I always get intrigued when this ukulele brand gets in touch to ask if I want to look at a development. This is the brand new Noah Baby Tenor Ukulele.
Noah, that much loved brand run by Matt Cohen in the UK who gets a Vietnamese Luthier to build models for him have gone down very well over the years - and it is MANY years i've been looking at them - the first being back in 2013!.. As I always say, they've also got better and better showing me a brand owner who listens to criticism. I think it's also less well known that Matt can arrange custom builds and I suppose this one was a development of that when a customer had asked him to make a slimline tenor. He had a few made but wanted to develop it into a main model. And here we are with the first Baby Tenor from Noah!
SUMMARY VIDEO REVIEW
So what are we looking at here. Well, taking that initial custom request Matt explains he wanted to get something more out of it and differentiate it from the other Noah models. So as well as keeping the slimline body, they also shrunk the rest of the body dimensions to create a baby tenor. So it's still a tenor scale uke (17 inch scale) but with a much smaller body more akin to a concert to me. And it's a cute diminutive little thing in the body with a shallow depth too. Like other Noah's this uses all solid tonewoods and goes with a classic pairing of spruce for the top and Indian rosewood for the back and sides. That gives both a striking colour contrast, but should also give a tonal one too with the rosewood backing off the brightness of the spruce. They are nice looking woods.
The bridge is a pin style made from the Vietnamese 'honey wood' called 'Go go mat' and is carved the same style as we saw on the Noah Delta Concert. As you expect with Noah ukes you can see some tooling marks here, but please do remember that these are hand cut and put together by a person and not with half of it being done by machines. That is fitted with a straight topped bone saddle and comes with a string spacing of 42mm.
The decor on this one is more simple than some Noah ukes, but my preference. There looks to be a rosewood binding strip to the top and back paired with what I think is a maple stripe. Around the top and back outer faces is black and white purfling. The back gets a double maple stripe which sets it off nicely and the soundhole get a rosewood rosette trimmed in black and white purfling. I think it all goes together very well with the wood choices and is not gaudy but still lifts the ukulele. As with the bridge comment and other Noah ukes, this is done by hand so parts of it are not perfect. Some people dislike that so it would be wrong of me to not mention it, but equally I know a lot of Noah owners who, like me, quite like this hand made look. The body is then glossed and hand polished and with this I can see no major issues bar a bit of pooling at the end of the board. The rest of the top you can see the gloss is very thin.
Inside is very tidy with a vertically braced top, regular braced back and notched linings.
The neck is not specified, but looks to me like a type of maple which Noah have used before. Maybe it's a local Vietnamese species but often when I see this on Noah ukes it looks much more variable in colour than that very pale maple you often see. It's quite noticeable at the heel joint (again if such things bother you). And that is the only joint as it looks like it's a single piece all the way to the tip of the headstock. Pleasingly it's also finished in satin, not gloss which is another example of Noah listening to feedback. The profile is also pleasing to me as it is not too rounded on the back and despite the smaller body carries what I measure to be just over 36mm at the but and string spacing a smidge under 30mm. Nice.
The board is more Go go mat wood which has been oiled well and looks in great condition. I think it is edge bound in more of the same, but again you will find some tooling marks. No matter as there are zero sharp edges on the 18 frets joined at the 14th. I also like the minimal outward facing lack of any markers, but the use of side dots at the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 10th, double 12th and 15th.
The board is more Go go mat wood which has been oiled well and looks in great condition. I think it is edge bound in more of the same, but again you will find some tooling marks. No matter as there are zero sharp edges on the 18 frets joined at the 14th. I also like the minimal outward facing lack of any markers, but the use of side dots at the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 10th, double 12th and 15th.
The nut is bone and that runs to the familiar skinny, almost coke bottle shaped regular Noah headstock. That is faced in more rosewood and holds the Noah logo in pearly inlay at the top.
The tuners are open gears with small black buttons. They don't carry any branding but the mechanisms look decent. There's no play in them or slop which is a good thing but the opposite - if anything a touch stiff. That's a far better problem to have, but I think I have said before that Noah should thing about tuner upgrades.
