Sound wise, I was not expecting great things, and, frankly, didn't get them. Bear that in mind if you are thinking of picking one of these up. Both the nut and saddle are too high, and whilst the nut height is not massively throwing out notes at the lower frets and intonation is generally 'OK', beginners will find the height of the strings uncomfortable to learn on. It feels nice in the hands and doesn't feel 'cheap' like many others do. I think the Sengon laminate is helping here. Something that often plagues cheap end instrument is they are overly heavy. To hold it is comfortable enough and extremely light. All in all, I was pleasantly surprised by the body. The front and back are made of single pieces and the back is completely flat. The laminate wood is on the thick side, but it is neatly finished all over. There is no other decoration on the body and I actually like it for that fact as I think the cheap addition of a screen printed sound hole rosette would only end up looking cheap. The body is traditional double bout in shape, and I do rather like the curved base rather than the more traditional flattened off shape on so many other ukuleles. No matter - it looks better than most at this price! It should however be said that the open grain is a feature of the outer Sengon veneer as it is not a wood with a tight grain. It's not going to win any prizes for flamed wood grains, but for me it is far nicer than the flat thick coatings seen on so many other entry level ukuleles at this sort of price - it actually looks like wood! I like the open pore look to instrument and am not a fan of satin finishes that look artificial. Being thin and translucent does show off the grain of the outer wood veneer and I think it works quite well actually. Being a soft wood, I am certainly glad it is made from plywood Sengon! The finish is translucent and is satin to the touch. The instrument is made from laminate Sengon which is an Indonesian soft wood.
#Mahalo ukelele series
The Kahiko series is made in the far east, and comes in a range of translucent colours (red, blue, white and brown), with this review model being the brown variety. Kahiko is a Hawaiian word for a Hula Dance, so it would appear that still, ukulele brands, even those made in China (as this one is) cannot quite let go of that Hawaii thing. The 2500 Kahiko range is a new development for Mahalo in 2015 and represents what they call the ' best value ukulele in the world today'. But let's not pre-judge this one and take a look at it. Whilst some people get good ones, I have come across far too many bad ones with fatal build flaws and I am not a fan of playing 'Russian Roulette' when buying musical instruments. Now I have not had the best experiences with the Mahalo brand and have been quite vocal about them (see my review of the Flying V Ukulele here) and that is mainly because I think their quality control has been poor.
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