U-35GN Sparkling Ukulele Outfit - Green

Good ukulele to start learning, but I stain hands to touch, the mast and black fade that brings on the basis I'm losing just one week of use

This is $27 bucks well spent! I'm a multi-instumentalist musician, wanted something for the kids, found this, it's pretty nice for the money. Build quality is quite decent, the frets will need dressing, the fretboard is cheaply ebonized but looks pretty smooth, the fretboard overall is pretty good quality, level frets, decent intonation. finish is nice-looking, it's heavy paint and clear-coat, which deadens the sound a lot, but it looks nice, and my kids loved it. Sustain is pretty minimal, you will have to pay a lot more for an instrument with really good tone and sustain, but this is good for a starter, it does not feel like a toy, you can actually play real music on this little thing! Which surprized me a lot at this price point. Tonally, it is biased towards the bass end of the scale, it does not have the bright sound of my higher-cost ukes. You can't expect wonderful tone at this price point. Good choice for a beginner who can't spend a lot, or if you're not sure if you'll stick with it. If you do stick with it, you will of course want to buy something nicer. The action is of course too high, this seems to be always the case with cheap ukes, if you have files you can lower the action at the nut and bridge in 20 minutes, definitely necessary for kids. The bridge insert and nut are claimed to be Nubone material from Graphtech, which if true is a big plus! The strings are actually pretty good, surprizingly so, although it will of course sound better with a nice set of Aquilas on it. I tune my ukes old-school, to D-tuning, one full step up from normal, so maybe this makes a difference with the strings. The open-geared tuners are a nice dolphin shape, they are rough-feeling, but hold tune pretty well. You should invest in a tuner, I use Guitar Machine app for iPhone, with nylon strings you will be tuning up for a full month before they settle in. You really need to understand that initially you will be tuning up every five minutes of playing or so, really, no joke. Nylon stretches like crazy and goes out of tune, so tune up constantly. Overall impression is that this is a good choice for entry-level playing, it is a real instrument, not a toy like you might expect, and will let you play real music with a little set-up to lower the action. A better choice for a beginner who doesn't mind spending a little more is the Lanikai LU-11 soprano, for about $55 it is an excellent choice, great tone and sustain, excellent build quality, feels like a quality piece, will make the Mahalo sound like a toy in comparison. And - Aquila strings will make any soprano sound better.

I never played a ukulele prior to purchasing this ukulele. Thanks to Julia Nunes (If you don't know who that is check her out on YouTube.) I wanted to learn how to play. I didn't want to spend very much money in case I found out the ukulele wasn't the instrument for me. So I did some research to help me make the best choice. I picked the Mahalo U-35GN Sparkling Soprano Ukulele Outfit in Green (I would call it lime green) because it was one of the cheapest ukuleles on Amazon with some of the best reviews. I have only been playing for a short while but I have no complaints thus far. Some have said it's a cheap toy but I disagree! This is a great ukulele for a beginner. I love it and I highly recommend it!Positives- Great starter ukulele. Great for a beginner to learn on. Easy to tune. It's a great value for the money. Last but not least it comes in several super cute colours which of course isn't important but I had to say it.Negatives- The black paint (or wood stain) on the fret board does rub off on your finger when you play. I believe other reviewers have stated that it stained their hands. However I found that a simple hand washing got rid of the black marks right away. The first few months the strings will constantly go out of tune. I don't find it that big of a deal as I feel like it helps teach me how to tune. If you have lots of experience with musical instruments you might find this more of a frustration. If you are more experienced I'd recommend a different ukulele all together. However If you're new to playing an instrument it's not a big deal and I feel it helps with the learning process.Recommendations- Buy a set of the Aquila Premium Ukulele Strings and a clip on tuner (I recommend Snark SN-6 Ukulele Tuner) to go along with your ukulele especially if you're a beginner.

I play a bit of guitar and decided I would try to learn the uke. Ok, so this ukelele is pretty inexpensive, but it looks that way too. I would say it is more of a toy than an instrument. The wood is very thin; the finish is spray laquer and a more garish green than appears on the image. It has a coat of glitter under the strings that is kind of cheesy up close and makes it look even more like a toy. I've only had the instrument for a couple of weeks and some of the paint it already chipping off the fret board.I purchased a tuner with it and had tremendous issues keeping it tuned the first few days. It would literally go out of tune as soon as I struck the strings. I tightened everything up, but that didn't seem to matter. I guess eventually the strings stretched as much as they were going to and the neck settled in, so now I only have to tune it about once every 15 minutes. However, even when the strings are tuned to perfection, since the frets are not spaced accurately, not all chords are in tune and the uke sounds discordant anyway.If you have a good ear and are even semi-serious about learning this instrument, I think this particular version will drive you crazy. I would spend a bit more and stay away from this novelty item.