Tom TUT-680M Tenor Ukulele

A new ukulele brand (for me) this week. This is the Tom TUT-680M Tenor Ukulele.

I was contacted recently by the team at Tom, a Chinese brand with a range of ukes I had not seen or heard of before enquiring about a review. A look at the catalogue had be intrigued me as the range looks pretty classy and reasonably priced. They are not widely available in the UK as yet, so far making their way into some European stores (from where this was sent) and some on the far eastern box shippers. To be fair though I think they are just getting going. They have a few different ranges of ukes and I believe this one is in their 'Classic Series'.

SUMMARY VIDEO REVIEW

The TUT-680M is a tenor scale instrument (also available in concert) with a standard double bout shape and a classic wood pairing. For this one we have a solid spruce top formed from two sheets which looks to be good quality with tight grain and even colour. It's very pale spruce which I know some people like (and in fact looks almost white in some of my pictures, though they were taken in bright sunlight), but I would prefer a more yellow looks like the Noah I looked at last time. Still, that's a subjective point and it's clearly nice wood. Often spruce is paired with a darker wood for both visual contrast and something that will balance the tone. That's the case here with rosewood for the back and sides. That is not specced as 'solid' so assume laminate, but it still works on the contrast. It's also a well used wood combo in other stringed instruments. The wood grain here is very nice indeed with lots of interest and almost glows a reddish brown to go with the pale top. Nice.

The bridge is a tie bar made from more rosewood and is finished tidily and smoothly even if it is a rather generic bridge template and a little pale looking. Something more distinctive wouldn't have gone amiss here, but it works. That holds a bone saddle with a compensated top and string spacing is at 42mm.

Decor is, of course, also very subjective so the use of abalone here around the top edge and sound hole is not to my personal taste, though to be fair it's not the ultra gaudy variety and has been applied well. The abalone is also trimmed with thin black purfling strips. What I much prefer are the maple bindings and back and tail stripe. They look great, particularly against the rosweood and I would have been happy if the uke just had these with maybe a rosewood purfling strip. The body is finished in a gloss which looks to be well applied, not overly thick and with no issues I can find.

Inside is tidy, with notched linings, thin braces and no real mess. It's also nice to see that they didn't make the top 'solid for the sake of it' and apply a really thick one. This is thin.

The neck is specified as okoume and i'd prefer that to be satin rather than the gloss they have used. It's a fairly standard far eastern neck with joints at heel and headstock and a round back profile. This tapers to a generic 35mm nut with 27mm string spacing. That is not to my taste but, as ever, your mileage will vary.

That is topped with an edge bound rosewood fingerboard which is in great condition. I put some macro pictures up in the week and people claimed the frets were badly dressed. Well, that's macro photography for you because they are actually dressed very well and I can't find a hint of sharpness. OK, they are not semi-hemi like some of the contemporaries at this price, but I've got no issue with them at all. You get 18 of those joined at the 14th. Outward small pearl dots are located at the 5th, 7th, 10th and 12th spaces and they are repeated with side dots that include an extra one at the 15th.

Beyond the bone nut is a slot head faced in rosewood above a sandwich of other woods which gives a nice stripe effect in the slots. It's also very tidy and I do like the wooden inlaid 'T' logo in the top face. I will say though I am not a fan of the overly large and chunky slot heads and this os one of those. I'd like it much smaller and think this is why the Flight and Fluke frame style open headstocks work better on ukes.

The tuners are Tom branded open gears in gold and look to have good quality gearing mechanisms. That's borne out in use too as they are very smooth.

The strings are not specified, but look like Worth Brown to me. You also get a tail strap button and a nice gig bag with Tom branded zipper tags which shows that this is not just a generic afterthought. And I can only tell you the retail price I am seeing them in Europe at the moment and that is €299. As a straight conversion that is currently about £255 UK. That led me down the route of what it's up against and things like solid topped Snails are cheaper, but then there are solid top Kalas for more money which suggests it's about right. Then thinking further, things like the solid topped Flight Carabao Lite can be had for a lot less, so my views are a little mixed on the price and consider it's possibly a touch on the expensive side.... Perhaps that straight Euro to Pounds conversion is unwise.

But back to the positives. With the exception of some design elements which are not for me (abalone, pale spruce, nut width, chunky head) the ukulele is built well and finished extremely nicely. It doesn't feel heavy at 605g and sits in the hands well too.

Basics first and this is a loud and very resonant instrument. The projection is great and the sustain is good too with a pleasing vibration being sent into your fretting hand and chest. It's lively.

With a spruce top and only laminate back and sides I do worry that the brightness of that top won't be as tempered by the laminate as it needs to be. And, as you know, I prefer my ukes, particularly tenors to sound woodier and darker. Sure enough this one is a bright instrument so not to my immediate taste, though I stress that this is another purely subjective view as a great many people LOVE the bright ones.

Strummed this is a bit too much on the brightness for me but on the plus side it's extremely clear on tone without any muddiness which is impressive. It's a bouncy tone when strummed and very rhythmical which is less about what I want from a tenor, but some of you love. That it does that shows a half decent build.

I'm much more taken with it when picked as it has a real music box style chime to the notes which, again, are clear as a bell and stay that way right up the neck. It's extremely pretty to my ears and I can live with the brighter edge played that way. In fact the more I play it the more I fell for it.

I always worry when new far eastern brands get in touch as I never know quite what I will get, and certainly some of the cheaper Amazon Chinese brands are not much cop. Now, I can't vouch for the cheaper end of the Tom ranges, but this one has NOT been thrown together and is very well built and finished. The fret dressing and gloss alone shows me that this has had some care applied to it rather than such things being an afterthought.

I therefore do very much hope we see more Tom instruments in the UK as I think this easily punches its weight against the likes of similar priced Snail, Kala, Ohana, Flight etc... Yes i've mentioned some gripes, but again they are largely subjective personal views. This is a good uke!

https://tomukulele.com/

UKULELE SPECS ROUNDUP

Model: Tom TUT-680M

Scale: Tenor

Body: Solid spruce top, laminate walnut back and sides

Bridge: Walnut tie bar

Saddle: Bone

Spacing at saddle: 42mm

Finish: Gloss

Neck: Okoume

Fingerboard: Walnut

Frets: 18, 14 to body

Nut: Bone

Nut width: 35mm, 27mm G to A

Tuners: Unbranded open gears

Strings: Worth Brown
Extras: Strap button, Gig bag

Weight: 605g

Country of origin: China

Price: €299

UKULELE PROS

Classic look

Good core build and finish

Very well done neck

Great volume

Good sustain

Extremely clear crisp tone

UKULELE CONS

Generic neck width

Not a huge fan of the abalone

Chunky headstock

UKULELE SCORES

Looks - 8.5 out of 10

Fit and finish - 9 out of 10

Sound - 8.5 out of 10

Value for money - 8.5 out of 10

OVERALL UKULELE SCORE - 8.6 out of 10

UKULELE VIDEO REVIEW

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