Del S.
This ukulele is truly an extraordinary value. The finish is perfect, with high-end trim and inlay. But most importantly, the intonation is perfect. It plays so well, sounds amazing, and looks awesome. The pickup is hot and clean, and the built-in tuner makes it easy to keep tuned. I love this concert-sized uke.
Marla
It took me a while to finally settle on my first Ukulele, after reading about all the different one i thought this one was my best choice for a first time Ukulele. I know now I made a great choice this ukulele has great sound, it was also great because you get everything you need in package. The tuner is a good one and the built in one is good as well. This unit is good to start with and the only suggestion is to upgrade the sting one you have a feel for playing. This has been a very fine ukulele for me.
Anastasia Lee
I searched the internet and local music stores for a while and I finally decided on this specific instrument. Very well made and I love the tone. I bought the concert-size as I'm smaller and I appreciated the slightly more compact size. The built-in tuner is very helpful as well and batteries are included. I'm very pleased with this purchase and I would highly recommend it to anyone. Very professional look and sound.
Kathryn
Before purchasing this ukulele, I went to my local musical supplies store and tried out ukuleles of all different materials, prices, and shapes. I tried different shapes and sizes and that is all personal preference. I tried many different price ranges. I like that this ukulele had an elbow cutout and I also liked the electro-acoustic aspect of it. So I decided to get this one. I am glad I did. The tuner is accurate and the pickups work great with my small amp. This company also has great customer service and they were sending emails throughout the process of getting this ukulele to make sure that I was satisfied with everything.
Ken
I have been playing ukulele for three years now, started out with a soprano and finally moved on to a concert size, this ukulele is AMAZING! Beautiful sound, the built in tuner is an absolute treat! the rounded edge for the arm rest is super comfortable and looks wonderful, mazing price for the quality of the ukulele, the case is super nice and keeps my ukulele well protected, Came with strap and tuner and picks?! AMAZING! I've recommended to all my Uke playing friends and highly recommend to you!
Peter
I got a soprano ukelele gifted to me about a year ago and i was so impressed with the quality of the instrument. Since then i have bought 2 more donner instruments and both were amazing. I LOVE DONNER. The price beats so many other ukeleles. And best of all i can plug it into my amp and jam with my friends. Donner never ceaces to amaze me.The case it light but padded nicely and has saved my ukelele from quite a few falls. I will stick with donner for the rest of my life. And will continue to reccomend to anyone i meet.
Sampson
This ukulele sounds good, and it's very well constructed. I like the fact that it has a built in preamp and tuner, and the tuner works very well. Also it came with a strap, picks, gig bag and an extra string set.The gig bag is good quality and feels very sturdy. I think overall it's a great value!
Daniel
For the money this is great. Frets are a little sharp on the edges, but I filed them down. Body looks great. Fretboard needed polishing to get a uniform color. Tuner works great. Some strings require retuning after a couple songs. I love the bevel on the top of the front of the body!
JesseA
Received my Ukulele on Sunday 28th. Ukulele looks very nice, flaws on thd construction perfectly built. Tone sounds okay but not really to my liking. Don't get me wrong for others it may sound great but for my taste the strings doesn't produce what I like. I do use certain brand of strings that makes the Tenor sound more soothing and mellow and not to high or low. If I preferred high I would use a Concert and for lows I would use a Low G instead of High G. My only issue with this Ukulele are the fret ends, wow each fret wire ends are rough and sharp corners on both sides bad enough to truly get your fingers cut badly, so before I change strings will need to refile them to remove the roughness and sharp corners, other than that it's a nice Ukelele with one major big issue (fret ends) I give this Ukulele a 4 star.
Eren
I bought my niece a Donner soprano ukulele after reading a review about the quality for the price. When I helped her set it up, it was clearly much nicer than any other uke I had seen near that price. With that in mind, I went straight for Donner again when upgrading my ukulele. I bought the tenor electro-acoustic mostly due to the built in chromatic tuner. While the enclosed tuning pegs do a very nice job of keeping in tune, the built in tuner is wonderful and convenient. The other included accessories are useful and good quality. In particular, the case and strap are much nicer than I would have expected at this price point. The sound is warm and clear, and the finish of the instrument is very nice and accurate to the promotion pictures. I highly recommend any Donner ukulele!
