Kala KA-15S Mahogany Soprano Ukulele Review

★★★★★★★★★★

“Previously I wrote a review regarding the Makala Shark Bridge Soprano Ukulele. Unfortunately, with that particular uke, it arrived in very disappointing fashion. The workmanship [or lack thereof] and quality control issues forced us returning it, and spending an additional $10 for the Kala Mahogany Soprano Ukulele. Let me just say that the differences between these two Ukuleles is truly like night and day……for those of you who DIDN'T read my previous review, I will say that I've been a guitarist for over 25 years. I have a lot of experience in the construction, setup, and playing of acoustic and electric stringed instruments. Specifically I am a rock and metal player, but cull experience from nearly every genre of music. My wife and I were searching for an inexpensive beginner's ukulele for a 5 year old girl to use for her first foray into music. Upon ordering the ukes, we had them delivered to us so that I could go over them, make sure that they were properly constructed and setup prior to sending to her. Being that I have given MANY lessons in my day, and have encountered many different instruments, I know that THE most common reason that a student gives up on a stringed instrument is if it is poorly set-up [i.e., physically hard to play]. NO stringed instrument should require a Herculean amount of strength.The Kala Ukulele arrived very well packed…by both Amazon and from the company. Upon taking the ukulele out of it's second inner most packing box, I could immediately see that it was in fact made of mahogany [intentional mislabeling of construction wood is an unfortunate part of inexpensive guitars and stringed instruments]. Not only is this actual mahogany, but it is a very excellent example of mahogany. The wood is a deep shade of brown with a dark black grain running throughout. The pores of the wood [a tale tale sign of true mahogany] are very visible and clearly indicate that this is an excellent example of mahogany.The fretwork is EXEMPLARY. I've seen $400-$500 guitars have fretwork not as good as this. The brass frets are all properly seated and well finished. For anyone familiar with guitars and stringed instruments, fret ends [the point at which your hand makes contact up and down the neck] can be a very troubling point of contact with inexpensive instruments. However, these frets have been manicured to a level that there is no sensation whatsoever.Another point of emphasis: the nut. The nut, in my estimation is one of THE most important parts of any stringed instrument. A nut should be properly cut as to allow the strings to move without binding [binding creates issues with tuning and intonation] and the nut slots should be cut as so to allow the strings a downward trajectory into the tuning machines [maximizing resonance and projection of the instrument]. Again, this instrument is exemplary as it relates to the nut. The nut is a plastic "bone facsimile" and it is properly cut with an attention to detail I could never have expected at this price point.Tuning CAN be a bit tedious with this uke…the tuners are VERY pedestrian, but at $53 [most tuning machine sets cost more than this ukulele did] one shouldn't expect them to be more than utilitarian. Please be prepared for the tuning machines to slip a bit when tuning…it's very easy to get impatient, but if you take your time it will get to pitch. Once you've tuned the ukulele, as with any stringed instrument, it will be important to stretch the strings and then retune at least two additional times before optimal tuning stability will be achieved.Upon tuning the ukulele, and strumming some chords, I quickly realized what a gem this truly is. The uke is dynamic, resonant, and truly is the sum of all the aforementioned parts. Single notes sing out and have great harmonic content. Chords ring and project very well. I have played every note on the fingerboard and none of them are dead or have any intonation issues whatsoever.To put this in perspective, I just bought myself a guitar three weeks ago. It cost me $2,500. It is the epitome of modern guitar construction and is arguably the greatest stringed instrument I've ever played. But this $53 Kala Uke has a home, in my home, right next to that guitar. I'm not comparing the two; I'm simply saying that the playability is such that I WILL be buying myself one once this goes to our granddaughter. The "dollars per smile" ratio on this thing is incomprehensible. I can not say enough about this Ukulele and if you're in the market for a Uke PLEASE do yourself a favor and buy one. You will NOT be disappointed, nor will you regret it for one single solitary minute.”

