Mahalo MS1TBR Slimline Series Soprano Ukulele - REVIEW

A ukulele brand i've always tried to keep regular tabs on this week. This is the Mahalo MS1T Slimline Series Soprano Ukulele.

Ah... Mahalo - actually the very first ukulele brand I ever put my hands on back in about 2005.. and.. well... it was one of the worst ukes i've ever played. They are lauded by some as a brand that set many on their uke journey, but for me it nearly killed mine before it started. I used to do work in music store tech backrooms so already knew a thing or two about 'cheap shoddy instruments that were best avoided. I failed to take my own advice and ended up with a uke with a bent neck and mis set frets that was impossible to setup... It went in the bin, and had I not then bought a Magic Fluke Flea I would not have been with you now. In fact it was the pitfalls of the shoddy cheap ukes that were an initial focus of this website. Of course, that first experience places some unavoidable bias in my view of the brand, but to be fair to them I have continued to dip in to what they are putting out to this day. Whilst none have reached the lows of that first model of mine, it's sad to say that none since have been worth of anything close to a recommendation for me either. And as the range of good quality value ukes ever expands, so I find that Mahalo have been left increasingly exposed at their chosen price point.

SUMMARY VIDEO REVIEW

But I always approach each one with a fresh mind set. You 'never know'.  I'm not hunting for a bad one, but it's important Got A Ukulele looks at all price points. This one is part of a range of a handful of sopranos they make in their 'Slimline Series', meaning shallow front to back bodies. The handful differ in colour, but are otherwise the same construction. This one is the 'transparent brown' offering, but there is also a transparent black, red and blue. They are each made from the cheapest ply material for the body using 'basswood' which is Linden or Lime. Very basic, very soft, very cheap plywood.  This brown is extremely pale too which is more yellow than anything. It's basic laminate construction with single pieces of laminate to the top and back with the sides being a pair. It's otherwise a very standard double bout shape with an slightly shallower depth than most (though far from the shallowest uke I have seen...)

The bridge is specced as mahogany which is clearly stained almost black and is a slot style screwed in place. It's rough in finish, but I have actually seen worse. What I don't like is how angular (and actually sharp) it is. Just a bit of dressing down the edges would have worked wonders. That holds a compensated top NuBone saddle which is certainly an upgrade on the original Mahalos I saw which were simple plastic affairs.. String spacing here is 41mm.

The finish is a simple satin which is translucent showing the wood grain beneath. On the plus side this is evenly finished and I can't find a huge amount of flaws (one or two) and it's a MILE better than the thick paint they use on some instruments. On the down side I have no idea on the point of the 'translucency' as basswood isn't in any way attractive so all you see are random swirls that don't really mean very much. It looks like a sheet of builders ply!  The edges are unbound so you are looking at the laminate edge and around the sound hole is a transfer rosette in black. It's all very basic, and I must say, ugly.

Inside is basic too. It actually has some kerfing (un-notched) and a bridge plate which is a start, but there is no back bracing and only a simple top brace I can see. There's a touch of mess but I have seen much worse with some cheap ukes looking like a small animal has been nesting inside them.. Weirdly the laminate at the sound hole edge looks much thinner than the profile does around the edge of the top, so I have no idea what is going on there.

The neck is specified as 'Jabon', which is a light tropical wood mainly used in building and plywood. It's formed of three pieces with a joint in the heel and one half way down the neck. It tapers to an expected rounded far eastern profile and generic 35mm nut with 27mm spacing. Not for me but I appreciate that is a personal thing.

That's topped with more stained mahogany for the fingerboard which is even in colour all over. Surprisingly it's edge bound which covers the ends of the 12 frets to the body. They are not the worst dressed I have felt, but you can still feel them. An improvement on some Mahalos, but they still need work. Basic pearl dots face out at spaces 5, 7 and 10 and they are repeated with white side dots.

We have more NuBone for the nut before we reach a basic, unfaced crown headstock. That carries the Mahalo logo in a black screen print which looks dated now as well as too stark on the pale yellow wood.

The tuners have a slight improvement on those I first saw on a Mahalo insofar as they are now branded Mahalo. But that is it for improvement really. They are still the same sort of cheap as chips, pressed metal open gears with enormous buttons. These are also tarnished in places, but that's Amazon drop shipping storage for you. You will know that I don't like geared pegs on a soprano on looks, but at least some brands tone down the button size. These are the same massive ears I remember from Mahalos of old. Ugh. Looks aside, they are all different tensions and some grind on turning. Horrid.