Kyrin
I don't play the guitar; I play bari sax in a big swing band. I love playing sax, but it's kinda hard to sing and play at the same time, so I purchased this Donner Concert Ukulele with the money I made from our last swing gig. Delivery was quick and it arrived in perfect shape. I also ordered the Hal Leonard Ukulele Chord Chart and two books of songs. Once it arrived, I had one day to look it over and watch some videos on how to tune it. I learned three chords, and the next day, I took it to Bible camp with me. Another one of the workers, a music teacher, was so impressed with the quality of the ukulele that she had me send her a link so she can get one, too. It's so easy to handle, and so simple to play, that we were able to play songs for the kids (and a jam session with her on harmonica while the kids were busy--I just learned chords from my chart as we went along) just on the fly. The electronic tuner/equalizer is a stroke of genius. No more digging around looking for my tuner! And I LOVE the fact that if you switch on the tuner, you're not amplified until you switch it back off. I'm very pleased!
slieder
I'm quite impressed with this uke. I bought this one as a 15th birthday gift for a friend's daughter. (She already plays guitar an piano and has been borrowing one of my ukes for the last few months, and has gotten really good.)
The build quality of this instrument is great, and it feels nice in the hand. It has good intonation, sounds good, and plays well. It also has some nice, unexpected details:
* it has a end pin and strap button pre-installed (this is not something I've seen on lower end ukes, and it would cost about $50 to have this done at a music store.)
* the top side lower bout has a beveled edge, making the ukulele more comfortable to play for long periods. (It is visible in the pictures, but I hadn't noticed it until I had the uke in my hands.)
I have not plugged the uke into my amp or recording rig yet - but I did try out the on-board tuner, which works great and is easy to use. It was nice that 2 brand new CR2032 batteries were included, still in their package, for use in the amp/tuner. Also, the location of the batteries - built into the housing of the output jack - makes it super easy to change the batteries.
The case is nice and well padded as well. It's not just a flimsy gig bag with no padding at all. (It's not rigid foam, though, so you still need to treat the uke with care.)
I would DEFINITELY recommend this uke.
Thanks Donner!
Gary
This is my 4th ukulele, although I admit that mostly I still play the same four chords that I learned the day I got the first one. I'm not musically inclined to begin with, and I tend to go in spurts where I play pretty frequently and then don't pick one up for a while. I have started playing a little more in the past few weeks since I'm spending so much time at home these days during the pandemic. I've had this one about a month now and I like it - I got the Tenor size. The sound is good, and the neck is a little wider than my other tenor uke, which is good because of my fat fingers (less buzzing or muting neighboring strings). The built in tuner works like a champ. The pickup is okay - it doesn't sound great, but to be fair, that could just be my crappy amp. Like others have said, the strings are okay - the G and C have held pretty much since the first tuning, but the A and E have to be tuned every time I play, but they're getting better all the time. I like the beveled top edge (makes for noticeably more comfortable playing), the strap is okay if you play standing up, and the gig bag it came with is surprisingly high quality. This is a great one for a beginner, because it's not like the $25 ones you can buy that don't sound good - this is actually a quality instrument that sounds good and will last. It's worth every penny I paid for it.
Cab
I needed to upgrade from my Crossroads soprano ukulele to a concert electric for group teaching purposes. I don’t play professionally so I wasn’t interested in spending hundreds of dollars. I love this instrument! I have played it next to instruments that were hundreds of dollars more and it has a great sound even next to the high end ukes (student next to me had a Córdoba, they sounded the same!). The pickup works great with my amp and several of my students are seriously jealous of the built-in tuner. That’s a great feature! The padded case works for me and has backpack style straps. You would probably want to upgrade to a hard case for major or frequent travel, but the padded case works for traveling back and forth to school. The included strap has been an unexpected bonus for me. I never thought I would need a strap for a ukulele. I often need to let go of my own instrument to help a student with fret or hand positions and it’s nice to have the strap so that I can just let go and help them!
Dale
This Donner Tenor Uke with solid top is quite the instrument. I like the design — the arm rest, built-in pickup, slightly wider nut spacing, and the look of the mahogany, are all well done.
My wife plays nice tenor ukes (other brands) with cutaway bodies and built-in electronics on our gigs. Now she has one of these also. This Donner uke has been great out at the gigs. We do instrumental jazz and some pop. I am a pro guitarist of 40 years and only for the last year have begun transferring skills over to ukulele. So the hunt has begun for good sounding ukuleles that can be taken out in public without risk of theft or damage. That goal prompted me to buy one of these Donner Direct kits. Man, am I glad I did. In fact I bought a second kit for myself (and as a back-up for her). We’re working on a couple numbers where we both play ukulele.
