Features:

  • A truly traditional, quality-constructed Mahogany Soprano ukulele in a rich satin finish that accents the woodgrain
  • The All-Mahogany construction delivers a tone that is bright, yet warm, full-bodied sound with enough volume to stand out while playing with friends
  • The KA-15S is well-suited for classroom use, practicing, and acoustic performance. It is the instrument of choice for schools - More people learn to play on a Kala than any other ukulele brand. The KA-15S came into the world in 2005 as the answer to a high-quality, affordable, entry-level ukulele and still remains the unrivaled ukulele in its class
  • Kala ukuleles are played by some of the most renowned players around the world including: Twenty One Pilots, Vance Joy, and Zac Brown
  • Comes with a beautiful Walnut fingerboard and bridge, Mahogany neck, 12 brass frets, GraphTech NuBone and Aquila Super Nylgut strings from Italy
It is very durable and the Aquila string resonate so beautifully. It also stays in tune very well

I am an elementary music educator. I Bought 25 of these for a classroom set to use with 3rd and 4th grade after owning this model and brand for the past 2 years. It is very durable and the Aquila string resonate so beautifully. It also stays in tune very well, which is SO important when using them with an ensemble or class setting. Highly recommended for beginners.

OMG!!!! L-O-V-E IT!!!!!!!!

I've wanted another ukulele for years now, did a TON of video watching, review reading, etc, & dollar for dollar, as for a uke I can afford anyway, this one always came out ahead. They make another similar priced one that instead of saying "KALA" on the headstock, says "MAKALA", but they're both made by KALA. They have a vid on you tube where the MAKALA is put up against a 1920's vintage Martin soprano, & I don't hear enough difference to say so. I was hemming & hawing between the MAKALA & KALA, & finally opted for the KALA, as I love the way it looks like a vintage uke from the old tin pan alley days, when I would have loved to have lived. I just can't praise this little beauty enough, & photos just don't do it justice! Most photos come out also looking like the headstock wood is a totally different color than the body. It's not. They're both pretty much the same. :)

Only $53???!!! A semi-professional guitarists perspective...

Previously I wrote a review regarding the Makala Shark Bridge Soprano Ukulele. Unfortunately, with that particular uke, it arrived in very disappointing fashion. The workmanship [or lack thereof] and quality control issues forced us returning it, and spending an additional $10 for the Kala Mahogany Soprano Ukulele. Let me just say that the differences between these two Ukuleles is truly like night and day… …for those of you who DIDN'T read my previous review, I will say that I've been a guitarist for over 25 years. I have a lot of experience in the construction, setup, and playing of acoustic and electric stringed instruments. Specifically I am a rock and metal player, but cull experience from nearly every genre of music. My wife and I were searching for an inexpensive beginner's ukulele for a 5 year old girl to use for her first foray into music. Upon ordering the ukes, we had them delivered to us so that I could go over them, make sure that they were properly constructed and setup prior to sending to her. Being that I have given MANY lessons in my day, and have encountered many different instruments, I know that THE most common reason that a student gives up on a stringed instrument is if it is poorly set-up [i.e., physically hard to play]. NO stringed instrument should require a Herculean amount of strength. The Kala Ukulele arrived very well packed…by both Amazon and from the company. Upon taking the ukulele out of it's second inner most packing box, I could immediately see that it was in fact made of mahogany [intentional mislabeling of construction wood is an unfortunate part of inexpensive guitars and stringed instruments]. Not only is this actual mahogany, but it is a very excellent example of mahogany. The wood is a deep shade of brown with a dark black grain running throughout. The pores of the wood [a tale tale sign of true mahogany] are very visible and clearly indicate that this is an excellent example of mahogany. The fretwork is EXEMPLARY. I've seen $400-$500 guitars have fretwork not as good as this. The brass frets are all properly seated and well finished. For anyone familiar with guitars and stringed instruments, fret ends [the point at which your hand makes contact up and down the neck] can be a very troubling point of contact with inexpensive instruments. However, these frets have been manicured to a level that there is no sensation whatsoever. Another point of emphasis: the nut. The nut, in my estimation is one of THE most important parts of any stringed instrument. A nut should be properly cut as to allow the strings to move without binding [binding creates issues with tuning and intonation] and the nut slots should be cut as so to allow the strings a downward trajectory into the tuning machines [maximizing resonance and projection of the instrument]. Again, this instrument is exemplary as it relates to the nut. The nut is a plastic "bone facsimile" and it is properly cut with an attention to detail I could never have expected at this price point. Tuning CAN be a bit tedious with this uke…the tuners are VERY pedestrian, but at $53 [most tuning machine sets cost more than this ukulele did] one shouldn't expect them to be more than utilitarian. Please be prepared for the tuning machines to slip a bit when tuning…it's very easy to get impatient, but if you take your time it will get to pitch. Once you've tuned the ukulele, as with any stringed instrument, it will be important to stretch the strings and then retune at least two additional times before optimal tuning stability will be achieved. Upon tuning the ukulele, and strumming some chords, I quickly realized what a gem this truly is. The uke is dynamic, resonant, and truly is the sum of all the aforementioned parts. Single notes sing out and have great harmonic content. Chords ring and project very well. I have played every note on the fingerboard and none of them are dead or have any intonation issues whatsoever. To put this in perspective, I just bought myself a guitar three weeks ago. It cost me $2,500. It is the epitome of modern guitar construction and is arguably the greatest stringed instrument I've ever played. But this $53 Kala Uke has a home, in my home, right next to that guitar. I'm not comparing the two; I'm simply saying that the playability is such that I WILL be buying myself one once this goes to our granddaughter. The "dollars per smile" ratio on this thing is incomprehensible. I can not say enough about this Ukulele and if you're in the market for a Uke PLEASE do yourself a favor and buy one. You will NOT be disappointed, nor will you regret it for one single solitary minute.

