Winzz Kids Concert Ukulele - REVIEW

Got A Ukulele Reviews return with another dive into the dizzying array of cheap instruments largely only available on Amazon. This is the Winzz Kids Concert Ukulele.

Regular readers will know that I don't recommend buying ukuleles from Amazon as they are largely drop shipped and have never been checked or set up since they left their far eastern factories.  But people do use them a lot for buying ukes and it's only right that this site takes a look for that reason, and not least because if you rely on Amazon reviews you'd think everything was 'Five Star'... I've looked at the Winzz brand before with another concert ukulele of theirs, but it really didn't do too well. It wasn't an absolute dog of an instrument, but was rather shabby. This one caught my eye because of an aesthetic that we have already seen before in terms of it being a coloured instrument, maple neck, pickguard, yadda yadda.

SUMMARY VIDEO REVIEW

I'm clearly harking back to the hugely popular aNueNue Color series ukuleles which clearly has given inspiration to this (and a few other brands). I am not going to say 'copy' as there are a lot of differences here, but the overall feel and concept is clearly taken from that first aNueNue success, particularly the use of maple and the flat colouring. That's not against the rules, and I suppose if something is proving popular with buyers then 'why wouldn't you'? However, I do think such approaches are lazy and you are also setting yourself up to be judged against the original and better get it right. Flight did well on that front with the Iris, as did Cordoba with the 15CM Matiz to a point. Ortega less so with the Gaucho. Let's see if Winzz can crack it.

So this one has a rather blunt title of the Winzz Kids Ukulele (though the description goes on to say 'for adults too' - and more specifically this is the AU-COO-23). I'm not sure how adding a bit of colour makes it a 'kids' uke, but there we are. It's a traditionally shaped double bout ukulele that comes in a range of flat colours including this grey, but also red, green, purple, black and brown. Unlike the aNueNue offering this adds the colour to the whole body and loses that contrast look with the regular wood back and sides. I think that is a worse choice and really puts this more on a par with the flood of brightly coloured sopranos. Interestingly these are also available as sopranos! More on the finish later on though. The body here is made of basswood laminate, that is to say lime wood and about as cheap and soft a wood as you will see on a ukulele. Plywood in other words. Overall though the look is not offensive and even rather fun I suppose.

The bridge goes with maple and is a tie bar style screwed in place. I like the use of maple on instruments particularly as it sands so nicely to a glassy smooth finish. The sander clearly had a day off on this one though as this is just rough bare wood that looks totally unfinished. Sitting in that is a straight topped plastic saddle  and the string spacing is 42mm.

The finish is, as I say, a flat colour all over the instrument. It's pretty smooth on the hands but a closer look in various places, particularly around the joints shows me it has been poorly applied with ripples and bubbles in spots that look plain ugly. There is no other decoration or bindings bar the white teardrop shaped pickguard. I never think pick guards work on a ukulele, and whilst they don't wholly offend me this is on the wrong place to work as a guard. I also think it looks stark with the white colouring though I admit the instrument might look a bit odd without it. Perhaps a sound hole ring and top binding would have been a better choice.

Inside is pretty standard and simple. The braces are quite chunky and the main lower bout has just a single vertical brace. The linings are notched with quite a bit of glue, but I have seen worse.

The neck is made from what might be maple, but is low quality wood in view of the ugly uneven grain. It's jointed at the heel and halfway up the neck with very obvious and ugly joints with the different sections being different colours. The heel joint to the body is also scruffy and is actually coming away at the heel cap side which is splitting the finish. That's really not good and likely fatal. Yes, I could glue it but really, why bother? That tapers to a fat nut profile and a generic 35mm width, 27mm from G to A.

The fingerboard is what looks like more maple layered on the top of the neck. Thankfully this is more uniform and tidy in colour though the finishing looks a little bare. It's fitted with 18 frets joined at the 12th and these are not edge bound so you see the end tangs in the side. They are also a touch sharp! Black position dots face out at the 5th, 7th, 10th, double 12th and 15th, but sadly you get no side markers.