★★★★★★★★★★

“I know this is more about personal experience with a uke in general than it is about the actual product, but I will get to that, also. I had been trying in vain to learn guitar, and one of my main problems is that my hands are too small to chord properly. That's why I first went looking for a ukulele. I heard that for one, with a smaller neck, and only four strings, it eliminates that issue. Two, it's easier to feel strumming patterns. I don't know if that's true for everyone or not, but it sure has been for me! Three, they're just so darn cute!So after a TON of research, reading reviews, product specs, etc, I settled on this one. It was affordable; and I LOVE the finish. Plus, it comes with aquila strings on it, so I didn't have to restring it immediately. I could focus on learning how to play the instrument before having to figure that out.It arrived a day earlier than the original delivery estimate, first off. Which was good, because I wanted it SOOOOO bad! When I pulled it out of the box, it was so much better than I thought it was going to be! The finish is spectacular! It's a matte finish, so that you can see the beautiful mahogany. The sound is perfect. Like I said, I did a lot of research before buying. One of the things I did was search comparison videos on youtube. Although there were some ukes that topped the sound, the cost was enough of a drawback that I can honestly say that within this price range, there is NO comparison!!I love that I have been able to just pick this thing up and play within a couple of hours. I couldn't do that with a guitar no matter how hard I tried!!All in all, it has been a VERY good little instrument for me so far. As a side note, I purchased a uke tuner from a different seller, and it hasn't arrived yet, so I used my sister-in-law's guitar tuner. I didn't even know you could do that, but it worked! I guess no matter what the range of the instrument, g will always be g, c will always be c, and so on.”

★★★★★★★★★★

“Oh my goodness, I just love it 🥰I changed my strings to Pepe Romero’s Low G ukulele strings.The sound and playability is just awesome! I love the unique sound of the spruce top!Zero complaints!!Tune-ability and tune accuracy are top notch quality.Sustain is greatString hight is perfect for finger picking and playing all your chords. No adjustments necessary. Top quality, right out of the box.The quality of your strings makes a huge difference. I am not a fan of the strings that it came with. I feel that they give a dull sound. They didn’t give this awesome little instrument justice. If I didn’t get Pepe Romero strings, then I’d get D’Addario strings which are not expensive at all and sound amazing!”

★★★★★★★★★★

“It is wonderful. Easy to learn with and sounds great.”

★★★★★★★★★★

“I've been taking ukulele lessons on a beautiful double hole Mele soprano. When I saw this ukulele as a Amazon Prime Day 2016 deal, I thought I'd buy it just to compare since the price was under 60 bucks (interestingly, the price was even cheaper during the week after Prime Day so I feel a bit put off, but I digress since that has nothing to do with the ukulele itself). Anyway, the ukulele arrived in a standard Amazon box, but was then packed in it's own nice sturdy triangle-shaped box inside that. The Kala has a nice weight. It's heavier than the Mele I have and the tuning pegs are bigger and chunky-looking. Cosmetically, the head doesn't match the body color. The body color is stained very dark--almost too dark to see the laser-engraved rosette around the sound hole unless it's in the right lighting. It's still a very pretty little instrument. It's sturdy and seems well-built. What I like about about this Kala over the Mele is that it's much LOUDER than the Mele. It doesn't matter how hard I strum the Mele, I seems to have a maximum volume level and that's all I can get out of it. This Kala doesn't mind letting out more sound. BUT... the Kala sound is much more twangy and not as pleasing as the Mele (however, if I didn't have the Mele to compare it to, the sound difference between instruments wouldn't even have crossed my mind). It also doesn't want to stay in tune for even 30 minutes, but I hope that works itself out the more I play it. Overall, I think this is a fantastic starter ukulele for anyone learning the ukulele. If you haven't bought a ukulele before, make sure to add a clip-on tuner to your cart, too. They're definitely worth the extra money (less than $10).”