The ukulele has become a beloved instrument worldwide. We’d like to highlight the five best ukulele brands, offering an unbiased selection based on user feedback.
A general overview of what the top ukulele brands offer will help you make an informed decision on which models to buy. Be it sound or aesthetics, as a gift for kids or for professionals, this ukulele brands guide is meant to present your options.
The modern ukulele dates back to the 1880s and is a descendant of several different instruments of Portuguese origin. Its precursors were introduced to the native Hawaiians by Portuguese settlers, and the ukulele came as a result of the two cultures melding.
The ukulele eventually became synonymous with Hawaiian culture. It then spread beyond its homeland to become a cultural phenomenon loved the world over. Though once seen as a novelty instrument, the ukulele has grown to boast a collection of music as diverse and technical as any other instrument.
To help you find the right uke, this article exists to collect an objective list of the five best ukulele brands. This is according to uke reviews and user opinion (for a more detailed look at how Gearank looks, check out the “Methodology” section at the end of this article).
With that out of the way, here is the best ukulele brands list.
Five Of The Best Ukulele Brands
1. Cordoba
Founded in 1997 Tim Micklaucic has become renowned as both an innovator and leader in the nylon instrument sphere. The brand makes phenomenal ukes, classical, and flamenco guitars. Pepe Romero Jr., a famed classical guitar manufacturer who later adapted his design to ukuleles, is the primary designer for the ukulele arm of the company. Though not a household name, his instruments are incredibly well-received.
While the company is generally associated with its guitars, it also manufactures ukuleles with the same dedication to quality musicians. And they offer them at an accessible price range. A perfect example of this is the Cordoba 15CM-E.
Cordoba 15CM-E
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The 15CM-E is an all-mahogany concert-sized uke, sporting passive electronics. The cool thing about this uke is that it comes out of the box with a great, stage-ready tone that’s perfect for any musician. The mahogany body and concert size give the uke a very warm tone overall. The concert-sized body also gives the uke plenty of volume to play along with other musicians.
Cordoba’s electronics also have an excellent reputation as far as passive, non-third-party pickup systems are concerned. They’re regarded as doing a very competent job of transferring the tone of your musical instrument to whatever you’re using to amplify it. The only downside of this uke’s electronics is that they don’t have a dedicated EQ, so any adjustments in tone will have to be done at the P.A. or amplifier.
2. Kala
Founded in 2005, Kala, also known as Kala Brand Music Co, is one of the most great ukulele brands currently in operation. And looking at the quality of their instruments, it isn’t hard to see why. The Petaluma, CA-based brand has a variety of different models available. They cover different ukulele sizes ranging from standard soprano concert and tenor ukuleles to more innovative designs like the pineapple ukulele. This ensures that every player can find the uke of their dreams, from a beginner to a professional. Even better, the brand caters to ukulele players of every income level, ranging from entry to high-end. They also have some really unique designs, including a ukulele-esque bass and an archtop uke. This means everyone who are interested in ukuleles will find something appealing from Kala.
Kala KA-15S
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A perfect example of Kala’s ukulele is the Kala KA-15S Satin Mahogany Soprano, a soprano uke that packs a surprisingly musical voicing into its relatively small footprint. The KA-15S is an all-mahogany instrument. When combined with its soprano body size, this tonewood gives it a perfect traditional uke voicing. The soprano body size has a very delicate and focused voice, and the mahogany body gives the instrument the depth you’d find in soprano ukes costing many times more. This kala ukulele is a great instrument for solo play, because as a general rule warmer instruments (those with a higher representation of bass frequencies) sound better unaccompanied than brighter instruments. When you couple Kala’s dedication to quality control to the uke’s tone, it’s hard to find a better beginner’s ukulele. Kala is known for their Bass Ukulele and baritone uke as well.
3. Ranch Guitars
Ranch Guitars established itself in 1993, providing high-quality gear to musicians, DIY builders, and wholesale dealers across the world. Ranch Guitars are primarily known for their affordable acoustic guitars and accessories. However, throughout the years, they’ve captured the ukulele niche in online retailers. They’ve produced some of the best affordable ukuleles in the market and it’s a pretty challenging endeavor. At some point, you have to cut corners to make the price cheaper. However, Ranch ukuleles have earned themselves a great reputation while maintaining product accessibility.
A quick look at the Amazon reviews of their soprano or concert ukuleles is a testament to that. This ukulele brand dedicated a lot of time and effort to the research and manufacturing of their ukes. After all, they have 17 years of experience as one of the best ukulele brands.
Ranch UK-23
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One great product they have is the Ranch UK-23 Concert Uke. Elegant in design, and aesthetically pleasing, its sound is a blend of silky highs and warm mids. It’s described by some as having a warm sound quality. Based on the reviews, the most common aspect of this ukulele that’s constantly appreciated is its playability. The string action is low and the fretboard has good spaces that can accommodate small and big hands. This is why I think it’s one of the best ukulele brands for beginners.
4. Hola!
Hola started tapping into the market during 2011 as a famiily-owned business. Their line of products ranges from speaker stands, and tuners, to musical instruments. They’re very popular on Amazon due to their affordability, raking in positive reviews for their products. Due to this, they have developed a loyal customer base in every product they release.
What’s especially popular is their line of ukulele products that include a generous bundle. Their value proposition is to provide a cheap, fully-packaged product that delivers. As a result, they’ve solidified their position as one of the best uke brands on Amazon.
Product Title
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One great example of this is the Hola! Music HM-121MG+. This soprano ukulele has an all-mahogany body and, a nato neck, with a walnut bridge and fingerboard.
For a very affordable ukulele, the sound production was clear and rounded. It’s like an extremely downsized version of a nylon guitar. You can hear the punch when stricken loudly, but has a mellow tone overall.
