Everjoys / Eco Soprano Ukulele Beginner Pack (Rainbow) - REVIEW

Back to business with another 'Amazon Choice' ukulele, and one that is clearly marketed at beginners. This is the Everjoys Soprano Beginner Pack, also branded in the USA (I 'think') as Eco. A shorter break than I anticipated, but your kind words mean a lot so let's crack on. Just think I need more regular breaks in 2021!

And what better way to dive back in than with the 'Amazon Choice' moniker. A sure sign of reliability and quality surely..... Well, actually, no.. not really. They are merely marketing banners for well selling products and mean nothing on the quality of the instrument itself.  I've decided now that when I feature an 'Amazon only' ukulele going forward, I will focus on these 'Amazon Choice' models as means to sense check the offering for my more discerning readers.

So this one, branded either as Everjoys or, it would appear, as 'Eco' in the USA,  is a very cheap entry level soprano beginners 'package' that will immediately appeal to first timers as it comes with a lot of extras that people will assume are essential for not a lot of money. It's available in a range of bright colours, or like this one, with rainbow coloured strings as an 'aid to learning'. I'm not against that concept at all and in fact Aquila make a multi coloured set for assisting educators in teaching children. Even Flight ukuleles have released a tuition based version of their travel ukulele with Aquila rainbow stings. The concept is sound and I fully support it. But... and it's a big but.. The 'Aquila Kids' set of strings have established themselves now in school setups and work well and use a kind of adopted colour order for notes (based, I believe, on the Boomwhackers percussion tubes. G is green, C is red, E is yellow, A is blue). There are some other brands too and they also use the Green, red, yellow, blue order. Tuition materials exist with that very code. But these are a competely different colour order. In fact some people questioned if they were strung up wrong, but no... this IS the order. So if you are using one of these to play along with a class or teacher that is using Aquila Kids strings... well.. you can see the issue you are going to have.. Likewise, I have no clue where to buy strings with this colour order either so if your child has gotten used to this colour scheme and you replace them with Aquila Kids.. again, a different code to deal with.. Ugh.. This strikes me as bandwagoning for the sake of it and they have clearly not thought through the 'why'. You may say 'they used colours for a bit of fun', but Everjoys specifically say the coding is an aid to learning.

Anyway, this is a traditionally shaped double bout soprano, built from what Everjoys specify as 'basswood', but that means cheap ply laminate of course. I see a lot of cheap ukuleles and readers assume that I am negative about them all. That's simply not true though, and there are one or two that stand out for being not too bad. Equally though, there is a lot of dross of course.  Maybe I shouldn't judge this one by first glances though. The body here is finished in a reddish stain on the flat back and sides and a pale colour on the top - giving it the impression of a spruce top / rosewood back and sides instrument - only one that has been done with a Sharpie... To be fair, I have seen finishes on cheap sopranos MUCH worse than this one (take a look at this Ashton UKE100) and I am not seeing many major issues on this one yet. It just looks so damn cheap. The way it looks gives me the impression of a 'build your own ukulele' kit model that has been put together and painted by a 10 year old.

The bridge is a tie bar which would have been far better as a slot bridge considering this is aimed at kids. It's screwed in place and the Amazon spec says it is made from maple. Clearly maple is not this colour so it has been dyed or painted. Very oddly the spec on the Everjoys website says it's AAA grade rosewood which it utter codswallop! It's otherwise tidy enough and holds a straight topped plastic saddle.  String spacing here is 42mm.

Decoration is limited to a black and white ring around the soundhole in a transfer and that is your lot. It's finished in a kind of rough feeling satin which feels more unfinished than silky, but as I say, I have seen much worse. At least it doesn't have bare patches or paint flaking away. There are one or two scuffs on this example and the finishing around the end of the fingerboard is rather scruffy, but.. not too bad on the whole bar the cheap feel.

Inside is simple, but not the sort of 'ultra simple' often seen at this level. There IS kerfing supporting the joints from the sides to top and back, though it's un-notched. There are braces too and not overly fat ones either.  You don't always see that at this end.  And positively, despite this being a 'cheap' laminate ukulele - it's clear from a look a the construction that the top is not half an inch thick plywood. In fact it's relatively thin and lightly built. Sadly it's messy inside with something extremely dubious looking sprouting from the tail block that I don't want to get too close to..

 

The neck wood is not specified on Amazon, but on the Everjoys website they list it as AAA grade mahogany... (yeah.. right!). It's pretty generic and finished in the same kind of red satin as on the back of the body. Unsurprisingly for a far eastern ukulele it tapers down to a chunky profile with a narrow nut at only 34mm wide at the nut and 26mm G to A. Maybe that is fine for a child, but far too narrow for me.

That is topped with a fingerboard they specify as 'blackwood', though I think what they really mean is 'wood that is black'... and if the bridge is anything to go by, it's likely painted or dyed black at that. Looking at it more closely it's also re-constituted wood. This is not something I have an issue with and can actually be a more eco friendly use of wood, but they should specify it. It comes with a standard 12 frets to the body and surprisingly for the price the edges are either bound or very well stained and completely hide the ends. Sadly, despite that, the fret ends are sharp to the point I would reject it. Plastic pearloid dots face out at the 5th, 7th and 12th, but sadly there are no side dots at all.

Surprisingly again for the price, the setup on this, even at the nut is really not too bad. You often see cheap ukes like this with impossible to play action heights, but i've not got much to complain about here, particularly with the 2.25mm at the 12th. 

