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| Moderated by: Tony Provencher, Richard Hefner |
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| Review of Oscar Schmidt OU2E | Rate Topic |
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| Posted: Mon Jan 2nd, 2006 06:02 am |
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1st Post |
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shigthenewt Approved 
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Originally posted here: http://www.ezfolk.com/forums/view_topic.php?id=878&forum_id=18 About a week ago I received my OU2E from Musician's Friend. I've ordered from them before, and haven't had any major problems. This time was no different aside from the fact that my uke was meant to come with a free gift in the form of Jumpin' Jim's Joy of Uke volume 1 VHS tape that was later cancelled and apparently they don't offer a replacement item (supposedly because the free gifts are from the manufacturer). I decided not to fuss about it mostly because I don't have a VCR.  So on to the uke itself. The concert size is new to me and I've taken to it much faster than the bari and soprano I already have. I think this is the right size for me. This uke is really loud acoustic with a good tone and after passing it through some guitar effects into an amp I've been really psyched to play some rock tunes loudly! The construction I have found to be rather sturdy for a $70 uke (regularly 129.99 MSRP). But as for the wood, it does appear to be a mahogany laminate (someone correct me if I'm wrong) but it does look very pretty. The rosette is simple, and it does look nice until you look closely and you can see that it's not finished very well. The fretboard is clean and well stained a deep black with plastic dots inlayed in the 5th, 7th, 10th, 12th and 14th frets. There are also dots on the side of the fretboard for easy viewing while you are playing. The fret pins (or whatever the wire bits are called) are not very well dressed, and although they don't draw blood they can be kind of painful when sliding. The electronics seem to be fairly well made and produce a nice clean sound when plugged into my Honeytone amp or through a tape deck into my computer. I've even used the controls on the side of the uke to give myself an overdriven sound... ROCK! One of my concerns when I first opened the box was that the 9V battery that is used to power the electronics was rattling around inside the uke!  The bouncing battery seemed to dislodge a sticky clip thing that was keeping the wires in line, but I found that it was just too large of a clip to stick to anything well. The next problem I ran into is that the 9V connects to a standard wire plug (like you would find inside of many children's toys). The leads to the plug are not very long, so I had to remove the strings and then it took about a half an hour of fiddling with the battery and trying to manipulate it while it's INSIDE the sound hole in order to plug it in. The clip that holds the battery is much easier to navigate, but still why on earth didn't they devise an easier way to plug in the dang battery? Hopefully it will be a while before I have to replace it again. Anyway, after tuning up and plugging in, everything checked out okay and the electronics don't seem to interfere with the acoustic sound. The tuners were open geared (un-sealed) and crap. This was the most disappointing thing on this uke. I have now switched them out for the tuners from my old cheapo soprano (which had rather nice sealed geared tuners on it - go figure) and now I'm happy with it. Overall this is a rather nice uke, but I wouldn't spend more than the $70 I've spent on it. The tuners were horrid and the stock strings were... wierd  I'll be replacing the Vendi (another brand under the US Music company which is the parent company of Oscar Schmidt and in fact a number of others) brand strings as soon as possible. Ultimately I like it and I'm keeping it. I can't neccesarily recommend it to anyone but if you understand the problems with it and can get it for under 80 bucks then go for it, it's fun to play around with. Perhaps one of these days I'll order something nice like a Bushman Jenny and have electronics pre-installed, but for the time being and in fact for a long while this little cheap-ish uke will do me just fine. Edit: I've just put a 1.6meg mp3 of my new uke overdriven on my personal site here: Edit to the Edit: I've removed this mp3 in favor of the one in my post below. Edit 2: I don't know whether it is just the stock strings or if the nut was just cut wrong, but I've now got a severe buzz happening on the "A" string. I do know that the buzzing is caused by the string having too much play in the nut. Its extremely annoying although I think with normal strings it will straighten itself out. Also, the electronics box thingy came off on one side after a recent bout of extra warmth in the house. When I got the uke I was trying to figure out how to plug in the dang battery without removing the strings and I had attempted to remove the electronics by unscrewing it, only to find out that you couldn't pull the electronics out without unplugging things inside first (or potentially damaging pulling). Let me tell you, don't use the crappy battery that comes with the uke, plug in your favorite alkaline. The free one doesn't last long and will cause you headaches as you attempt to replace it (it took me nearly a half an hour). I'm thinking of using some kind of threaded metal gromet or something so that I can use machine screws instead of the wood screws that came with it. Perhaps it would be a more permenant solution. Before I attempt to repair the screw holes and re-attach the electronics I'm going to try to remove them enough to lengthen the leads for the battery though. I'm still pretty happy with the uke despite it's problems. Hopefully I won't have to get the nut fixed, but if I do I'll have had a fairly small investment for a very playable and relatively long-lasting uke. I'll probably still want another though Edit 3: Well, after a couple of bucks at Radio Shack for some 9V battery leads and some shrink tubing I've constructed an extention to the battery connector that works well. I'm still dealing with the electronics coming off, but it's not nearly as noticable now. The first string still buzzes and I'm not up to the task to fixing it currently. I really think I should have bought a Jenny, or perhaps one of those cool new Uke Ellie's. I suppose there's always my birthday! hehe Last edited on Mon Jan 9th, 2006 09:11 am by shigthenewt |
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| Posted: Mon Jan 2nd, 2006 07:54 am |
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2nd Post |
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mikelewis Approved 
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I bought an OU2E from Musician's Friend. When I received it, I noticed the back of the uke was half unglued, so I returned it. I ended up getting a Bushman Jenny Concert Uke and I'm real happy with it.