The solid top makes for a sweeter tone than should be found on a uke that is so inexpensive. And the non-cutaway body is less bothersome than I would have thought. My $2000 classical guitar doesn’t have a cutaway and I manage to play it—The uke is so small, it’s way easier to reach over than the guitar.
Donner Direct is a solid company—I had a faulty preamp in the first instrument and they replaced it for me immediately. The preamp isn’t even made by them, so it wasn’t really their fault it failed, and yet they just sent a new one.
Read the other reviews, and do what you will. But I have 2 of these and can’t believe my good fortune. Is it a hand made, solid koa uke with a hand rubbed finish and perfect frets and tuners with an expensive preamp? —No…. But it’s really nice and super musical!
Also… Thanks to Donner Direct!
PJD
Christmas present for my wife. Better sound and quality than expected.
darren t.
This was brought as a gift for someone, and it was very much liked setting it up and tuning the strings with the built in tuner worked brilliant, plugged into guitar amp and was shocked by the quality great buy.
c. R.
Lovely looking and, more importantly, sounding Uke. Well constructed, with no sharp fret wires. Played for 3 months and it’s now keeping in tune very well. Very comfortable chamfered edge for right forearm, and built-in tuner really useful. Very pleased with this Uke. Even sounds good through the amp.!!!
lee
Great ukulele, I got the tenor version well made all round, including carry case and extra accessories that arrived with it, sounds great, nice and bright, glad I purchased this, extremely happy with it :)
Paul W.
When I ordered this ukulele, I wasn't expecting too much but I was amazed at the build quality. Good intonation, no buzzing and well set up. It really is as good as all the reviews say. The strings kept going out of tune at first but this is only to be expected as they were new. A little gentle stretching across the length of the fretboard and retuning improves this. It sounds great plugged in and unplugged - the built in tuner is a bonus. At this price, there is bound to be some variation between products any maybe I was just very lucky. Overall, I'm amazed and delighted.
tonylincoln
Bought this to provide electro acoustic capability. Superb buy. Very sweet tone and extremely comfortable to play, due to the wrist 'cut out.' People in my ukelele group with much more expensive instruments have commented on the quality of both the build and the bright and pleasant tone. Couldn't recommend it more highly. Excellent value for money and it sounds way more expensive than it is. Buy one!
Kilty
totaly surprised when I opened the box, there was plenty of packing for protection and everything was as described. It was more than I expected, the quality for the price wow. This is the first instrument I've picked to learn to play and as its a bit late in life for me it suits me perfect.
Thomson-smith
Bought as a present for my daughter who already had a standard ukelele and was looking to diversify. She absolutely loves it and its already her preferred instrument.
Nice tone and finish and its hard to see how they can do if for the money. Intonation is good as well.
The extras are nice too with the case having rucksack like straps to carry safely on your back.
I'm sure there are better ukes out there - but not at this price. Unless you are a concert performer, this would be an ideal instrument.
DHI
A complete electro acoustic ukulele for this price is gifts.
Note that it comes with a bag, sagle, spare strings, 4 picks and the finish is perfect and the amp is functional with 3 medium treble bass correctors.
The adjustment of the strings is quite pronounced on this product but you have a built-in tuner so for me it is not a particular concern but I confirm that the strings are out of order quite often but are reduced over time.
Florian T.
It's a deal! With so many cheap uke sold around, this one is great, from a great brand, and it's electric acoustic which is just brilliant!
The tuner is quick and simple to use.
No useless CD or music sheets sold with it (you can find the Ode to Joy online haha), I've been playing it everyday for two weeks and absolutely love it!
joej
Bought this for a present and I know absolutely nothing about ukuleles, but this one appeared to be very well made, could be used as a traditional instrument or as electric. It came with a good few extras such as spare strings and plectrums, and was supplied in a good quality bag. The person it was bought for seemed well pleased.
Au
Delivery of this uke was FAST! And great care had been taken in packaging it.
The uke and accessories were well packed to protect the instrument in transit.
The Donner Electro Acoustic Tenor Ukulele is well made, perfectly finished and produces a good resonant acoustic sound with no fret buzz or rattles.
The width of the fretboard will be comfortable for small or larger hands.
The string action is set at optimum height and does not require adjustment.
Because its a tenor uke with a slightly longer fretboard than a Concert uke, the spacing of the frets are slightly wider above the 12th fret which are easier to play than on a concert uke.