Finishing it off are a set of Aquila Super Nylgut strings and a 'gig bag' which is nothing more than a dust cover that is thinner than some supermarket carrier bags (you know what? Don't bother!) And, if you hadn't guessed... it's cheap. Very cheap. About £25 to buy. But of course 'cheap' means many new players will be drawn in and may end up disappointed or put off for life. Will that be the case here? Time to dive in.

All in all, aside from the very basic agricultural look and terrible tuners, there are some obvious improvements here over the Mahalo ukes of old. There are some rough edges here and there, but I have seen worse and the string setup is actually pretty good for the money. I do suggest a health warning though - whilst I bought this blind (from Amazon), because I received one in fairly good shape does NOT mean they all will be. In fact I doubt they will considering my prior experience. But I can only review what is in front of me and despite disliking the looks, it's not wholly awful on the build. It's also incredibly light at 310g but I suppose a thin body soprano made from Linden wood was always going to be. It balances ok too.

Basics first and the volume is surprisingly good for a shallow body uke with a real punchy bark if you have the nails to dig in. Not bad at all. On the down side the sustain is much more average making this a very staccato instrument. That's not a wholly bad thing with a soprano as I always say (as it's a rhythmical instrument) but I would like more. This is a very simple sounding uke.

When it comes to the tone I often make a comment about laminate that some cheap models can sound 'echoey' or 'boxy'. With the general improvement in quality of cheap ukes over the years it's sometimes hard for me to demonstrate that on the audio as, whilst they still display it, it seems to be getting better. Sadly this one shows off what I am talking about in spades. A thin, tin can kind of microphonic sound that isn't particularly pleasant and very echoey. What's weird is that I have heard worse (check this Ashton uke!) and it does work on the rhythm side, but I couldn't live with this brash thin echo which shows off exactly what I don't like about the cheapest laminate. There's not much to divide it on tone whether strummed or picked as both have that same nasty tonal quality, but I suppose for fast rhythmical strums it's better that way and it does have a bouncy punch. That's hardly the endorsement though! Does the 'slimline' element save it? Well, I suppose it's a bit different, but to me it's not actually that slim compared to some others so I'm not entirely sure of that point either.

And it IS cheap of course - I get that. And people WILL say I am being harsh (they always do about Mahalo for some reason). But for me whilst there are some small improvements here, I come back to the point I made above about how Mahalo have found themselves well overtaken in the market. I never recommend spending this low on a uke in any case, but I understand there is no option for some people and i'd rather they chose wisely.  I have to weigh it up against others of the same sort of price, and this where I always find Mahalo lacking. For a brand that's been around my whole ukulele life I find it kind of sad they didn't really develop and try to get out of that 'cheap as chips category... Or rather, they missed the fact others had joined them on the cheap as chips step and showed them how to do it better. Take Octopus as a case in point (currently about £5 more) or even some of the 'who are they?' Amazon brands.  

So yes, some slight improvements here on Mahalos of old, but they don't save it from being still VERY easily beaten.

You don't need this in your life when you consider the countless alternatives.

https://mahaloukuleles.com/

UKULELE SPECS ROUNDUP

Model: Mahalo MS1T Slimline Series

Scale: Soprano

Body: Basswood laminate

Bridge: Mahogany slot bridge
Saddle: NuBone, compensated

Spacing at saddle: 41mm

Finish: Translucent satin in colour choices

Neck: Jabon

Fingerboard: Mahogany

Frets: 12

Nut: NuBone

Nut width: 35mm, 27mm G to A

Tuners: Gilt plated open gears
Strings: Aquila

Extras: Dust cover bag

Country of origin: China

Weight: 310g

Price: About £25

UKULELE PROS

Generally passable build and finish

Surprising action setup out of the box (but beware the roulette game!)

Decent volume

Light

UKULELE CONS

Agricultural looks

Some fret sharpness

Skinny nut

Horrid tuners

Poor sustain

The very definition of thin, echoey cheap laminate tone

Pointless bag

UKULELE SCORES

Looks - 5 out of 10

Fit and finish - 7.5 out of 10

Sound - 5 out of 10

Value for money - 7 out of 10

OVERALL UKULELE SCORE - 6.1 out of 10

UKULELE VIDEO REVIEW

© Barry Maz

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