____________________ Michael David Lewis - ezFolk.com site Michael David Lewis - Official Website Michael David Lewis on MySpace |
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| Posted: Wed Jan 4th, 2006 06:54 pm |
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3rd Post |
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shigthenewt Approved
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Yeah, I think that if someone is looking for a new uke, they can do much better than this one. I'm rather upset about it now, but I think with some time at the luthier it can be saved. I'm currently looking for another uke (UAS setting in) but also considering some guitars this time. I think a new uke will come first. For all those that would like to hear, I have a .mp3 of this uke available here: OU2E Test Last edited on Mon Jan 9th, 2006 09:09 am by shigthenewt |
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| Posted: Mon Jul 24th, 2006 07:45 am |
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4th Post |
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absurdus_delirium Approved 
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Hey Shig, I ve been thinking of gettinf the OU14 that has passive electronics. I am quite the handyman but I won't have to wrestle any 9V batteries with passive electronics, will I?PLUS, absurdus Last edited on Mon Jul 24th, 2006 07:48 am by absurdus_delirium ____________________ http://ezfolk.com/audio/absurdus_delirium i guess, the more u like music, the more music u like! |
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| Posted: Mon Jul 24th, 2006 06:58 pm |
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5th Post |
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shigthenewt Approved
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You wouldn't need a battery with passive electronics. However, if you look closely at the link that Will talked about in the other thread (http://drumandguitar.stores.yahoo.net/osscouideluk.html) It mentions an ACTIVE EQ, which would need a battery and is probably identical to the one in my OU2E. Strangely enough, the link you originally posted in that same thread does state that it is a passive system and since it is a link to Oscar Schmidt's own site I would trust that.
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| Posted: Tue Apr 8th, 2008 12:02 am |
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6th Post |
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folker Approved
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Hey all. I am fairly new the Ukulele world and was wondering a couple of things about the OU14 by OS. What is an active eq and is this a fair instrument to get involved with? I am considering buying one and any info I can get woul be greatly appreciated. Cheers. Folker.
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| Posted: Tue Apr 8th, 2008 02:24 am |
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7th Post |
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Will Approved 
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folker wrote: Hey all. I am fairly new the Ukulele world and was wondering a couple of things about the OU14 by OS. What is an active eq and is this a fair instrument to get involved with? I am considering buying one and any info I can get woul be greatly appreciated. Cheers. Folker. I own the sunburst mdoel of the Oscar Schmidt OU-14E, a concert-sized acoustic electric uke. It has a sound hole and hollow body, so it will also play without amplification. It has a passive (NOT active) pickup, which means it has no pre-amp or on-board tone controls (that would be included with an active EQ); the piezo pickup is a metal strip installed under the bridge saddle that detects string vibrations and converts them to an electric signal, wired to a jack at the bottom of the uke that doubles as a strap button. You would plug a 1/4" jack cable from there to your instrument amp. The OU-14E is styled after the Washburn "Idol" electric guitar, and it has a maple electric-guitar style neck; comes in sunburst or jet black. I replaced the strings with a set of Aquila Nylgut strings, which sound much better. I think it has a nice sound both plugged in and unplugged. The OU-14E sells for about $100 - $125 mail order. The dealer I ordered from still sells it for $100: http://drumandguitar.stores.yahoo.net/osscouideluk.html A leather mandolin strap works well for a uke (guitar straps are too big and bulky): http://www.elevation-music.com/plwalemast.html Here's a $61 Johnson 15-watt electric guitar amp with a distortion circuit: http://www.elevation-music.com/johnson.html Or the $60 Behringer 15-watt acoustic (no distortion circuit) amp (I have this one): http://www.ezfolk.com/mf/guitar-amps/Behringer_ULTRACOUSTIC_AT108_Acoustic_Combo_Amp.html  Last edited on Tue Apr 8th, 2008 02:33 am by Will ____________________ Will http://ezfolk.com/audio/bands/297/ Loose Change & Friends http://ezfolk.com/audio/bands/245/ http://loosechangeandfriends.com The Earth Tones http://ezfolk.com/audio/bands/337/ A Bunch Of Coconuts http://abunchofcoconuts.com |
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