Martin SmithUK-222-BK Soprano Ukulele, Black

My 10 years old daughter has been using it non stop since Christmas 2024, it’s holding up fine, it’s a beginner’s friendly instrument, sturdy and reliable. It tunes very nicely and the tune stays. I recommend it if your child has shown interest in starting an instrument but it’s not sure if you’ll stick with it.

If you’re looking for a beginner ukulele for yourself, your child, or any adult in your life, I can heartily recommend this quality instrument. It’s a great value for the money, and it even includes a chord guide. It does feel a little cheap but for its price it is great!

I gifted this to my older sister for her birthday as she wanted one when she seen mine. It does the job, it's definitely a good gift for a child who on a whim just wants an instrument. Cheap enough so that if they don't take interest at all, you wouldn't mind if it had to be tossed.The quality of it itself is... questionable. It comes out of tune pretty fast, and has to be tuned in between sessions. Not just slightly off key, but MASSIVELY off key. The paint job is nice if you don't look too close and the strings are all right. It sounds a bit echoey, but that'll happen to a painted uke. Now for the bad part.The nut is something that cheap ukuleles just can't ever get right to my understanding. It's much too high. You have to use an amount of force to push down the strings on the first fret, and it hurts your fingers much faster than on a uke with a polished nut. It even slightly affects the sound of the uke. However, this is still a good uke for introducing someone to the instrument. The higher nut may even force them to have correct hand placement.All in all, its good for the price, sounds okay, and looks nice. I would recommend getting a better ukulele at least for 50 dollars if the person who recieved it takes a liking to the instrument.

I am no professional ukulele player, but this is just what I wanted, an inexpensive one to practice and test it out.Great value, I was afraid it was going to feel cheap, but it works perfect for me.The only thing, and its not enough to lower to 4 stars, is that the "carry case" is very flimsy, almost like a plastic bag, so if this is important, you will be disappointed, still when I bought it this was the best price for any ukulele available, with or without a carry case.

While this is one of the cheaper options, it might be worth it to spring a bit more on instruments. I got this because my friend said I should try to learn ukelele.When it got to my house, I was surprised by the sleek look and design of the instrument. However, the strings themselves are plastic. That’s fine but it does make it a bit more difficult to tune and play.The chords sound a little sour when I play them, but that might be a mix of quality as well as lack of skill. I’ll leave that up to y’all to find out!Other than that, it’s definitely sturdy and strong, and the only thing that would wear down are the strings themselves.

These ukes are defective and junk. It has been heartbreaking watching my kiddos let down, who So eagerly wanted to get started learning uke, by incorrect manufacturing and junky strings. I bought 24 ukes for a class set thinking this would be great for beginners and no heartbreak if a string broke or a scratch happened, but these ukes are junk! They don't even play the right notes during tuning!! The vendor only sent 23 out of 24 ukes and a lot of them looked banged up, used or damaged. If you see the pictures, some came without strings, some looked patched up and damaged, some didn't have the frets! I feel like I let my class down!The nut is also placed too low causing the wrong notes to be played. I don't have my $120 cordoba to compare the nuts, but I Urge you to do your research and buy a reputable brand, and maybe buy the uke from this brand. You'll see that the nut is entirely too low, but really, don't waste your time and money. Open notes/tuning is fine, but the notes sound a half to whole step too sharp, when pressed, causing very cacophonous notes and chords. Instead of making music with the chords they already learned, I saw pain on their faces as they were playing these defective, out-of-tune, pieces of junk.Really, it's worth having students share and take turns in groups with a quality, in-tune, instrument over not being able to play at all and be heartbroken because they waited and anticipated these ukes, but can't play them because they are defective. Morally and ethically, I cannot support students learning with out-of-tune instruments.Amazon, if you're reading this, it's time to get a new brand. Please have a musician try your products before selling them.

The media could not be loaded. Clearly aimed at youngsters, the under $20 price tag assured no hard feelings if my grandchildren would not be enticed to persevere and sustain an interest in learning their first stringed instrument. Fortunately, they enjoyed learning to properly hold and tune the ukulele and pick out simple lines. They found the tone pleasant and had fun getting acceptable articulation within minutes. Although the instruments needed frequent retuning at first, it became more stable as the new strings stretched out. I encouraged them to close their eyes and tune to a stable pitch source rather than match a visual tuning app, and this further encouraged their ability to trust their ears. They soon began learning simple melodies and a few basic chords. After a few weeks of commitment, I offered to upgrade to a better student model and ultimately a six string guitar as their hands grow.

I bought this for myself after my 13 or 14th birthday and I still have it. Haven't needed to buy a new ukulele because I like the sound quality of this one. After about a year and a half I did accidentally snap the neck at the joint between the neck and the body, but with some gorilla glue and a clamp it was put back together and playing like new with no issue. I love this ukulele and it's a great first instrument. I did change the stings out on mine for a set of Ernie Ball black uke strings, but the ones the ukulele came with were great.