OK seriously, I can manage a decent rendition of Bobby Dare's "Dropkick me Jesus" and I'm pretty good with both a basic and a swing strum for "Amazing Grace" but basically I suck at the ukulele.
So for Easter my wife ordered me an aNueNue "Custom Maui Mango III" tenor ukulele. They are almost impossible to buy in the US. The brand sells some cheap stuff through Amazon, but they also have some very high end ukuleles and guitars. None of which are sold here in the US.
But I have a sister who lives in England and the brand is well represented there.
aNueNue is a Taiwan (non-commie Chinese) brand so its normal to think "cheap crap" because people just lump all Chinese stuff into a pile, but the Taiwanese high end products are simply superb, each hand made by an experienced craftsman. I'm pretty sure this particular model is discontinued. It does not show up on their product list, but web searches of their website find the page for this model in their archives. In fact they don't show any mango offerings. And I'm a mango fan so she really did a nice job with this ukulele.
Not only is it a high end (not the tip top of their range but near the top) ukulele but its also Mango, which is considered to be an equal (but different) to Koa for beautiful tone. The Custom series appears to be their 2nd highest series, with their Bird series as their top of the line. The Bird series is often regarded as the best ukulele in the world, better than the premium Hawaiian made ukuleles. The Custom series was available in Mahogany, Mango and Koa.
WOW, priced at 699 British Pounds ... roughly $980 (varies by day)
Should arrive in a bit over a week
Archived web page #1: http://www.anuenue-uke.com/en/ukulele/one/12/44
Archived web page #2: http://www.anuenue-uke.com/en/products/one/12/41
"Custom Maui Mango III" from the World of Ukes website in England:
So for Easter my wife ordered me an aNueNue "Custom Maui Mango III" tenor ukulele. They are almost impossible to buy in the US. The brand sells some cheap stuff through Amazon, but they also have some very high end ukuleles and guitars. None of which are sold here in the US.
But I have a sister who lives in England and the brand is well represented there.
aNueNue is a Taiwan (non-commie Chinese) brand so its normal to think "cheap crap" because people just lump all Chinese stuff into a pile, but the Taiwanese high end products are simply superb, each hand made by an experienced craftsman. I'm pretty sure this particular model is discontinued. It does not show up on their product list, but web searches of their website find the page for this model in their archives. In fact they don't show any mango offerings. And I'm a mango fan so she really did a nice job with this ukulele.
Not only is it a high end (not the tip top of their range but near the top) ukulele but its also Mango, which is considered to be an equal (but different) to Koa for beautiful tone. The Custom series appears to be their 2nd highest series, with their Bird series as their top of the line. The Bird series is often regarded as the best ukulele in the world, better than the premium Hawaiian made ukuleles. The Custom series was available in Mahogany, Mango and Koa.
WOW, priced at 699 British Pounds ... roughly $980 (varies by day)
Should arrive in a bit over a week
Archived web page #1: http://www.anuenue-uke.com/en/ukulele/one/12/44
Archived web page #2: http://www.anuenue-uke.com/en/products/one/12/41
"Custom Maui Mango III" from the World of Ukes website in England:
This ukulele, from aNueNue’s Maui series, is a beautiful thing to play. The aNN-CMM3 tenor uke has a featherweight action, a shallow neck profile and 35mm nut that for me at least, combine really well to make this a joy to pick with, as well as easy to barre. It is just easy-playing full stop. With aNueNue’s own black water strings fitted, with a thin gauge and slippery feel, the experience just gets better and better.
The aNueNue aNN-CMM3 is constructed from all solid mango. That’s the wood from the mango tree, not the fruit it bears. That would be sticky. I can’t work out when playing this tenor if my go-to word to describe the tone is sweet because of a subconscious fruit connection or not, but sweet it certainly sounds. It isn’t without depth, but brightness and a playful sparkle really come to the fore, accentuated by the harmonics it generates. Coupled with the playability, the lovely tone really makes this aNueNue something that is difficult to put down.
As a stark contrast to the pale solid mango tonewood, there is dark rosewood binding – a sort of white and dark chocolate contrast (see, I’m thinking of sweet things again!). This rosewood also features around a rosette of abalone to decorate the soundhole. The signature shaped aNueNue headstock looks sleek, and pretty with the addition of their logo inlaid in abalone.
With a compensated bone saddle sitting in the rosewood bridge, a bone nut and Grover open geared tuners, the appointments of this uke are all good quality. It comes with a free gig bag – something else which is fine quality. Yet, while everything is rosy in the quality garden (which makes me think of Roses AND Quality Street), the most memorable aspect of the aNueNue aNN-CMM3 is what a pleasure it is to play, and the sweet, shimmering sound it produces.