ashton uke

Okay, so I bought this cheap ukulele. Wanted to see if it's as bad as it could be. (Apparently this is the kind that schools normally get.) It is pretty bad.

Pros:

• price
• 3 of the 4 strings sound almost okayish on the first 4 frets.
• the other string sounds okayish open.
• it has an easy clean laminate finish.

Cons:

• the action was set so high that it was painful to play. (note past tense)
• the strings are awful. Really thick.
• the frets aren't a semitone apart after #5. On the C string they fail after the first fret.
• It has an easy clean laminate finish.

I wish I could be more positive about it, but it's a pretty poor excuse for an instrument. In my mind there is no excuse for the ridiculous height of the action or the misplaced frets. I feel wrong even considering buying a class set, but in the current ukulele crisis, maybe a poor uke is better than no uke. But maybe not.

I've been operating on it. Figured it couldn't get much worse... I got the knife onto both ends and cut away a significant amount to lower the action. This has made it easier to play. Tomorrow I'm buying a new set of strings. This might make a big difference. There's nothing I can do to fix the frets, but the kids won't be playing past the 5th anyway. The C string will always sound bad.

Here's what it sounds like now.