To finish things off are a choice of strings though Aquila as standard (this one arrived with Worth Brown) and a padded gig bag. As ever with Noah, the pricing is keen and these are £289 with standard Aquila or £10 more for a choice of others. That's a great price again especially for something hand built and all solid. And as I am always asked, yes he can ship internationally, but you need to contact him through his website to work out the shipping price.
So another nice one from Noah and one that I am very taken with on the dimensions and concept. That small comfortable body with roomy neck is certainly a box ticker for me and is very comfortable to hold. It's very light too at only 565g and balances nicely. It's lovely to hold!
Being a smaller body one wonders if it will suffer on resonance and affect volume and sustain, but thankfully neither are an issue here. The volume punch is terrific and the sustain when strummed is more than acceptable. Looking good!
Tone wise there is certainly a brightness from the spruce, but the rosewood is mellowing it off a little in the background so it is not too in your face. One or two other spruce top Noah ukes were a little too bright for my own personal tastes, but this is much more rounded and balanced to my ears. It's an interesting player too as it certainly feels like a tenor in the fretting hand, but the sound is closer to concert, with a really peppy jangle when strummed that is extremely rhythmical and clear. It sounds like a half way house between concert and tenor which, I suppose, is kind of what it is. It's very lively played this way.
Fingerpicked it has a very pretty clear tone though I find the sustain is less pronounced than on some tenors so melody lines can be a little more staccato. Still it's attractive sounding and very comfortable to play and throw in some intermediate arpeggio strokes and you soon liven the sound up again. It's quite an intriguing instrument to play as it doesn't quite fit in one box or another.
Tone wise there is certainly a brightness from the spruce, but the rosewood is mellowing it off a little in the background so it is not too in your face. One or two other spruce top Noah ukes were a little too bright for my own personal tastes, but this is much more rounded and balanced to my ears. It's an interesting player too as it certainly feels like a tenor in the fretting hand, but the sound is closer to concert, with a really peppy jangle when strummed that is extremely rhythmical and clear. It sounds like a half way house between concert and tenor which, I suppose, is kind of what it is. It's very lively played this way.
Fingerpicked it has a very pretty clear tone though I find the sustain is less pronounced than on some tenors so melody lines can be a little more staccato. Still it's attractive sounding and very comfortable to play and throw in some intermediate arpeggio strokes and you soon liven the sound up again. It's quite an intriguing instrument to play as it doesn't quite fit in one box or another.
So i'm pleased to see another Noah development and one that moves forward not backwards. In fact this is one of my favourite Noah ukes of those I have played. As I say, intriguing and interesting with a great look and good sound. And that really is not a lot of money for a hand made.
Very much recommended!
UKULELE SPECS ROUNDUP
Model: Noah Baby Tenor
Scale: Tenor
Scale: Tenor
Body: Solid spruce top, solid Indian Rosewood back and sides
Bridge: Go go mat pin bridge
Saddle: Bone
Spacing at saddle: 41mm
Finish: Hand finished gloss
Neck: Unspecified (maple?)
Fingerboard: Go go mat
Frets: 18, 14 to body
Nut: Bone
Nut width: Just over 36mm, nearly 30mm G to A
Tuners: Open gears
Weight: 565g
Strings: A choice, but Worth Browns on this example
Extras: Gig bag, strap button
Country of origin: Vietnam
Price: £289 - £299 inc UK delivery
UKULELE PROS
Cute dimensions
Classy decor
Good overall build
Great volume
Good sustain
Intriguing halfway house tone
Fair price
UKULELE CONS
Usual hand made finishing marks that may upset total purists
Tuners could be improved
Tuners could be improved
UKULELE SCORES
Looks - 9.5 out of 10
Fit and finish - 9 out of 10
Sound - 9 out of 10
Value for money - 9.5 out of 10
OVERALL UKULELE SCORE - 9.3 out of 10
UKULELE VIDEO REVIEW
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Shipping to the US of A?
ReplyDeleteYes, as it says in review - contact him
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