4 Feb 2015

Stagg US10 Soprano Ukulele - REVIEW

People who read this blog regularly will know I have a common rant about the flood of cheap musical instruments on the market. It seems to be an endless tide, perpetuated by low prices on the likes of Amazon. People also (wrongly) claim I only review high end instruments, so I got hold of this model recently, from Amazon - the Stagg US10 Soprano. Their number one best selling ukulele! All yours for a shade over £20.

Stagg US10 Soprano Ukulele


Now, to correct those who think I have a downer on every cheap instrument. I don't. I regularly recommend models that do it well, like the Octopus Soprano as an example. What I DO have a downer on is the regularly falling standards of quality control at this low end price. People will regularly respond to my warnings by saying things like 'But I have a Mahalo and its just fine'. I am sure they do, and I am pleased. I am not saying every single example is badly made, but what I AM saying is the chances of getting a badly made one are far higher these days than I think is acceptable. I could rant again that I see no sense in paying less than the cost of a basic lesson for a musical instrument, but people will still do it - lured by the likes of Amazon and their low prices. My advice is just that there ARE better alternatives and places to buy that will narrow those chances of getting a dud if you go carefully.





So using my own hard earned cash, I paid the 'big A' my cash and this Stagg model arrived. It's the bottom end of their range, and as I say, the best selling uke on the UK Amazon site. Make of that what you will.

It's billed by them as a 'wonderful introduction to the instrument'. Read on for my views.

The US10 is built in traditional soprano uke scale and shape, with a double bout and normal looking neck. It's built from nato laminate wood throughout the body, and boy, is that thick laminate. First warning Stagg. Don't try and dress it up with the use of phrases like 'Nato Wood' - this is cheap plywood, pure and simple. It's also extremely thick and hastily thrown together.  A look inside shows wood shavings, glue drops, what look like animal droppings and just a very low end feel to it.

The body is finished in their 'natural' colour (meaning thick spray paint hiding any hints of underlying wood grain) but other colours are available (strangely, with some at a price premium). On the whole the body covering is nicely applied and the whole thing has a satisfying satin finish that is nice on the hands. There are no scratches or bubbles, but honestly, I can't claim a ukulele is 'good' because it is not scratched can I?

Stagg US10 Soprano Ukulele body


Decoration is limited to a gold sound hole rosette transfer, but at least it is applied straight.

The bridge is dark stained wood and is a slotted design, meaning for far easier beginner string changes without bows and clever knots. The saddle is plastic, and is both uncompensated and a little high. I won't gripe too much about a high bridge as it is easily fixed by a beginner. Looking more closely though, it does look to my eyes like the bridge is screwed on ever so slightly in the wrong place. More on that later, but accurate bridge placement is fundamental to accurate tuning.

Stagg US10 Soprano Ukulele bridge


So body wise it is, on the whole, pretty uninsiring, but I have seen worse. The label also proudly displays the words 'handmade ukulele' on it. I could perhaps forgive Stagg for being tongue in cheek with that, but I think not. This is not what I would class as a handmade instrument and I find the use of the term to be an insult to my intelligence. What it is, is a uke made in a Chinese factory by people being paid arguably too little. Don't try and dress it up Stagg!

Stagg US10 Soprano Ukulele label


On to the neck and we have a common or garden soprano neck, 12 nickel silver frets stopping at the body and a fairly standard profile and width. These sort of necks are all made in the same factories so no surprise there, but I would like to see them start making the nuts a bit wider for my tastes.

The frets are applied neatly with no rough edges which is good to see, but sadly the lack of finish flaws on the body don't apply to the neck. The finish is uneven all over the back and whilst the edges of the fingerboard are unbound (meaning you will see the fret edges) the uneven finish is really given away here. Some areas didn't even get covered at all.

Stagg US10 Soprano Ukulele neck


The fingerboard may look like your normal dark wood or even rosewood, but on inspection it is just painted black. Ugh.. You know, whilst this makes no difference to the sound, as I say, you CAN do better. The Octopus is the same price and has a genuine and rather nicely finished genuine rosewood fingerboard.

We have plastic inlayed fret markers at the 5th, 7th and 10th and these are repeated on the side which is good to see.

Up to the nut and this is made from a moulded plastic  - in other words it has not been cut by hand, but rather the slots were in the mould. It is also too high which is a major gripe. Whilst a bridge can easily be tinkered with and high nut is a bigger job, involving nut files and very easy to go too far (rendering the uke a buzzing, unplayable mess). Bad job Stagg / Amazon.  Perhaps this would have been picked up through buying from a reputable dealer who could give it a once over. (You see - there I go with my rant again). Seriously though - this WILL affect intonation at the lower frets. If you are happy to learn out of tune, be my guest I suppose.

