Moselele Bambookulele and Gig Bag (Soprano)

Action a bit high (I corrected that by filing down the bridge with an emery board) and hence 4 rather than 5 stars, but what a gorgeous uke.I teach ukulele at a music workshop. Up to now I've been pointing my students to the excellent Brunswick ukes, but I thought I should get one of these as they have such a positive review history. There are now 3 in my group that have gone the Moselele route. We are happy bunnies. This is ow the uke of choice for our group. What you don't appreciate until you really start to investigate the Moselele web site is just how much these people have added to the general knowledge and love of the uke.I bow my head in gratitude.

Nicely made and finished and has a clear and bright tone with no buzzing. The bamboo works really well as a neutral resonator and should also be very tough. Supplied with quality strings and has proper machine heads which keep tune once the strings have stabilised. The tuning is easy to adjust precisely thereafter. Gig bag is good quality and the whole package seems good vfm to me. Nice letter and example tune from Moselele. The one little thing extra that they could do is include a couple of appropriate picks in the bag but otherwise an excellent thing for the money. Just glad I don't live in China on Chinese wages.

I've always played concert, but have wanted to give a larger ukulele a go -- so tried the Baritone Bambookulele...What a fun instrument! I've had it for a few weeks now and have hardly put it down. It sounds fantastic, and the bamboo finish looks great. A few details: 14 frets to body, 20 in all, duplicated markers, nice tuners, Aquila strings (none wound, re-entrant), the action was set up about right (for me) out of the box. And of course a lovely sound. I normally play a Fluke for day-to-day, which I've always been happy with -- but the baritone has such a lovely intonation I've been ignoring the poor thing...The gig-bag looks nice, and seems to be hard-wearing enough, but the ukulele hasn't had a chance to go back in it, so it hasn't had to suffer much wear yet... time will tell.Any downsides? Well, I suppose there are a few rough spots on the finish, but they're not noticeable unless you're really looking hard (mainly on the fretboard, although note the frets themselves have no sharp edges), and certainly not from a few feet away -- whereas the bamboo finish does look good from any distance. It is re-entrant tuned; while some might assume that a baritone should be linear it does sound nice as re-entrant. I've got some linear strings and had meant to change them over straight away, but the sound it's giving me at the moment isn't tempting me to hurry. If I change them over I'll try to post an update. I suppose it should be mentioned that it is a laminate, but it seems good quality (is there even such a thing as solid bamboo?) and it doesn't have that cheapo-laminate-ukulele sound.Update:I've tried linear strings now. Aquila red linear (low D) sound quite nice. It loses a little of the Ukulele sound but on balance I think it sounds better linear than re-entrant.

It's important to take reviews in context, especially for something like this. Giving it three stars and commenting that it lacks the richness of tone found in an Hawaiian koa ukulele costing ten times as much is irrelevant for most potential purchasers, not to mention unfair to the manufacturer. This is not a top grade instrument, nor is it intended to be. That doesn't mean that it's bad, of course. Far from it.Comparing the Bambookulele to instruments costing around £130 - £180 is a far better indication of what you're getting and just how good it really is. I bought the tenor size along with a gig bag for a total of £85. At that price expectations need to be reined in, but both items are quite exceptional. The bag is well designed and of decent quality, lifted above the usual fare by the full inch of padding, making it considerably more protective than another, costlier bag I own. The ukulele itself is well made and finished to a high standard: the gloss is even; neck and fingerboard smooth and nicely shaped; tuners, nut, frets and bridge straight and correctly placed; only minor flaws of the soundhole rosette transfer and one fret marker come close to being something you'd mark down the appearance for, but at this price they're trivial blemishes. The bamboo finish is attractive. Now that the strings have settled it's holding its tuning well and the sound is very pleasing, quite loud without booming, with more sustain than I expected. A softly chiming tone, quite satisfying and easy on the ear.I prefer non-gloss finishes and good friction pegs instead of guitar-style tuners, but those are minor points of personal taste and no reason to mark the instrument down, not least since the fitted tuners work smoothly. This really is a ukulele punching far above its weight and a considerable bargain. The only niggle so far was a buzz when strumming, easily diagnosed as a slightly loose tuner nut and just as easily fixed. For a superior beginners' instrument, or a durable extra uke for more experienced players, the Bambookulele has few peers at this price.