALLY bring out the sound and nice tone.i will be buying a ohana CK-50 but keep this OU5 as a trusty great sounding $140 uke.
5stars
MAKE SURE TO SCRAP THE original GHS STRINGS FOR SOME QUALITY "worth "or aquila strings
(NOTE the OU-5 is NOT a solid KOA uke.it is a laminate with KOA veneer)
buy it you won't be sorry

quick edit: ALL NYLON STRINGED INSTUMENT STRINGS FALL OUT OF TUNE UNTIL "BREAK_IN" this is NOT a problem with the instument.my $1200 Takimine classical gtr does the same thing as do all nylon strings

Musician's Friend seems to have fixed whatever problems the previous reviewers had. I ordered this uke directly through their web site, plus the UC3 hard case and a Korg tuner, on Thanksgiving weekend and it arrived the following Friday.

As to the uke itself, I'm not an experienced player of string instruments so I can't really comment on the intonation or action. But I found the many reviews of this and other ukes on the Musician's Friend site very helpful, so I'd suggest looking there. This uke seemed to be the one in my price range with the fewest negative comments about playability, plus I liked the thought of the koa wood for a more Hawaiian connection.

I agree that it's a pretty little instrument, and sounds nice to my untrained ear. When I can play like Iz, I'll write a follow-up review :-)

I bought my husband this uke for Christmas,2006, and he absolutely LOVES it! The abalone inlay around the edge is very attractive. He did have to keep retuning it every so often, as the strings stretched, but now it's just fine. He just has to "tweek it" once in a while.

I had looked at a simalar uke at our local guitar center, but they wanted $149 and that was without the abalone inlay. My husband and I both agree it was a "super buy'!