Stagg US10 Soprano Ukulele nut


Up to the headstock - all fairly plain, with a screen printed Stagg logo and open geared generic tuners. They work ok, nothing fantastic, but they don't grind and they hold ok. The buttons however are far too big and make the uke look like it has ears. The perils of picking from the cheap parts bin.

Stagg US10 Soprano Ukulele headstock


The whole 'deal' is finished off with cheap nylon strings which are just horrible and the worst quality gig bag I have ever seen. On the former, people will say 'oh but yes, you obviously need to change the strings' and yes, I would do that, but then the £20 uke becomes nearly a £30 uke and the bargain drifts away a little. As for the gig bag - its so thin I honestly cannot see the benefit of them even including it. It provides no protection whatsoever.

Stagg US10 Soprano Ukulele tuners


But what about the proof of the pudding? Well it sounds uninspiring, and not much better than rubber bands on a tissue box to my ears. Very little sustain, and a strum just delivers a muddy mass of noise rather than defined chiming notes.

Yes it needs a string change, not least because of the overall tone, but the C string just sounds dead to my ears anyway. I checked the nut and bridge which are both clear, and therefore assume its a bad string.

But beyond that, that high nut is throwing slightly sharp notes at the lower frets, and a check on intonation at the 12th fret shows that we have a problem there too. Generally- the note plucked at the 12th should be a perfect octave above the open note, and these are not. A string change may fix that, as may dropping the bridge height a little, but I do worry whether it is also hampered by a misplaced bridge.

Stagg US10 Soprano Ukulele sound hole


The high nut will definitely need work unless, as I say, you like your first position chords sounding 'off'. I don't.

All in all it sounds like a bad example of a £20 uke. I have seen worse, but as I say in my opening, I have also seen so much better.

Frankly I fail to understand why people take the trouble to try to defend these things or the bad quality control. There ARE better options, certainly if you pay not a lot more, and even at THIS price. So long as there are better options, there is zero excuse in my book for these existing with this sort of quality.

I'm not down on all ukes at this price, but as I say, buy carefully, read reviews and please order from a specialist store. You may pay £5-£10 more, but honestly, is that really too much of a price to pay to reduce your chances of a dud (and to get better strings!). I was also massively conscious that some people will take this review and the scores as a 'well, you would say that wouldn't you?' type of review. I can't avoid that, but honestly, I am struggling to find anything good about this model. You may own a good one, but as I say, I am pleased for you. Could you guarantee they are all good though?

And as for the other common response of 'these are perfect for beginners and children' I fail to see that being a beginner or a child means you should have to put up with something that doesn't play well or in tune. Particularly when there are better options out there for the same money!!

So as for this being the Amazon best seller - I think that tells you everything you need to know about how quality control failings make me rant. It is truly depressing. To repeat - it NEED NOT BE LIKE THIS! No recommendation from me Stagg, and no amount of telling me that you also make better instruments for more money changes the fact that this one is a dog.

(For more on my views on cheap ukes, by new years rant may be the place to go! LOOK HERE )

And to check out my other ukulele reviews take a look here!


PROS

None really (easy tie bridge? Fret markers?)

CONS

Quality control generally
Internal mess
Misplaced bridge?
High Nut
Terrible strings
Lack of sustain
Zero character
Pointless gig bag



SCORES

Looks - 7
Fit and Finish - 6
Sound - 5
Value For Money - 6

OVERALL - 6 out of 10
To understand my review scoring and see this result in context - visit my review page at


VIDEO REVIEW



14 comments:

  1. "rubber bands on a tissue box" - I love your turn of phrase and I know exactly what you mean :-)

    I am only surprised the ratings were so high for this one after that review but then I remember some of the other monstrosities you have taken the time to review so thoroughly . . . yukk!!!

    Very glad to see you are in better health and back on form! :-)

    Best wishes, Liz

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  2. Yeah, scores need to be taken in context of all the other scores on the reviews page. I have indeed seen worse, but still, need to score them fairly like I do with every uke. A 6 is NOT a good Got A Ukulele score I can assure you!

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  3. I have this uke and if anything yours is well-built next to mine. A screw on one of the tuners wouldn't bite its hole in the wood so that I had to put superglue in the hole so that the plate would stay flush. Hence my recent questions on an older post about possible upgrades. I always knew it was ropey but lately, as I watch tutorials and reviews, I become increasingly and painfully aware of just how poor it is. I got it from a music shop rather than online as well.

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  4. The only people really qualified to pick a decent cheap uke like this don't want to have anything to do with a uke this cheap. It is a shame a lot of people are getting a bad experience with the ukulele and they don't really know what to buy.

