This is a beautiful looking uke from Kala. The KA-KCGE-C looks stunning and has tone to match. We'd dearly love you to buy one! But, in the interests of clarity, it is best to point out two things. Firstly, while this uke really sounds excellent, with gorgeous sweet tones, it is all laminate koa, not solid. To us, that's not the end of the world because if it sounds good, it sounds good, whether made from master grade koa or cardboard! But, we'd better point that out as that info is unlikely to be detailed on many sites! Secondly, the pictures we've taken in our studio represent the norm for the looks of one of these KA-KCGE-C ukes. If you look around at some of the US uke dealers, you'll see some pictures of ukes that are even nicer - but those images don't actually reflect what the production models look like (maybe the original prototypes used more highly patterned woods).

Now we've got the negatives out of the way, and made a bad job of the first rule of marketing - always start with the positives, let us move on to what matters most, the tone of this Kala KA-KCGE-C, which is extremely good. It has decent volume, but the star is the sweetness of the tone it produces. Not wanting to go overboard here, but there is a distinct Hawaiian tone to this uke - just something about it that is sunny and happy! The uke has a cutaway design which is just as well, as higher up the neck, the notes are so sweetly sounded, you'll want to play up there!

The Kala KA-KCGE-C is a nice looking beast also. This concert ukulele has very nice maple binding and a high gloss finish. The slotted headstock is another feature which makes it stand out from the crowd, and the Grover geared tuners are nice and decorative in gold, as well as being extremely effective. The strings are D'addario titanium, which are really clear and project excellently.  By all means, select some different strings, but we'd certainly say it is worth a go with the factory fitted ones, you may well find you like them as much as us on this model.

Kala have also equipped the KA-KCGE-C with a UK-300T active pickup with bass, treble and volume controls - plus a handy built in tuner. This performs admirably. There are better pickup systems out there, true, but for this kind of pricing, their own brand unit is easily the match of better known branded kit.