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Thoroughly recommendable budget ukulele
Cautionary note for any reader of this review: although quite a few guitars have passed through my hands in recent years, this is both my first ukulele and my first experience of the Ortega company. Having said that, I did a fair amount of online research about recommendable budget ukes before ordering one, and based on what I read, the Ortega range certainly didn't disgrace itself.
Initial impressions are very good. I'd tried a soprano uke and found it too fiddly, so went with a tenor model. No regrets on that front: there's sufficient room to move for fingering to seem straightforward for anyone with any experience of playing guitar. Moreover, this uke is both attractively presented and pretty well made: the binding is tidy, the intonation remains reasonably good all the way up the neck and the tuners, though they look fairly basic, do the business perfectly well. The only minor reservation concerns some sharp fret ends, but this issue isn't serious enough to compromise playability, so I'll wait so see if a bit of fretboard conditioning when I change strings sorts it out before I consider taking a file to them.
The strings supplied with the uke are also of pleasing quality (Ortega-branded Aquila nylgut), though the thinnest ones go on stretching for about a week, however carefully you try to play them in to begin with!
Overall, then, very warmly recommended. As usual, the service from Thomann was exemplary.
Initial impressions are very good. I'd tried a soprano uke and found it too fiddly, so went with a tenor model. No regrets on that front: there's sufficient room to move for fingering to seem straightforward for anyone with any experience of playing guitar. Moreover, this uke is both attractively presented and pretty well made: the binding is tidy, the intonation remains reasonably good all the way up the neck and the tuners, though they look fairly basic, do the business perfectly well. The only minor reservation concerns some sharp fret ends, but this issue isn't serious enough to compromise playability, so I'll wait so see if a bit of fretboard conditioning when I change strings sorts it out before I consider taking a file to them.
The strings supplied with the uke are also of pleasing quality (Ortega-branded Aquila nylgut), though the thinnest ones go on stretching for about a week, however carefully you try to play them in to begin with!
Overall, then, very warmly recommended. As usual, the service from Thomann was exemplary.
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