Fender Nohea Koa Tenor Ukulele  

The Nohea is beautiful to look at - I'm not crazy for flash on an instrument (tone is more important) but this one is very pretty. It's not solid Koa, but if it were the price would make it unaffordable for most. It has plenty of abalone (or abalam) to make it look expensive and the graphics inside are a hoot. I really like the telecaster-style headstock, it looks great and really seems to benefit the tuning stability. The tuners are perhaps the weakest point but work well enough with the low tension one finds with uke strings.

I bought this as a Christmas gift for my girlfiend as she has struggled with the size and tension of steel string guitars. I originally bought teh same model a year before, and though the cosmetics were every bit as good the tone was weak and there were a couple of flaws - the nut was spaced poorly and the fret ends weren't uniformly smooth. One year later I ordered another and knew right away she would love it. The only flaw I have found (and it took a while to find it) was that there was a very slight back-bow in the neck towards the headstock. If I play it really hard you can hear a tiny bit of fret buzz on the first few frets.

This has a very good price/performance ratio - it's playable with a nice tone and sharp-looking with no major flaws.

The Nohea is a very friendly and fun instrument (it's hard not to smile when you  play this thing), and it really sparked my girlfriend's creativity and  musical learning curve. I don't know why, but taking up the uke has  helped her guitar playing as well even though she spends more time with  the uke. Most people would be surprised how much you can spend on a ukeulele and while this isn't the cheapest you get great bang for the buck.

Ever since Fender started making the uke, I always wonder what it would sound like. Last month I purchased the uke for my student and when I open to see what it looked like, I didn't know it would have a glossy finish...what a beautiful looking uke!!!! Once I got the tuning right, I was amazed of how it sound. For one that owns 15 ukulele's, ranging to over $3,000 for one of 'um, I couldn't put it down. To ALL those who wants to learn to play the uke or wants to make the transition to an uke and those who LOVE to collect 'um, you GOTTA check this li'l baby out! Seriously! For the price, you can't beat it!...Give me a little more time (gotta get permission from my wife) and I'll be owning one very soon!!!! Aloha nui

This was my first ukulele and I absolutley LOVE it!  After putting down my bass and playing my Nohea uke at a band practice, we decided to add uke to the set when we play out!  As a result I ended up purchasing the more expensive Fender Pa'ina ($100 more) because it's acoustic-electric.  While the Pa'ina is a beautiful mahogany, I prefer the look of the Nohea and think that it's the best looking uke out there!  You just can't beat the uber cool look of the tele headstock on this baby!