I've fitted an Aquila 72U Red low G string as I'm wanting more of a guitar sound with more Bass. It was necessary to make small adjustments at the slots on the nut and the bridge in order to fit the Low G string that I bought separately. The result is perfect. The Aquila Red Low G has a beautiful clear tone that really enhances the sound of the uke.
I've been unable to compare this uke with more expensive makes, but based upon my experience as a player and performer on acoustic stringed instruments including guitars, ukulele, mandolin, and violins, I am VERY impressed with the sound quality of this ukulele.
The uke has a solid wood mahogany top which lives up to the claims of producing a beautiful rich tone acoustically and through my Roland Street Cube Ex Amp.
The intonation is spot on when comparing tuning by tuner or 4th and 5ths.
There are a couple of frets that are very slightly sharp on the lower edge but which I easily remedied.
The built in tuner is powered by 2 x flat CR3032 coin shaped batteries and allows perfect tuning even when there's background Street noise or in a crowded room.
The kit includes a spare set of strings, and a gig bag which is padded well enough to protect the uke from minor bumps and scratches, but I also have a hard case for greater protection when travelling on buses and trains.
Accessories include a soft cleaning cloth and narrow woven strap, with chrome strap buttons already on the uke. Though it's not a wide guitar strap it is adequate as the weight of the uke is insignificant compared to a guitar.
Also included is a packet of Donner guitar picks which are good quality.
It is clear that considerable thought has gone into producing a quality instrument with quality accessories at a highly competitive price and includes a no quibble guarantee.
I have no hesitation recommending this ukulele on its own merits as an acoustic instrument. The fact that it can be plugged into an amp, with the inclusion of allaccessories, make this kit amazing value for money. (Cable for connecting to an Amp is not included and would NOT normally be expected).
Apicius
Bought this for young learner and v happy. This is a 'concert' soprano ukelele (2 more frets) with more widely spaced strings (good for finger style) . It is electro acoustic with solid wood construction and has a useful tuner incorporated in the body of the uke. This one shows little if any distortion between open and 12th fret, and the action is satisfactory. It is a revelation hooked up to an amplifier and mightily impressed its recipient.
Bag is robust and seems durable, strap is useful (and used).
Strings seem ok but they're not yet worn in. Might think about Aaquilar strings as a possible upgrade.
Delivery was very prompt, packaging ideal - protective without too much plastic.
Value? At this early stage it seems excellent value - time will tell.
Eddy
Just started playing last week and decided to buy one after borrowing a fender soprano. Took it to my rockstar guitar friend and he gave it the the thumbs up and he said he might get one for his students as its amazing value and electro! Strings need bouncing and stretching but after that it starts to hold. Tiny bit scratchy. Still going to get my own fender soprano just to have upstairs lol. The fender soprano in black is just lovely and it sounds amazing.
Max
Key points for playability: once the strings are bedded in it stays in tune. The "action" (the height of the strings above the fingerboard at 12th fret is nice and low and 12th fret harmonics are accurate. Instead of the classic nylon string threading at the bridge you make a knot and simply pull the string through a gap. So much simpler and quicker.
Points of detail include sealed machine heads, abalone look alike rosette and a comfort cutaway where your right arm rests.
For the price the sound is good. I don't know how they produce this at this price. Excellent value for money.
When ordering be aware that there is a drop down option of 21" (soprano) or 23" (concert). I bought the 23" which was labelled as a tenor uke. It isn't. Still very pleased with it as it is excellent play along value.
Pedro
I have not had this ukulele for very long, but I can say right off the bat the quality here is excellent. I have owned 4 other ukuleles ranging from 50$ all the way up to 200$ and this one is by far the best. I'll summarize the ukulele in 3 parts:
1: Sound
Obviously the sound of a musical instrument is the most important part. It easily gets a 9/10 here. There is almost no fret buzz, instead in its place is extremely rich and potent sound, and beautiful tone.
2: Looks
A lot of people buy instruments simply for the sound, but if one can look good and sound good it's a win win. Again a 9/10 here with abalone shell ingrained into the soundstage as well as the "donner" logo. There's also a carved armrest that feels and looks amazing. The wood is also extremely beautiful.
3: Quality
Last but not least the quality of this ukulele is a 10/10. At the price point I don't think you'll get anything better. The fit and finish is absotely stunning there is not a single lose end or rough edge. I'm honestly in disbelief of how good of a ukulele I got for 70 dollars.
In conclusion, I give this ukulele and overall 9.5/10 and I most certainly recommend you buy it.
