Oscar Schmidt OU26T

Last April, I was on the Big Island of Hawaii. While shopping in Hilo, I walked into what I thought was a rather unusual establishment, Agasi Furniture and Music. In the back of the furniture store was a music section with a rather good selection of ukulele's. The store wasn't busy, and one of the owners spent a great deal of time talking to me and didn't seem overly troubled when I picked up rather expensive, vintage ukuleles and banged them around.

The standout for me was a used Kamaka 6 string tenor, which I could not hope to afford, even though it was quite a bit less then a new one. Then I picked up an Oscar Schmidt OU26T, a Chinese 6 string tenor which I could afford, and I almost bought it, but decided to check eBay and maybe buy it when I planned on being back in Hilo (we were staying in Kona) sometime before we left. Of course, we never made it back, and it bummed me out the whole flight home.

With the handmade strap
from Anacapa Ukulele

So I surfed eBay, and was about to buy one. Then I noticed that the Oscar Schmidt was available for my credit card bonus points. The majority of those points I earned while I was in Hawaii, so it made sense to use some for something that I really wanted but didn't buy myself.

Six strings-should be easy

When it got to my house, I was totally bummed. It sounded utterly like crap, and I couldn't figure out why. It was strung in some funky way, and I tried tuning the strings in different ways, but nothing worked. Finally, I found some good pictures of the Kamaka online, and noticed that it was strung completely different then mine. A new ukulele shop had opened here in Ventura, Anacapa Ukulele, and I brought the ukulele in so they could have a look at it. Immediately, they figured out the problem. It was strung totally wrong. It wasn't even close, strings were out of order and crossed over one another, as if the person stringing didn't have a clue as to what the uke was supposed to sound like. They recommended I buy a new set and string it again. Anacapa had one set of the 6 strings left, and I bought them and a handmade ukulele strap. I took it all home to string my uke over.

I have some experience with guitar stringing, and wasn't anticipating having any trouble stringing a uke. Six strings, geared enclosed tuning machines, seemed pretty straightforward to me. The first thing was remembering the order of the strings. Some pictures on the internet solved that. Then I noticed that I needed to knot the ends myself. No problem, I found a video on You Tube.

What I didn't know was that nylon strings take forever to stretch out properly. For two weeks, I couldn't keep the uke in tune at all. I kept tuning it and tuning it. The two A strings were a nightmare, trying to get them an octave apart and stay in tune just didn't seem to be happening. Back to Anacapa, who explained to me that it takes about two to three weeks for the strings to stretch out properly. So I kept at it, and sure enough, the strings stayed in tune.

It still sounded like crap.

Initially, I just thought it was my playing, but I'd pick up my old Regal that I bought on the Goodwill Auction site and I wasn't playing that bad. More internet research told me that the wood itself needed to settle, and that could take some time. So I kept on playing it, and after a few months the sound become better. Now it sounds pretty good, actually. I've pulled it out for the first time in about a month, and it's still pretty much in tune, and the sound is getting brighter.

The Oscar Schmidt website says that this is a mahogany tenor size ukulele with a satin finish. I found the finish to be a bit rough. The uke seems a bit on the heavy side as well. Everything else, though, seems reasonably well made, and I especially like the binding on the fretboard. The weight means that I don't feel like I'm going to break it anytime soon.

The main thing about a 6 string uke is that the sound is much fuller, and that's what I appreciated when I first picked one up in Hawaii. The 6 string Kamaka sounded amazing and I seriously thought about plunking down the cash and feeling the wrath of my wife, but couldn't do it. I played around with the 8 string uke, but to my ears, that sounded crowded-and I was playing a $1400 Kamaka, so if I couldn't get that to sound good, I figured the 8 string wasn't going to be for me.

Until such time that I can afford a Kamaka, or I become a much better ukulele player, the Oscar Schmidt fills the niche of the six string. I have it tuned gCEA, with the C string doubled an octave apart and the A string doubled and an octave apart. Unlike the Yamaha Guitalele, which is tuned like a guitar but up a fourth, the OU26T still sounds like a uke.

If you check on eBay, you can find them for around $100, a price that I'd be willing to pay.