Official Kala Learn to Play Ukulele Soprano Starter Kit, Satin Mahogany – Includes online lessons, tuner app, and booklet (KALA-LTP-S)

I've never played before and I got this guy based on all the good recommendations and reviews floating around out there. I still didn't have very high hopes because "you get what you pay for" is almost always true. But I love mine so far. After a few days of playing with it, stretching the strings, and tuning it's holding a tune longer and longer. It sounds lovely. If I'm honest I even like tuning it lol. That was my first order of business this morning; I got out of bed and started messing with it. It's such a sweet little instrument and everyone in the house has played with it a bit since it got here. I just want to strum it constantly and I'm already thinking about getting Kala's pineapple shaped soprano.The pictures don't really do the satin finish justice either. It's almost shimmery in good lighting or sunlight and has a nice amber color to it. At this price I expected the finish to be kinda flat like cheap laminate flooring. It was a really nice surprise.Now for the "bad" (none of it's real bad) :The tuner app is easily replaced by any number of (better) free tuner apps and online lessons are everywhere thanks to a friendly and supportive community. The only real added value I see to the Learn to Play Kit as opposed to just buying the uke by itself is the gig bag and the booklet. The Kala KA-15s is, right now, just about $10 cheaper than this. I think it might've been smarter for me to just buy the ukulele and then spend around $20 to get myself a soft case. I'm not sure what I'll do with the bag after I've gotten one. It's lined and it can be worn like a backpack, but there's no storage pouches and it's very thin. It's not bad for a $10 bag I don't think, but I'm not really sure I needed it. YMMV.I wasn't happy with the way mine arrived either. Amazon had just put a shipping label on the retail box and sent it like that! What it is was fully on display for anyone to see and it also ruined the box. There were two gaping holes in the side of that box and if you've seen an unboxing you know there's only a thin foam bag and the gig bag between the uke and the cardboard box. I almost sent it right back unopened. I didn't know what I'd find in there. There's a small scratch, but it's otherwise fine and the scratch isn't very noticeable. I got in touch with Amazon today though and they gave me a partial refund immediately with absolutely zero fuss. This on a holiday! I've never had an easier customer service experience and I'd definitely buy again (judging from unboxings I've seen this isn't how Amazon usually ships them). The whole thing took maybe five minutes and my account was credited later in the day.I'm impressed.

I am on day 7 of my Uke journey and I am loving it!! I practice every day and I barely have to re-tune it anymore. I “stretched” the strings a bit too to help quicken the process. The Uke sounds and looks great.The tuner is nice and works well. I actually like it better than using the app, but that’s just for how quick and easy it is.The song book isn’t really that helpful because it only has a few chords, but hey it was somewhere to start and nice to learn how to hold and tune the Uke.I haven’t needed to transport it, but the bag is a bag, it won’t really protect it. It would be nice to be a cushioned case but it’s alright.The Kala app is the worst part. You have to pay to get most of the best features but it has a free tuner and some beginner chords to get you started. From there YouTube has served me well to learn.So overall I think this is a good kit for a beginning and I am super happy with it. :)#mahalo

I bought this ukulele as a Christmas gift for my sister, a first time player, and wow, I couldn't be happier with the quality! I own a Luna ukulele, and as a gift, a Luna uke was a bit out of my price range. I loved the look of this ukulele when I saw it on Amazon, and had heard of the brand Kala before, so I decided to buy it. Not only did my sister fall in love with the look of this cute ukulele, but she also loved all of the things it came with. She was happy about the tote bag, and thought the song book with chords and the free tuning app were all helpful. We now play together, and I really cannot tell the difference in sound quality between our ukuleles, even though mine was $100 more. I highly recommend this ukulele for a beginning, or even a long time uke player! For the price and quality, I don't think I could have gotten a better deal!

I gave this four stars so this small review will have positives and negatives. Negatives first.I bought this Ukulele for what it is, a "learn to play" kit. I was surprised by how nice it played, and how sturdy the body, strings, and tuning pegs felt. It didn't feel cheap. Unfortunately, about 7 months after I bought it, the higher G string wouldn't tune, and then the lower G string wouldn't tune. I figured I needed to restring it. So I restring it...and it still won't tune. My friend and I took the strings off many times and strung it just to make sure we didn't have any errors. I heard that strings needed to settle for a bit. I let the Uke sit, and a few weeks went by because I got busy. I went back and tuned it, and no difference. I check the tuning pegs and they're very lose. I tried to screw them back in, but nothing worked. I guess 7 months isn't bad, but I still have my $100 electric starter guitar that I got 10 years ago when I began to play guitar, and that still works.The positives would be, as I stated above, it didn't feel cheap. The sound is beautiful, it tuned easily, and the small ukulele guide it came with really helped. Inside it tells you the standard tuning of a ukulele, gives you a free uke tuning app for your phone, and features a few songs for you to learn as well a basic chord chart.I will rebuy this again considering it lasted 7 months, but I hope this won't be an every 7-month occurrence.Note: This was my first time restringing a guitar. I used to live near a lot of guitar shops, who usually do that stuff for free, so I would take the guitars there. My friend has experience in restringing guitars though. It is likely we messed up, but I don't think tuning pegs are supposed to be this loose, even after screwing them on tighter.