All Koa Baritone Ukulele Review
The “Ziggy” is a modified baritone ukulele that seems to have the Wow-factor on every front. Ukulele master and ambassador Kimo Hussey makes a point of playing a variety of fine instruments from some of the very best ukulele builders around the world, reflecting his ongoing pursuit of that perfect blend of looks, playability and sound. We are very pleased and honored to share Kimo’s review on this very special uke. While we certainly think Lichtys are the best baritone ukuleles around, Kimo agrees!
“The best baritone ukulele!”
“What an INCREDIBLE ukulele! For me, it’s the best I’ve gotten from you —– and that makes it pretty much the best ukulele I’ve experienced so far in my developing ukulele youth. Congratulations, Jay, this is definitely a trend-setter!!!!!
LOOKS —– I love the design of the top because it is simple and stark, which allows the wood to be the center of attraction. One reason I don’t prefer a ton of bling on ukes is that they detract attention which rightfully belongs to the wood. But with this uke, the curly koa is so majestic and gets right out there and makes its beautiful presence known. It also does it in a way that fits in well with the fact that this is an ukulele and not a mobile art gallery. The koa itself is magnificent. Get more if you can! The fattened binding (sorry, I don’t know what else to call it) by my right elbow is quite beautiful and very tastefully done. While I’m at binding, your craftsmanship with binding (as anything else) all the way around the uke is very nice and everything comes together extremely well. The extension on top of the headstock is very cool. What prompted that? It’s wonderful having that little bit of koa. The look of the sound holes and side port is quite awesome and unique. One gets the impression that a ton of creativity went into the design of this uke and it definitely shows your command of your art. Can you please make me a black saddle? I’d love to see what that little piece of black will do to the overall looks of the top. But if your saddle is glued in, forget it. Loosening strings to pull out the saddle and slide in a different one is the extent of my manual dexterity.
PLAYABILITY/ACTION —– This one’s easy: this uke has the best action I’ve ever experienced and it’s going to spoil me. I LOVE the touch of this instrument because it is feather light and very responsive. This means the ukulele will have a greater dynamic response most other ukes cannot produce. It is a very expressive instrument and the player can work wonders in this area. The scale provides enough horizontal maneuvering to make chords formed on the eighth fret and higher have very good clarity. This gives the player a lot of range to play with and have fun. This scale would cause a “reach” consideration especially with the first to fourth frets, but most folks who play in that area of the fretboard do NOT use chords that would require lots of stretch. So this scale works!!!! Vertical finger spacing works well. For me, this dimension is quite optimum. Almost forgot —– zero frets rock!!!!!!
SOUND —– The fact this instrument further mellows a tenor sound and brightens the baritone sound a bit is exactly what I’ve been wanting for years!!!! It fits my style of play and I think shows off ukulele much better. This, along with the range this instrument provides makes it the most versatile ukulele I know of. It’s been great to have the spruce top here as well to compare voicings. I appreciate the warmer sound of the koa probably because I’ve always preferred as warm a sound that can be achieved without the uke sounding muddy as well. But I do think the spruce is going to catch up as time moves on. This uke is expressive in all of its pitch range, from low to high. The blend is quite nice and is going to improve as this uke continues to open up.
What really makes this an unbelievable instrument is how you’ve been able to find GREAT balance between looks, playability and sound. Some sound good but look bad. Others look great but sound horrible. Others still have great bling but very average everything else. Yours has found a perfect balance and this ukulele will capably show anyone how this all comes together so well.
Nice work, Jay! “
Koa Baritone Ukulele Audio Samples played by Jay:
Koa-Baritone-Ukulele-U111-Wave
Koa-Baritone-Ukulele-U111-Shenandoah
Koa-Baritone-Ukulele-U111-shadow-of-smile
Learn more:
- The Ziggy Modified Baritone Model
- This Koa Baritone Ukulele
- Kimo Hussey
- Watch Kimo sharing a bit of his ukulele philosophy in the shop at Lichty Guitars –