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  5. Unfortunately the problem is it's still got a 4.5 star rating on Amazon and for most people an average score like that from close to 150 reviews will be persuasion enough to make them purchase. You get people leaving Amazon reviews when they've bought items as a gift which doesn't help.

    The thing that baffles me with cheap ukuleles is, why not just get a deal with a decent string manufacturer and use theirs instead? Obviously it's going to affect the price (a little) but surely the gain would be worth it. That's probably me being a little naive when it comes to pricing though, I guess price wins out above all else at this level.

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  6. I think its ALL about price Dave - it never ceases to amaze me - people expecting a fully fledged instrument for less than a few beers, or even less than the cost of a lesson! It just doesnt happen with other instruments - try buying a violin, flute, saxophone or a guitar for £20.. Yet there is an automatic assumption the uke MUST BE cheap because it is small. Harmonicas cost more than this thing! I blame the media as much as anyone.

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  7. I bought one of these a couple of years back from Amazon as my first uke. I guess I got lucky cos most of the negatives you've given aren't the case with mine. Quality control obviously let at least one alright one through. Wish I'd read your site beforehand though as I'd probably have gone for something else!

    I have noticed the height of the bridge being an issue though and would like to lower it. Before I go and make a hash of it, would I be right in thinking it's simply a case of unscrewing it and sanding it down a bit? If so, any tips for getting an appropriate height?

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  8. For the bridge - a case of taking strings off, removing the white saddle and sanding the base down carefully (don't unscrew anything!). The white saddle is not fixed in the bridge - that is the bit to pull out and sand. You also need to keep the base of the saddle flat as possible.

    Little by little is the way to go - constantly re stringing and checking until you have it like you want it - go too far and your strings will buzz

    For me, a safe height is measured in terms of how high the strings are above the top of the 12th fret when under tension. It can vary depending on taste, but about 2mm above the 12th, and no more than 3mm above at the 12th is the aim for me.

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  9. Thanks Barry, I would've bodged that up were it not for your comments! Cheers.

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  10. The best way to achieve a smooth and flat face when sanding down your saddle is to get some fine wet & dry emery paper lay it on a mirror or piece of glass and rub your saddle on it. I used this method to get a good flat surface on carburetor flanges.

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  11. In defence of Stagg, I used to own a UC60s concert ukulele (solid spruce top) and, with Worth BM strings fitted, it had a really lovely full sustained jangle to its tone that was surprisingly mandolin-like. I loved it but gave it to a very ill guitar-playing friend - in some ways, I would actually have preferred to part with my all-solid-mahogany Ohana CK35, which is warmer and more refined but quieter and less lively, but my friend wasn't a fan of friction pegs, which the latter has. Being so impressed with it, I later got a great deal on a new UC60s, which I gave to another guitarist friend as a 50th birthday present; it has the same lovely sound but the quality of finish was atrocious, as compared to the mediocre finish of the earlier one! Clearly, Stagg sacrifice quality for price - unacceptably so, in some instances - but I just want to point out that their products are not all terrible, in my experience.

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  12. I too remember the Stagg ukes of old - they were much MUCH better. Shame

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  13. Hi, first I want to say I've been very much enjoying reading and watching your reviews. I have been learning to play the uke for a year now, and I own a few Kala ukuleles. I wanted to add a fun electric ukulele to the mix and didn't like the only option available at the local store (Epiphone Les Paul), so I took a risk and bought a solid body electric Stagg (EUK S-BK Stratocaster style) online. I personally enjoy it a lot, but I'm aware that the action is too high at the saddle and when I feel more confident to attempt it will make an adjustment. I would be very interested to hear your thoughts if you ever review it. I have the impression from this review that you haven't been too impressed with Stagg, but I was wondering if you plan to review more of their ukuleles in the future?
    Thank you and have a nice day!

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  14. I think this is a fair review.

    I bought a similar Stagg (mine has a natural finish to the fingerboard as well and the finish is thinner so it looks a tad prettier), because at £13 ($17) it was cheap enough to throw in the bin if it was complete crap.

    The nut was WAY too high - took me half an hour to get it sorted, after which the low open notes were only slight sharp (not enough to notice without looking for it) instead of half a semitone(!) Action is a tad high, but dropping the bridge 1/16" should sort it (and the remaining intonation issues) to do next time I change strings.

    The finish was better than your example. The strings were worthless 'fishing line' and next to my brother's budget plastic body Kala it sounded gretaly inferior - thin and shrill. Fitting Aquila srings made it sound better, but it still isn't very loud or rich sounding, but is certainly worth more than £13 + a set of strings.

    My main concern is that the average punter won't know how to recut a nut, and without doing this every open chord they play is going to sound way out of tune - deeply disheartening.

    So, it avoided the bin, but your average beginner is not going to enjoy one off the shelf.

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