Beyond the plastic nut is a three pointed crown headstock shape with a pleasing end taper and finished in more of the red satin. The Everjoys logo is inoffensive and in a silver screen print.  You will also note the front bushings of the tuner posts on this one are chrome, but bear in mind in some of the other variants, such as the Eco brand, they are replaced with white plastic. These look better.

The tuners are generic open gears, very much what you will see on most ukuleles for the price. They are merely 'OK' but to be fair they don't use huge buttons like some of the alternatives out there.

Naturally for a 'pack' ukulele it comes with the kitchen sink thrown in. With this you get a wafer thin gig bag (dust cover), a simple songbook,  a clip on tuner, a sound hole clip strap (not a strap style I like), a cleaning cloth, two plastic pics and, a single yellow string (not a set). I genuinely thought the single string was just a mistake, but no.. on their website they confirm they just give you one. Maybe they think the A string is going to snap... (how utterly bizarre!).  And in the UK that is available for an RRP of £50 (ignore that) and a more readily available price of £35. In the US you can pick one up for about $40. Cheap indeed. 

As you may be able to tell, I was probably expecting more to be wrong with the build on this one than was actually the case. It looks and feels cheap, but is actually put together generally ok. The sharp fret ends are a no-no for me, and I think the lack of side dots and more complex bridge are a mistake. Most of all though I cannot get over that colour coding which becomes largely pointless for educators. But still, as the core, cheap uke goes... as I keep saying... I have seen much worse. Pleasingly as well as the decent action setup the ukulele is not overly heavy at 415g and well balanced. I don't personally like the feel of the strings which are a little flabby to me. I am assuming they are nylon and not fluorocarbon.

First things first, the volume here is not bad. It's not a killer bark, and probably being hampered a little by the strings, but it holds it's own and I think certainly has potential for more with different strings. The sustain unfortunately is very poor. It's a very staccato sound which generally suits sopranos, but i'd certainly want more from it. Again the strings may be impacting the sustain here, but bear in mind your £35 ukulele becomes closer to a £45 ukulele if you are going to immediately re-string it. The feel of the strings is pretty horrible and the sharp frets and narrow nut immediately put me off.

The tone has me grasping for the right words. Again, it's not truly terrible like some at this price point are. I have to say though it is still very thin sounding and has that trademark laminate echoey boxiness in the sound. The lack of sustain also makes fingerpicking less appealing too. That said, compared to something like the Ashton I linked to above, or something like this Martin Smith, the tone is much more pleasant, almost pretty. It plays well enough and sounds like a ukulele largely should. Of course, both of those poor quality ukulele examples are a lot cheaper than this so perhaps a comparison to the Flight Travel or a Makala Dolphin is more in keeping with the prices. Compared to something like those though it fairs very badly and is no match on tone. And that's really the summation here. Not as bad as some out there, but far from the best.

 

As ever with these cheap ukes I am up against the cosh writing this. Many wrongly presume I will be negative for the sake of it, or ask 'what did you expect',  but even when I come across one like this which is not completely terrible, I still need to measure it against what else is out there. And particularly so when it is marketed specifically at beginners.  To be fair this was generally a pleasant surprise in some areas, yet I'm afraid to say that you can still easily do better with similar money elsewhere on tone. On value for money terms, whilst the 'bundle' looks good these additions are ten a penny now and I would steer you to the likes of Enya and Donner if such additions matter to you. For this reason, despite it being 'cheap' I don't think it deserves a glowing value for money score because it can be beaten. Finally, I appreciate that the coloured strings don't apply to all ukes in this line, but their choice of using them (and getting the point totally wrong) seems cynical to me and doesn't fill me with passion for the ethos of the brand. Saying all of that, I am not sure how to adjust the score for that reason, because they are easily changed. 

For a first ukulele for a child you will not be making a howling mistake here (as I keep saying - have seen MUCH worse), but trust me - you can do MUCH better too. And that's where I find the 'Amazon Choice' tag to be so unhelpful.

Be careful here. Let's call it 'half a nod' from Got A Ukulele...

https://everjoyspro.com/products/soprano-rainbow-ukulele-21-inch-beginner-pack-w-gig-bag-songbook-digital-tuner-all-in-one-kit

 

UKULELE SPECS ROUNDUP

Model: Everjoys / Eco Beginner Pack

Scale: Soprano

Body: Basswood laminate

Bridge: Dyed Maple tie bar

Saddle: Plastic

String spacing at Saddle: 42mm

Neck: Unspecified

Fingerboard: 'Blackwood'

Frets: 12

Nut: Plastic

Nut Width: 34mm (26mm G to A)

Tuners: Generic open gears

Strings: Un-named - colour dyed

Extras: Picks, cloth, spare string (single!) dust cover, soundhole strap, clip on tuner

Country of origin: China

Weight: 415g

Price: At time of writing £50 RRP, £35 street

UKULELE PROS

Better build than many at this price

Thin (ish) laminate top with traditional bracing and lining

Light

Decent volume

Plays well enough (though narrow neck)

UKULELE CONS

Looks like a cheap project uke on the finish

Horrible innards!

Tie bar bridge is not in keeping with 'kids uke'

Narrow neck for this reviewer, may be fine for kids

Sharp fret ends

No side dots

Colour strings completely miss the point

What's with just giving a single spare string??

Poor sustain

Echoey thin tone

UKULELE SCORES

Looks - 6.5 out of 10

Fit and finish - 7 out of 10

Sound - 6 out of 10

Value for money - 7.5 out of 10

OVERALL UKULELE SCORE - 6.8 out of 10

UKULELE VIDEO REVIEW

© Barry Maz
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