Oscar Schmidt OU2 Concert Ukulele

Just for a little background, I've been playing the guitar for about 7 years. If you're also a guitar player and wondering how a ukulele plays, it's easy. Just take your guitar, put a capo on the 5th fret, take away your top two strings, and voila! You have a ukulele. I have never picked up a ukulele in my life, but after seeing several friends having so much fun with this instrument, I thought I'd give it a try.This Oscar Schmidt OU2 Ukulele is the most popular (and one of the cheapest) here on amazon.com. From other reviews, it seems as if there are two types of colors you can get: a light or a dark finish. Unfortunately, you don't have the option to choose. Either way, this is a mighty fine instrument for anyone who's never played the ukulele before.Pros- The biggest pro with this ukulele is easy. The value! This ukulele is not some cheap toy you buy at Toys'R'Us. For the price that you pay for, you get a solid-sounding uke and it won't rip a hole in your wallet. The sound is bright and clear, but I do recommend getting better strings. Contrary to other reviews, the action on this ukulele seems great to me. Playing and switching between chords seem very smooth and I haven't had the annoying 'fret buzzing' happen. The tuning pegs are solid and easy to turn. It has the appearance of a quality uke. The finish isn't spectacular close up, but who's going to be looking at it that close anyways?Cons- After a few days of playing, the strings still seem to easily get out of tune. Of course, its expected because most stringed instruments are like that at first. After one week of playing, it's holding up somewhat well. Another thing (which in part is my fault, I should have researched a bit more) is that this is a very small ukulele! Supposedly, this is a tenor-sized uke, which is the smallest of all the different sizes. If you're a guitar player with big hands, playing this uke might be a pain and so you might be better of with a baritone-sized uke. And finally, I assumed they would include a little bag for the ukulele, but there isn't. Although it's small and cheap, I thought it would have been nice to include one :DMy recommendation is to buy this ukulele if you're a first-timer like me. You will love it within minutes! So hurry and drop a few bucks, this ukulele will bring a smile to everyone who hears it!*4.5 out of 5 stars*

I'm a college student who took piano classes as a kid and wanted to get back into music. This is a great way to do it! With all the resources available to help tune and teach you how to play (thank goodness for YouTube) having a great uke to play with just tops it all off. As one of the leading brands of ukuleles, I was pleased to see the great quality and simple craftsmanship handle a beginner's mindless pluckings. It doesn't go out of tune too easily and I found it to have a great sound. Take it from a person who has bought one too many toy souvenir ukes.If you want to take up a fun, easy and rewarding hobby, I'd suggest buying this product! Definitely worth the money.

Something has to be over the moon for me to give 5 stars, but I would have given 4.5 if I could have.First, I've played guitar for years (going on decades), and while I'm not phenomenal, I know good tone and good playability, and this Uke is pretty damn good. It's nice, relaxed, got a sweet tone, and having tried many others at comparable and above levels, I have to say this is among the best I've come across.How did I choose this? I've wanted a uke for some time, and trusted this because a) I know an Indie musician (Bess Rogers - check her out) who is amazing musically, but indie (thus not rich), who I'm pretty sure had this same uke (she recently upgraded from it) and I figured she'd know the best in "low" end and b) because I tried a friend's and loved it (before realizing it was the same as the indie musician's). In the end, for $50, I'm not sure you can get better. I know the default action setting is hit and miss. Mine was a hit, which I am grateful for. And I just bought some Aquila strings off ebay. The ones I currently have do go out of tune pretty quickly, and I think by now they should be pretty stretched. So this might be a miss, but I'm ok with it.If you want to get better, I suggest you go for the OU5. It's highly recommended. I just have hit my spending limit on these things for now. Maybe in 10 years.PS - UKES = SO. MUCH. FUN!!!Edited a week later to add it now stays in tune much better, so I was wrong about how long it would take for the strings to stretch. Haven't put on a set of aquila strings yet, but this uke is pretty amazing. For those who complain about the tuning, I have to wonder if they understand the science of strings.