Antonio Carvalho "BS" Baritone Ukulele

This is a remarkable instrument with a truly excellent tone and sustain. (The latter not being a characteristic of many ukuleles although, to be fair, it is more common with baritones). The sound is bright without being thin, 'tinkly' or irritating. As you'd expect with a baritone, the tuning is DGBE as opposed to GCEA. There's no reason why you couldn't restring using GCEA if you wanted to and these days an increasing number of baritone ukes do come with this tuning. The instrument is very well made with great attention having been paid to quality and craftsmanship The finish seems to be bare wood. If there is a finish on it, then it is exceptionally thin and invisible. This may put some people off if they prefer a gloss or satin or a more 'blingy' finish. It needn't do, but personal preference is just that - something you either like or you don't. All woods are solid without any laminates. The neck has been nicely edged in dark (or stained) wood and the back has been beautifully chamfered around all unbound edges. As for playability I can only praise this uke as being pure joy to play. The action is low without any buzzing or rattling. The strings as fitted seem to be of good quality. There is no truss rod which isn't unusual in baritones although some makers (eg: Pono) do fit them as standard.Now let's look at probably the most unusual feature of this instrument ... the way the strings are attached at the bridge/saddle. There's no reason why you can't use the traditional method when you restring this uke, but when it arrives it takes a few minutes to figure out how everything works. One of the photos I've attached shows a close-up, so look at that as you try to follow my notes. The ends of the strings are tied off INSIDE the body of the instrument underneath the saddle. At first I thought you would have to reach inside when restringing and push each new string up and out - but that wouldn't work without becoming unbelievably tricky. Then it struck me that you would need to push each string DOWN into the uke and then make sure enough goes through so that you can reach the end as it appears under the soundhole. Then simply tie a single (or more securely) a double knot in the end and pull the string back until it sits tightly up against the underside of the saddle. Then pass it over the back of the saddle and through the 'traditional' hole before going on to attach the other end to the tuning head. Obviously, you would have to do all the saddle-end preparations first or you could start limiting your freedom to reach inside to grab all the strings.When written down like that, it sounds klunky and awkward, but I suspect that this will be a very good method for attaching strings.So - my overall opinion is that this is a really excellent instrument that is well worth the cost. Played against a Pono baritrone, this Carvalho is every bit as good and probably better in many respects, especially tone.In the attached photos I illustrate the fact that on my instrument, the saddle/bridge plate doesn't seem to fit 100% against the soundboard. At one end there looks like what appears to be a tiny, almost imperceptible gap. However, after having owned and played the Carvalho for some time, there are no signs of any problems so my 'niggle' may in fact be based upon an erroneous impression of how the saddle sits onto the body.

We bought this instrument for my partner who wasn't getting on with his tenor uke - he has arthritis in his hand and his fingers needed more room on the fretboard. Buying an instrument online without trying it out is always a gamble, but this one has paid off: we're delighted with how nice it sounds! The solid wood gives it a very pleasant, sweet and mellow tone. It is beautifully designed using the natural wood grain, nicely made with no sharp edges, very lightweight, a pleasure to hold. It's surprisingly easy to play, with very soft action even at the higher frets. For example, you can bar fret 9 or 10 with minimum effort, and use a capo if you like (it doesn't work well with smaller ukuleles). I kept wanting to borrow it so my partner has just ordered another one for me. And lastly, my mother, a former classical cellist, has fallen in love with the sound. She now wants to learn to play the uke so we're getting one for her, too.

This is a truly lovely Baritone Uke. Good sustain and the sweet mellow tone I associate with Koa wood the grain is quite close (this is European Koa) unlike the Hawaiian Koa which is wide grained.It is very nicely finished in a satin finish and it truly has an organic feel to it when you hold it (some finishes are so smooth and glossy they almost feel plastic) it has a nice narrow neck that makes fretting the wider frets easy, comes with Aquila bio nylon string which sound and play lovely.The Bridge "knut" is slightly angled to give better intonation and the strings are though body (you thread the string though the bridge into the body cavity tie a knot then and pull tight, then loop around the bridge and affix to the tuners) and so this will help with the sustain and give better string to sound board transfer so could make it a little louder also the strings actually pull the bridge onto the body and so the bridge will never pull offThe fret board is bound African black wood and just looks and feels like quality.There is a hand finished feel to this uke every thing is smooth and the edges are gently rounded, when you pick it up you don't want to let it goand when you play it you never want to put it down.

suono molto buono