Seilerbird
Senior Member
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2008
- Posts
- 18,265
And Tom Jones knows exactly what that means, another ukulele. But not just any ukulele, THE ukulele. I have finally found the ukulele that I am in love with. It is my sixth uke and this is the one that will inspire me to play my fingers off. After only one day I am shredding my fingertips, see photo below. It is a Lanikai 8 string electric tenor ukulele.
http://lanikaiukuleles.com/product/acacia-8-string-kula-preamp-ae-ukulele/
Of my five ukes my go-to uke was my Oscar Schmidt 8 string. I loved the fuller sound of an 8 string so much I have sold my 4 string soprano and my 4 string concert. I never played them. Leaves me with three ukes, a micro, a bass and the OS. While the OS was my go to uke there were a few things about it that really bugged me. So I went shopping every few months to see if something new was on the market that would appeal to me. Sunday night I went shopping and I found the Lanikai and fell in love with everything about it but the price. $469. That is more than I paid for all three of my ukes total, $436. So I decided I would wait until I get my tax money back in February.
I bookmarked the page and kept going back looking at it and drooling. Then I did a search on Google shopping and they listed seven music stores all selling it at the exact same price, $469. But Amazon was not one of the sites listed so I went there and searched for it. I found one for $329. I figured it must be a second or a mistake but either way the thought of saving over $150 was too much and I whipped out my plastic and pulled the trigger. I ordered it at 10 pm Sunday evening. It was suppose to arrive next week. It arrived Tuesday afternoon at 4 pm. A day and a half. It came from a music store in Fort Myers, 150 miles south of me. I inspected it very closely and I can find no defects at all. Must have been a mistake. It is back to $469 on Amazon now.
There are six reasons why I like the L better than the OS.
1) The headstock on the OS is solid and is slotted on the L. The OS was neck heavy and hard to hold when playing. A strap was mandatory.
2) The OS was the cheapest 8 string with electronics built in. Unfortunately that meant I had to use a clip on tuner with the OS which made it even more unbalanced. I hate clip on tuners and much prefer built in tuners.
3) The OS is very plain (read ugly) and the L is just stunning looking. I am vain. I much prefer to play beautiful looking instruments. I keep all my instruments out of the case and on display in my living room. I am more likely to pick one up if it is pretty.
4) The upper bout is cut away giving greater access to the upper frets. I play lead occasionally such as the lead in Stand By Me:
https://youtu.be/vfP2uyhtvbk
5) The EQ device on the OS was in a bad location and the controls sucked. Really hard to use. On the L the unit is in the logical location and the controls are easy to use even when not looking. The volume control is gigantic.
6) The OS uses mahogany laminate on the top. The L uses acacia solid wood on top. Laminates sound duller than solid tops due to the glue absorbing some of the sound. Acacia sounds brighter than mahogany. So the L sounds brighter and a bit louder than the OS and I like the sound a lot better. I recorded a video of me playing the same piece on both ukes back to back and as I suspected a tiny microphone played through computer speakers I can't hear a difference but live there is a large difference. That is Jane helping me out:
https://youtu.be/OI9HaTdB_6s
There are a few things that I don't like about the L. It was advertised as having a wider nut but it is exactly 1.5 inches the exact same as the OS. So they must have been comparing the size to that of a four string tenor. I don't like the tuners on the L as much as I like the tuners on the OS. But once the strings are stretched I will not have to tune it very often. One good thing I can say about the OS is it rarely went out of tune. I also don't like the left strap button being located on body. It doesn't work but fortunately moving it to the headstock will not be a problem once I am sure I am not sending it back.
So please Tom, do not assume I am trying to talk you into buying one and replacing yours. I doubt you would appreciate the difference like I do. But for me the differences are monumental.
http://lanikaiukuleles.com/product/acacia-8-string-kula-preamp-ae-ukulele/
Of my five ukes my go-to uke was my Oscar Schmidt 8 string. I loved the fuller sound of an 8 string so much I have sold my 4 string soprano and my 4 string concert. I never played them. Leaves me with three ukes, a micro, a bass and the OS. While the OS was my go to uke there were a few things about it that really bugged me. So I went shopping every few months to see if something new was on the market that would appeal to me. Sunday night I went shopping and I found the Lanikai and fell in love with everything about it but the price. $469. That is more than I paid for all three of my ukes total, $436. So I decided I would wait until I get my tax money back in February.
I bookmarked the page and kept going back looking at it and drooling. Then I did a search on Google shopping and they listed seven music stores all selling it at the exact same price, $469. But Amazon was not one of the sites listed so I went there and searched for it. I found one for $329. I figured it must be a second or a mistake but either way the thought of saving over $150 was too much and I whipped out my plastic and pulled the trigger. I ordered it at 10 pm Sunday evening. It was suppose to arrive next week. It arrived Tuesday afternoon at 4 pm. A day and a half. It came from a music store in Fort Myers, 150 miles south of me. I inspected it very closely and I can find no defects at all. Must have been a mistake. It is back to $469 on Amazon now.
There are six reasons why I like the L better than the OS.
1) The headstock on the OS is solid and is slotted on the L. The OS was neck heavy and hard to hold when playing. A strap was mandatory.
2) The OS was the cheapest 8 string with electronics built in. Unfortunately that meant I had to use a clip on tuner with the OS which made it even more unbalanced. I hate clip on tuners and much prefer built in tuners.
3) The OS is very plain (read ugly) and the L is just stunning looking. I am vain. I much prefer to play beautiful looking instruments. I keep all my instruments out of the case and on display in my living room. I am more likely to pick one up if it is pretty.
4) The upper bout is cut away giving greater access to the upper frets. I play lead occasionally such as the lead in Stand By Me:
https://youtu.be/vfP2uyhtvbk
5) The EQ device on the OS was in a bad location and the controls sucked. Really hard to use. On the L the unit is in the logical location and the controls are easy to use even when not looking. The volume control is gigantic.
6) The OS uses mahogany laminate on the top. The L uses acacia solid wood on top. Laminates sound duller than solid tops due to the glue absorbing some of the sound. Acacia sounds brighter than mahogany. So the L sounds brighter and a bit louder than the OS and I like the sound a lot better. I recorded a video of me playing the same piece on both ukes back to back and as I suspected a tiny microphone played through computer speakers I can't hear a difference but live there is a large difference. That is Jane helping me out:
https://youtu.be/OI9HaTdB_6s
There are a few things that I don't like about the L. It was advertised as having a wider nut but it is exactly 1.5 inches the exact same as the OS. So they must have been comparing the size to that of a four string tenor. I don't like the tuners on the L as much as I like the tuners on the OS. But once the strings are stretched I will not have to tune it very often. One good thing I can say about the OS is it rarely went out of tune. I also don't like the left strap button being located on body. It doesn't work but fortunately moving it to the headstock will not be a problem once I am sure I am not sending it back.
So please Tom, do not assume I am trying to talk you into buying one and replacing yours. I doubt you would appreciate the difference like I do. But for me the differences are monumental.
