Outdoor Uke

[Earl49]

I'm going to keep an eye on this Outdoor Uke concept, and when they get back into production again, I can take a chance. My little soprano Waterman is OK, but tenor is really more my size.

These ukes remind me considerably of beer bottles from my home brewing days. When getting ready to move to the Lower 48 (an Alaskan term) it was necessary to offload all the cases of bottles. The brewing supply store was happy to take the brown and green bottles, but the clear ones had to go to the recycle center. Only a certain brand or two use clear bottles, and those beverages are barely considered "beer" by aficionados.

[mot]

I would go for a tenor with a low G if I was choosing today. Not as concerned about color and I like that it's a two person operation.

I have been using my Yamaha Guitalele for trips lately because I haven't had enough space to drag along my X20.

Pros:
6 strings.
Fits in my clothes bag.
Pretty tough compared to my wood baritone uke (Pono).
Cheap enough to not worry or replace if it gets broken.
1.75" (I think) wide fret board at the nut.

Cons:
I have to constantly tune it (wood issue probably along with all the weather changes lately).
Tight fret board. I have it tuned to the standard uke tuning so it's just a like a guitar, but up a fourth so I can't really play barre chords well more than a few frets up.
Large corporation. Yamaha make some excellent instruments. The Guitalele is not necessarily great, but it is solid. But Yamaha is not a mom and pop shop which I prefer to buy from if possible.

If I broke the guitalele or bari uke, I would probably grab one of these outdoor ukes to check them out assuming I could find one. Maybe they will have a six string version by then. Thanks for posting and making me aware of this option.

[AZLiberty]

Originally Posted by Earl49

These ukes remind me considerably of beer bottles from my home brewing days.

Yeah, the Bottle Brown looks like a beer bottle. The Bottle Green looks like a bottle of Scotch. Which reminds me, I'm out of scotch.

[Fixedgear60]

Oh... now that you had me thinking about outdoor ukes.... they ran a short run of guinness (dark brown almost black) tenor ukes as well.... wish I picked one up... they looked great. Who can say no to a guinness.... ;-)

[cc407]

Torn between brown and green but figured let's be plastic - so green

[AZLiberty]

Bottle Brown Leads the pack followed by Moonshine with Green trailing behind...


Moonshine became available today, and I would like one to arrive before the 4th of July so bucking the poll I just ordered a Moonshine Tenor with nickle tuners and added a strap button at the "tail block".

I think she shall be called "Ghost".

Once it arrives in a couple weeks I'll put up a review and comparison with my wife's Kala solid top Tenor

[elementarymusic]

I've got one too and love it. I bought the brown. They're very punchy, soundwise. Not gonna lie, my $200 wood Kala sounds much better... But these are plastic. I leave mine in my elementary music classroom all year round and never have to worry, even in the dead of winter with 10% humidity...


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[AZLiberty]

Originally Posted by elementarymusic

...even in the dead of winter with 10% humidity...

ha. Two digit humidity...

7% in Phoenix today.

[Captain Jim]

Here in the Tropical Tip, it was 90º today, with the humidity around 375%. But, it's a wet heat.

[AZLiberty]

Originally Posted by AZLiberty

Moonshine became available today, and I would like one to arrive before the 4th of July so bucking the poll I just ordered a Moonshine Tenor with nickle tuners and added a strap button at the "tail block".

E-mail today confirming shipment, so 14 days from order to ship. They ship USPS which I suppose is reasonable for the size. Hopefully we will have a NUD (new uke day) by the end of the week.

[Earl49]

Looking forward to your NUD report, AZ.

[AZLiberty]

A tease... will return after tuning...

[AZLiberty]

Put a review up on my blog, so will just link it. As posters above have said, a $200 wooden uke is more musical. But I wouldn't take a wooden uke camping or kayaking. I think it really needs some higher tension strings actually.

http://rocketsong.blogspot.com/2017/...r-ukulele.html

[guitarget]

"ha. Two digit humidity...7% in Phoenix today."

"But, it's a dry heat"

I liked the green one - it really stands out.

[Earl49]

Originally Posted by AZLiberty

.....I think it really needs some higher tension strings actually.....

Nice review, AZ. Seems like there are better instruments out there, but this one is fairly bombproof for field use in trying conditions where others simply would not survive.

It is easy enough to experiment with higher tension. Tune up one whole step to D tuning. Instead of GCEA, tune to ADF#B. Since you cannot buy a set of "D tuning" ukulele strings (versus C strings) this works fine. D is the old tuning, and is still widely used in Europe and much of Canada.

I like Aquila Nylgut strings a lot, but the last two sets I've put on have been the Aquila Reds. I like those even better. And I use the reds bought as singles for my low G ukes. With wound low G strings, the soft aluminum (?) windings wear much faster against the frets than the other strings, so I end up swapping low G's about twice as often as the pure nylon strings. With the Red's all strings seem to match wear patterns much better.