New Uke Day (NUD) NUD Pops KoAloha Wow Concert

[don_b]

I had a strap button put on the Concert Wow yesterday, so I can play with a strap. I find that more comfortable, even when sitting. I moved my 1" strap from the tenor and got a new 1.5" strap for it. I also picked up a concert sized gig bag. BTW, if you happen to live in Southern California, or are visiting, I want to give a shout out to Island Bazaar in Huntington Beach. They are a really dedicated ukulele shop, with terrific folks. They have a good selection of instruments, accessories, music, cases, etc. They also teach classes and sponsor concert events. While I was there I picked up tickets to a concert featuring Craig Chee and Sarah Maisal, Bryan Tolentino, and Herb Ohta Jr.

As I play the Concert Wow more, I've realized that Pops was right, it is a cannon. It does not have the full tonal range of a quality tenor, but played side by side with the KoAloha KTM00, Kamaka HF3, or Pono ATD, the volume and sustain surpass the Pono, are on a par with the Kamaka, and are just a little less than the KoAloha. It is really a bit surprising when doing a direct comparison of a concert with what I consider to be first rate tenors.

The strings seem to be settling and holding their pitch fairly well now. I find the concert easier to tune and to keep in tune than the soprano--string tension? I still find the soprano somehow the easiest to play, especially in the lower frets. My hands are still getting acquainted with the concert. The concert is very comfortable, but I think it is a matter of lots of small adjustments of finger position and just general feel in both right and left hands. I still feel more at home on either my soprano or my tenor, but I want to have all three instruments in my regular practice and playing rotation.

I've enjoyed the discussion here about different ukulele voices; I like the metaphor. My wife and I are spoiled by regularly playing a collection of wonderful instruments. We are simply not capable of demonstrating and recognizing their full capabilities. But even at our level, it is clear that every ukulele is a Blue Plate Special. While you can work with different strings and different setups, at a more fundamental level, like the Blue Plate Special, there are no substitutions--it is what it is. It will be more capable in some areas or some things that will be easier to do, and there will be areas where things are more difficult. Without entering the debate about how instruments do or don't break in, the person playing the instrument, will adjust their playing style and technique to get the best they can from it as they get more familiar with it. In my experience it takes significant time to really work out my relationship with an instrument, assuming I don't have an early break up. Here I am thinking months and years, not days and weeks.

In a word, “WOW”

 

[ailevin]

I wanted to post a short epilogue since there has been some evolution of my assessment. I switched the Concert Wow to low G after the first week as an experiment. Low vs. high G is obviously a matter of preference and ymmv, but ... On my Soprano Wow the low G seemed thin. On the KoAloha tenor the low G is wonderful and very rich tonally, but it dominates a bit if I'm not careful. On this instrument,, the low G just feels right to me--it tames a bit of the concert's brashness, the G tone while not as rich as the tenor, sounds nice and full, and the volume balance across the four string is excellent.

I've discussed the different voices of my ukuleles here and elsewhere. The Soprano Wow strung in high G has a sweet child like voice, with a totally different vibe and appeal. The KoAloha KTM00 has a full vibranrt yet mellow Koa voice. While the Concert Wow has a slightly brighter and more guitar-like voice than the tenor, it is still a distinctly ukulele sound with the slightly lower string tension. It gives up very little in volume or sustain and it may have a slight advantage in articulation in the lower register compared to any of our low G tenors. In fact, playing side by side, the Concert Wow bests a Kamaka tenor with flourocarbon strings in volume and sustain, though of course it does not have the Kamaka shimmer or the low end of the larger scale Koa instrument.

Over the past three or four weeks this concert has become my primary instrument. Almost everything about the Concert Wow feels like it is the way it should be for me: string tension, action, fret height, the feel of the neck, the weight/balance, and of course the tone/sustain. While I play the Soprano Wow and KoAloha tenor regularly as well, right now the Concert Wow is the one!

 

[ailevin]

I recently wrote to Ed to let him and Pops know much I was enjoying the Concert Wow and I want to repeat much of that here. We have many posts in these forums about finding/choosing instruments--what sort of instrument, how much to spend, how much is too much, and even how much difference a particular instrument can make. While the obvious disclaimers are that it depends and it is personal, my experience of the past year is that the instrument can have a profound and in my case surprising effect. I like to think of myself as more analytical than poetic, so please forgive the heavy handed metaphor in what follows.

I play the Concert Wow daily, and I think about Pops daily. I can't believe how lucky I am to have this instrument. We have other fine instruments including Pono, Kamaka, and KoAloha tenors, and of course my lovely Soprano Wow. Each has its own voice and capability, and it is fun to play them and compare them. Yet when I play the Concert Wow, I feel like I have returned home to where everything is just right. My relationship with this ukulele is wonderful, but quite hard to describe. The Concert Wow feels like an extension of my body, like it is holding me as much as I am holding it. I think of that as a kind of transparency. That word is often used to describe audio equipment, especially speakers, that seem to almost disappear leaving nothing between you and the music. With the Concert Wow, I am less aware of playing it, and more in touch with just playing the music. Let me be clear, this is not a magical instrument in the sense of instantly making any technical or musical challenge easy. However, it is quite special to me because I am able to do more when I am playing it. Maybe it is some sort of placebo effect, or maybe it just happens to be the ukulele I am playing currently. Yet I see this ukulele as a major factor in the transformation of my playing over the past several months.

I have known, and my friends and family have known for some time now that I am ukulele crazy. However, it is only very recently that I have realized that the ukulele has rekindled a flame and begun to replace something very dear that I lost about 35 years ago when I stopped playing the violin. Music has remained very central in my life, but I had forgotten the challenge, satisfaction, and joy of making a piece of music sound beautiful myself. In the past several months, after almost a year of work with a good teacher, and inspired by Pops's handiwork, I realized I am actually getting past the notes and to the music on the ukulele as I once did on the violin in my youth. I feel like a new door has opened before me, and I can't wait to explore further.

 

[ripock]

it is only very recently that I have realized that the ukulele has rekindled a flame and begun to replace something very dear that I lost about 35 years ago when I stopped playing the violin. Music has remained very central in my life, but I had forgotten the challenge, satisfaction, and joy of making a piece of music sound beautiful myself. In the past several months, after almost a year of work with a good teacher, and inspired by Pops's handiwork, I realized I am actually getting past the notes and to the music on the ukulele as I once did on the violin in my youth. I feel like a new door has opened before me, and I can't wait to explore further.

That's the most articulate paragraph about why to get a custom uke.

 

[Voran]

OMG I'm jealous! Love them abalone inserts

 

[ailevin]

BTW, that note to @efiscella about how much I was enjoying the Wow concert, led to the acquisition of a Wow tenor! The NUD is here.