iUke Pineapple

Ever since the launch of Apple's iPod it has become a trendy marketing ploy to put "i" in front of everything to make it sound modern and "hip" so it was only  matter of time before the iUke came about, (and this isn't even the first or only attempt).

This started out as a collaboration with Aquila to help them develop their ultrathin Sopranino strings that enable small Minis to be tuned an octave higher than a standard Ukulele. The Ukuleles themselves though are made in China by a manufacturer that calls itself iUke and they are small! - Scale length 25.5 cm (10 in) and a total length of 40 cm (15.75 in) - that's smaller than a Kala Pocket, and needs to be as the Pocket is too big for the strings!) And only just bigger that a Maccaferri Ukette. This makes it quite difficult to play as the neck is quite narrow for a Ukulele too. It makes some chords tricky to play - I find D minor hard not to get a dead string on - on the other hand some chords are easier like A# diminished.

When it came and I unpacked it my first thought out of the box was the soft case that it comes with looked cheap and not very protective, (I've been told off for criticising cases before though so give the instrument a chance). Sound wise it wasn't too bad; interesting being an octave higher than normal but not a lot of sustain and not very loud, (not unusual for Mini Ukuleles though - you need to pick your songs carefully because they don't all work using it).

On to the quality of the build, and I was very disappointed. Starting with the bridge, as this was the most obvious flaw, There were a lot of obvious glue marks around the bridge and the saddle doesn't fit into it properly, (I will have to unstring it, remove the saddle widen the slot and reset the saddle). Looking further the nut is not properly fitted at the top of the fretboard and some of the frets aren't properly dressed either. On top of these manufacturing faults the overall matt finish isn't very good too, it's not as pretty as I'd hoped. On the plus side for the build the tuners are good and it does appear to have the solid spruce top the advertising claims.

All in all this has the build quality of a very budget Ukulele and one that, if I looked at in a shop, (rather than getting it on line), I wouldn't buy because even with budget Ukuleles you get some better made than this. However this is not a budget Ukulele...