Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)The sound exceeded my expectations. I give it 5 stars. It has a full, rich, round tone. It's not as loud as my concert Koaloha, but the tone is probably a little better, though it's somewhat hard to compare, because of the difference in volume. I play it when I want a gentler sound, especially at night. Or just when I want to hear its nice sweet, bell-like tone. I seem to be playing it more often than my tenor Kamaka, and my Koaloha now. It came with Aquila Nylgut strings, which I prefer on my ukes. It's also very solidly built. The body tapers towards the neck, and I like the feel of it. The strings at the nut were a little high, so I filed down the grooves slightly. The nut and saddle are Tusq material.
The appearance fell short of my expectations. I give it four stars. It doesn't look quite as nice as what was on the Oscar Schmidt website, or what I've seen on some Youtube video lessons. It has gold tone Grover tuners, which are very smooth turning, but the knobs themselves aren't gold tone as on the Oscar Schmidt website, they are a matte black sort of hard rubberized plastic. The inlaid abalone scroll work on the neck has a lot of dark brown in it that does not shine. It gives the whole ukulele a sort of antiquish look. Also the fretboard is not solid black ebony, it's striated brown and black. The bridge however is solid black ebony. There are two small glue stains where the bridge joins the soundboard, but I was able to polish them and they're hardly noticeable now. There was some sort of white, chalky substance where the fretboard binding meets the soundboard, but I was able to scape it away with a toothpick and it looks clean there now. The logo on the headplate is not inlaid. It sits on the surface of the wood and is covered over with varnish. Also there is not really enough contrast with the headstock, so it's very hard to read or recognize from even a few feet away. (I would recommend to O.S. a more contrasting logo, so their brand could stand out more.) My uke came with a gray scrape mark about half an inch long on the white binding on the right front. Elsewhere, however, front, back and sides, the koa wood looks very nice, and the finish is immaculate. The abalone inlay of the bindings on the body is also very nice. The interior also looks very clean with no messy joints.
The ukulele case is the best I've seen, with a nice, large overstuffed handle and the Oscar Schmidt logo on it.
For the purchase price to value, I give it 5 stars.
It's really the sound that makes this ukulele outstanding. If it had the gold tone tuning knobs, and a solid black ebony fretboard, as in the photo on the O.S. website, I would have given it an overall five star rating.
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Oscar Schmidt OU280SWK Concert UkuleleSolid Hawaiian Koa top, Solid Hawaiian Koa back & sides, Abalone body binding, Abalone logo, Abalone rosette and fret dot inlays, Abalone back strip, Gloss finish, Gold Grover GH305 tuners with ebony buttons, Ebony fingerboard w/abalone vine inlay, Bone nut and saddle, Ebony bridge, GHS strings
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