Beyond the plastic nut is an inoffensive headstock with some nice enough shaping on the top. The Winzz logo and an 'oh so stereotypical' palm tree emblem are laser etched into the wood which looks cheap. Just a black screen print would look so much better.

The tuners are generic chrome open gears with small black plastic buttons. Nothing life changing but they work reasonably ok are are equal in tension without any grinding. They do jump in tuning a bit though.

Finishing things off are a branded gig bag in a kind of denim material and the usual 'goodie bag' which comes with a cloth, capo, tuner, strap, picks and fingerboard note stickers. And for that little lot (bear in mind Amazon dynamic pricing!) you are going to pay a penny short of £41. So really not a lot of money at all.

On the positives, I suppose this has something of a striking look and the price is very much impulse purchase territory. Some of the finishing though is quite scruffy, simply not finished at all or fatally flawed which lets it down. The setup lets it down too with a string height at the 12th above 3.5mm and a nut that also needs to come down. It's not massively heavy at 530g and balances ok.

The volume here is reasonably good and it doesn't feel strangled. The sustain though is poor and drops off very quickly. The setup, particularly the high bridge height makes playing it an absolute pig for getting your fingers tangled.

The tone though is pleasant enough with a crisp edge to it that is surprisingly not muddy considering the cheap body wood. When strummed it's very staccato on account of that lack of sustain, but it gives it a bouncy feel that ticks the basic ukulele requirement box. Yet there isn't really any character to the tone played this way and it doesn't give the player much inspiration though. Yes, you can hear all the strings in the mix, though they are not doing much with each other by way of harmonisation and shimmer.

Fingerpicking highlights that even more with quick drop off on the notes and whilst they are clear, they are very one dimensional. Add in the poor setup and it's just not that enjoyable to play. Weirdly though, I have seen worse at this price, though it still left me a bit flat.

So rather like the other Winzz I looked at this is more of the same - not an absolute dog in the basics, but far FAR too shabby and they clearly have an issue with their own factory QC. And it's also indicative of what happens when you cut out the independent QC check that a specialist uke dealer brings. Yes, Amazon have a good returns policy (though incredibly wasteful), and yes, you could get one arrive in better shape. But then.. you could also get one in worse shape. You see, that's the roulette game with box shippers like 'the Zon'.. You simply don't know, and with brands who are lax with their QC it's a bit of a lottery.

I can only review what is in front of me though and this is an instrument that could have been a lot better. Heck, I even rather like the tone, and it's cheap as chips, but it is still flawed.

 

There are a lot of cheapies out there though and this is just too shabby for me. Avoid.

UKULELE SPECS ROUNDUP

Model: Winzz Kids Ukulele 

Scale: Concert

Body: Laminate basswood

Bridge: Maple, tie bar

Saddle: Plastic

Spacing at saddle: 42mm

Finish: Painted flat colour

Neck: Maple?

Fingerboard: Maple

Frets: 18, 12 to body

Nut: Plastic

Nut width : 35mm, 27mm G to A

Tuners: Unbranded open gears

Extras: Bag, picks, capo, tuner, cloth, strap, note sticker

Country of origin: China
Weight: 530g

Price: £40.99

UKULELE PROS

Inoffensive looks

Nice contrast between maple and the body
Good enough volume

Pleasantly crisp tone

UKULELE CONS

Scruffy finishing and build

Busted neck!

Bare wood on bridge

No side dots

Cheap tuners
Terrible setup

Poor sustain

UKULELE SCORES

Looks - 8 out of 10

Fit and finish - 3 out of 10

Sound - 7.5 out of 10

Value for money - 7.5 out of 10

OVERALL UKULELE SCORE - 6.5 out of 10

UKULELE VIDEO REVIEW

© Barry Maz

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