Martin T1K Koa Tenor Ukulele Natural

This is certainly a well made ukulele. Martin is a serious player in the acoustic instrument game. Sound and playability were there, but the instrument had no soul. Very boring to look at and to hold. Also came with a high quality case.

My ring finger on my left hand is stiffening up. Can't play my guitars. Can play a ukulele. The Martin T1-K, looks, sounds, well made, and the cost is reasonable. The soft case ( bag) is not sufficient. Bought a "Gator "hard case. Resonates very loud. Ordered it on line. When it arrived, checked it. It has a beautiful quilted grain. Dark fretboard. Like I said. Looks, sounds and is made well. Of course, It's a "Martin ". I do have a D-35 and a soprano uke too. Steve.

Beautiful solid Koa well engineered by Martin. Beautiful tone

Depending on your finances and how "into it" you are, this could be a starter, a step up or an lifetime keeper. I think it's a good value any way you want to approach it. There is nothing fancy here, just quality materials and capable workmanship. An example would be the tuners, which feature kind of cheap looking plastic buttons, but they operate Grover tuning machines that are superb. As many people know, Martins -- whether ukes or guitars -- come with fairly high action. They figure you can lower it if you want to. I took mine to a local guitar tech, who shaved the saddle to lower the string height a bit, smoothed some rough fret ends and installed strap buttons, all for about the price a couple of fast-food meals. Despite these little projects, this Martin arrived from the factory set up better than a couple of higher-end ukes I bought through respected online uke sellers that promised great setups. The T1K comes with a pretty decent gig bag that would probably suffice if you live in an area without temperature or humidity extremes. If the indoor humidity drops below 40% often, you'll probably want to invest in a hard case. This is solid koa and won't take kindly to wide swings in temperature or relative humidity. Jim

Perfect build… no flaws!

I will use this for practice, learning, and my own enjoyment. The tone is very nice for the koa wood, which I realize is not as warm as the mahogany wood. I just wish that the tone was louder. It does have a clear tone and the only buzzes seem to be of my own making, and when I inadvertently mute a string by just touching the string instead of pressing the finger down solidly enough on the string. Pleased with the quality. Seems very solidly constructed by a company with many years of experience in building quality instruments.