Kala Official Learn To Play Color Chord Ukulele Starter Kit for Beginners - includes a Color Chord Soprano Ukulele, logo tote bag, online lessons, tuner app, and booklet (KALA-LTP-SCC)

I'm just getting back to my ukulele roots, so I thought I'd go find a well-reviewed, affordable uke. Not an el cheapo model, but something that people seem generally happy with. My "research" (reading Amazon reviews, pretty much...) brought me to the Kala Waterman and it's retro charm. At first I was leery of a plastic uke, but it's the real deal, folks. Sounds suitably 50s, a wee bit tinny (as other reviewers have noted) and it does require a little patience with the tuning. It's pretty sturdy, another selling point honestly, and will likely be able to handle what the average outdoorsy ukulele player can throw at it. One word of, well, caution (that word seems a tad too harsh, admittedly...): I bought the "slate grey" version, since I didn't want anything too flashy. The photo provided actually made it look kind of sickly, Frankenstein's Monster-esque green which I didn't entirely dig. But when it arrived, I'm happy to say that "slate grey" is an accurate description of the color. Think the color of a shark in an old Warner Bros' cartoon. Not seasick green at all. Anyhow, if you're still reading this far along, I'd say you've found a good starter uke or a good back-up to your nicer ukulele. Nothing fancy, no frills, and surprisingly decent sound considering the price. Go make some mai tais.

I purchased these for my music classroom. Once the stirrings are stretched these little ukuleles are set to go and hardly need anything. They maintain their tuning, are not susceptible to temperature and humidity changes like wooden ukuleles are. Their tone is delightful! I highly recommend these.I do like that these have a handful of chords marked, a different color for each chord. I was always marking my student ukuleles with stickers. Now I don’t have to and the markers don’t fall off; they are painted on. These soprano ukuleles are an excellent value for the money. I highly recommend them for youth; they are like tiny tanks. This and the Waterman ukulele also by Kala are my top recommendation to students, parents, colleagues, and school administration.(Remember nylon strings take time to stretch; don’t plan to play them right out of the box and then stay in. Give them time to stretch and their intonation will center and reliably settle in).

I use this as a "beater" uke. It stays in my car or gets strapped onto my backpack. It's there for impulse playing. It can take bumps and knocks and it can get hot or dry without me worrying about cracking.Action is higher than I'd like. It helps that the strings are easy to fret but still, the action is awful high. Due to the method of construction it also looks particularly hard to adjust, especially at the nut with the 0 fret.It sounds... well plasticky. Which is fine. I won't deduct points off of that because it's a plastic sub-50 dollar uke and you get what you pay for. Volume is good. Tone is kind of jangly to my admittedly untrained ears and some days, especially hot days, the tone sounds pretty crummy even if my tuner says everything is in tune. This goes away after about 10 minutes of playing, so I wonder if it's the Aquila strings that are responsible for the odd tone.Tuners are stiff and cheap but they hold tune pretty well. I find I have to touch the tuning up every couple days but it's never very far out of tune. It will absolutely keep tune through a session.Weirdly enough though it took FOREVER for the strings to stretch and hold tune. Two weeks of playing daily for an hour or more a day. The E string especially stretched for what felt like forever. Since this is my first Soprano uke, I wonder if that's because the strings just generally seem to be less taunt than on my concert uke.Intonation is fine down the neck, as it should be for an injection molded neck. Get the mold right and you're done.The silver paint thing on the frets seems to have been fixed and I haven't seen any wear like people were originally complaining about. Frankly I don't give a damn but it bothered some people so it might be nice to hear that's fixed.Is it worth it? Absolutely. It's not a high end uke. The action is high, and it sounds like a plastic toy. But it holds tune, can take rougher treatment than your nice ukes, and plays pretty well. Much like the adage that the best camera is the one you have on you, the best uke is the one you can play and have at hand when you want to play. I keep my nicer uke at home but for noodling in the real world on impulse, this one fulfills almost every expectation I have.If you want a beginning uke, I might suggest actually looking at other alternatives. This one is nice for what it is, but I don't know if it's a good introduction to ukuleles.

I grabbed one of these on a lockdown lark - it seemed like something worth messing with, even though I have barely an ounce of musical aptitude. It's been an absolute hoot, so easy to play that even I can make some enjoyable noises. Plenty of approachable tutorials on line, too. The app that you can access is OK for tuning and learning, but I recommend that you purchase one of the many inexpensive electronic clip-on tuners. They are much faster to use, and can stay right on your uke.This is so much fun that my college-aged daughter, who is trapped here with her parents, has also asked for one. Snag a ukulele, you won't be sorry!UPDATE, after 8 months of pandemic - still lots of fun, still learning, and still recommending. This is a really good starter uke that you don't have to worry about when carrying it around.