New Uke Day; Or: Say Hello To My Little Friend

[crunchee]

I had been looking for a decent but not horribly expensive uke to strum on for the last few years.  I found this recently (used) and I bought it:

Fender Montecito Tenor Ukulele - Natural | Reverb

This particular uke is the 'V1' version of the Montecito that was made from 2017 up to the last couple of years.  The version I have has a Tele style headstock, laminated Koa body, solid Indian Rosewood fretboard and bridge (Fender calls it 'sonokeling'), and a solid Koa top, but no electronics, so it's purely acoustic unless I want to retrofit a pickup.  The current 'V2' Montecito has a Strat style headstock, walnut fretboard and does have electronics, but the body and top are Koa laminate.

I dunno if the solid Koa top makes a huge difference or not.  All I know is it sounds really good, projects well and is plenty loud, and the solid Koa top won't hurt resale value at all.  It's made in Indonesia and is surprisingly well made (definitely not junk!).  Only big gripe is that the included (original) Fender gig bag is basically a dust cover with NO padding; thankfully, I had a spare gig bag that is a little oversize but padded well so it's now well protected.

I did some shopping around before I chose this particular model.  There aren't many inexpensive Ukes out there with any  solid woods for the top/soundboard (the next cheapest models I've found are the Mexican-made Martin Ukes, which supposedly use all solid woods, but are practically double the price new or used, and that's before tariffs).

Anyway, I'm happy with it.  

Fender Montecito Tenor Ukulele - REVIEW

Fender Montecito Ukulele review | MusicRadar

Now it's time for me to hit up YooToob for some uke playing ideas:

 

[specialk]

Congrats! Looks like a good'un. 

PS… IIRC, stay away from that E chord. 😄