This product goes beyond the instrument and provides you with a tuner, a uke strap, extra strings, and a padded gig bag. They made it a point that anyone who wants to pick up the uke can get started immediately.
5. Luna Guitars
Luna Guitars launched in 2005 and began their journey selling guitars initially. The company was founded by Yvonne de Villiers. She’s a renowned, stained glass artist who sought to incorporate art into musical instruments. The design of their musical instruments is indeed striking. Patterns include designs reminiscent of henna tattoos, laser-engraved visuals, to quality tropical woods. They’ve incorporated the same principle into their quality ukuleles and solidified their presence in 2014. And they’re not just “all-visuals”, the sound production of their products is top-notch as well. As a result, they are one of the best uke brands that rolls both visuals and sounds into one.
They describe themselves as a young brand that’s relatable to younger audiences and aspiring musicians. For them, anyone who has their musical instruments is immediately a part of their Luna Tribe.
Luna High Tide Koa
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For that, I’d like to highlight one of their products called the Luna High Tide Koa. It’s an acoustic-electric concert ukulele with a tonewood that’s not often seen in the ukulele market. The sound leans more on the brighter side, giving you crisp highs the moment you strum the strings. This tonal quality is prominent, whether it’s connected to the amp or just playing it as is.
Visually stunning, it is no wonder this ukulele gets picked up a lot in online stores. The fret markers have an abalone look that shows the interaction between the moon and the tides.
They’ve packed this with a gig bag as well, providing your precious ukulele with that extra protection. However, keep in mind that the padding of the bag is a bit thin.
The Luna High Tide Koa is perfect for musicians, budding beginners, and ukulele enthusiasts who want a striking, artistic-looking instrument.
Best Ukulele Brand Selection Methodology
Firstly, just a brief background on what we generally do…
We produce ratings of music gear by doing detailed statistical analysis of the reviews, ratings, and comments that people make about individual musical instruments and equipment. For this best ukulele brands article, we use the Gearank Algorithm to summarize this analysis and distill it down to a score out of 100 for each item we analyze. You can learn more about that process in our article:
How we calculated the top Ukulele brands…
We took the ratings we had produced for individual soprano ukuleles, concert ukuleles, and tenor ukuleles, that we’ve already rated in our database and grouped their scores by brand. This includes retail store ratings from actual owners, expert ukulele reviews, forum discussions, and more. Only ukuleles that met the following criteria were included:
- Had to be sold at a major US retailer (EG: Sweetwater, Guitar Center, Amazon, etc.)
- Had to have a street price of no more than $300
We then calculated a weighted average of the ratings for each brand to arrive at a score that allowed us to rank the brands from highest to lowest. We selected 5 of the best ukulele brands to present above and chose the best ukulele to represent each brand. In all, there were 40 brands on our shortlist, and we processed over 51,900 reviews and rating sources to arrive at our results. This includes brands that didn’t make it to this list but are popular, including Fender ukuleles and others.
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask in the comments section below. You can also request to join our email list.
Nat, Joseph
I finally received the tenor ukulele I ordered from Amazon however I am unable to complete the registration to validate your warranty. I have completed the form a number of times, but do not receive your email to confirm my registration. You have been so helpful in the past and I am sure this can be rectified. Than k you so much for all your help. Vince
Hi Vince,
You should contact the company directly because they probably won’t see your post here.
Jason.
How do I get an instruction booklet? My package also did NOT include a CD as the description said
You should contact the shop you bought it from and either get the full package they promised or get a refund.
I bought one of your ukuleles recently on amazon but was short the capo how can I get one to complete this order
You need to contact the seller you bought it from.
I bought an ukulele from you a month ago.
Where can I register and have the video lessons ?
We don’t sell any of the instruments we recommend, but we do provide links to retailers.
You should contact either the retailer you bought it from, or the manufacturer.
I have bought one of your ukulele and working my way through the videos. However, is there a workbook to go along with the practice sessions?
We provide advice on instruments but we don’t sell them ourselves.
However, if you’d like to tell us which one you’ve bought, we may be able to help you with an answer.
None of these are the best ukulele brands. Not by miles. The best are all Hawaiian makers. Kamaka, Kanilea, Ko’olau. For intermediate players or beginners who want quality, Pono or Islander. THEN you get to Kalas and Cordobas, but go for a solid top if you can and get someone experienced to do set up and quality control. I recommend Hawaii music supply aka theukulelesite.
Quite agree Bex – this is just a shill site that lists instruments that you follow a link to Sweetwater or Amazon for which the site gets revenue. None on this list are the best brands at all – just brands they can earn some ad revenue from..
We should have provided more detail in the Methodology section above – the ranking above is only for brands selling ukuleles that met the following criteria:
Those criteria are why the more expensive and less widely available, yet highly regarded brands, don’t appear in the list above.
We chose this set of criteria because we were primarily trying to help new players who often want to know what the ‘best brands’ are when buying one of their first instruments.
I’ve updated the Methodology section to avoid this misunderstanding.
I totally agree with you Bex…
This article should be titled something different because the brands listed are not the best ukulele brands…aside from Kala who do have handmade models and who do create beautiful instruments that the Ukulele Site sells. Cordoba does have some upper end models as well, just haven’t tried any of them. Islander, Baton Rouge and Ohana are good. I have an Uma and 2 Enyas as well as a Lanaiki which are all beautiful. I think that adult beginners should pay a little more for their instruments because you will notice a difference…
I own a Lohanu saprano ukulele that I absolutely love and I just got a concert Lohanu earlier today and I have to say I love them both. Great company and products!!
It’s Soprano but the Baritone is the bomb
I received my uke as a present. I know nothing on how to play, but willing to learn. Thank you for your help and efforts to teach and support people like me. Everybody calls me Lucky.