tl;dr : Yes, this is the ukulele you been looking for.

Let me just start off by saying I am by no means a professional in the field of music nor am I an ambitious music student studying to become the next Jake Shimabukuro. I'm just a guitar player (and not a good one) who wept and wept because I could not play the dreaded... barre chords. That's right, I wanted to learn to play the uke because my fingers are short and my hand is weak (that sounded weird). Thus. I began my journey to find the most awesome, chick-magnet, best-bang-for-your-buck ukulele on Earth. I searched on Google, hunted in Reddit, and crept through online blogs to obtain the answer. And after my extensive trip throughout the corners of Internet, it was clear... I just needed to find the highest rated ukulele on Amazon. All jokes aside, this is a rough estimate of why i bought the Kala KA-15S Ukulele. It had great reviews across multiple sites, it was made by a reputable company, and most importantly... it was pretty cheap for a beginner ukulele. I was looking for a quality instrument that I could practice with, but also inexpensive enough that I wouldn't feel guilty about it if I failed to learn. My first impression of the ukulele was the beautiful mahogany wood. I picked it up and held it close to my face... and sniffed it. Yes, I smelled it okay? Stop judging. Anyways, I started to play random notes/chords and sang "Riptide" to my SO. Was I off-key? Probably. Did I sound terrible? Maybe. But did my fingertips hurt? NOPE! I couldn't say that about my guitar, Yamaha FG700s, if you were wondering. I did eventually learn the basic chords like C G Am F and some barre chords like B and Bm later that night. And coming from a guitar, these strings were softer than a freshly baked Krispy Kreme Doughnut straight outta of the oven. No kidding. I could actually play simple barre chords for the first time ever AND I didn't cut through another layer of calluses on my fingertips. BOOYAH! (cyborg anyone?) In conclusion, Yes. This is the ukulele you have been searching for. Whether you are an experienced player or a beginner like myself, the Kala KA-15S really does stand out among the rest. I highly, highly recommend this without a doubt. Now if you excuse me, I gotta sing a special song to a special lady. Wish me luck :) Quick note: Tuning this particular ukulele is easy; I personally use an electronic tuner. But the A string seems to go out of tune more often than the other 3 strings. Not sure if that's normal, but just wanted to give y'all a heads up.

A Great Starter Ukulele!

I got interested in ukulele playing after strumming a bit and learning All of Me, and decided to go and buy one. Ths price of this was excellent, and it arrived in great condition. It did not come with a case. I have not had any problems at all with this ukulele yet. I simply go onto ukutabs.com and find tabs to my favorite songs, and spend a bit of time going through it. The sound isn't as rich as some of the more expensive ukuleles, but this doesn't bother me at all. I have learned really quite quickly and it has become a great stress reliever and source of fun with friends. It is incredibly easy to learn (start with the Am, C, F, and G chords, you can play many many songs with just these 4) and I have not gone back. I just picked up guitar because of this ukulele! It might be worth noting that this ukulele is smaller (soprano!). Anyone with bigger hands (or anyone with a desire for a deeper sound) might want to consider buying a larger ukulele. WILL RECOMMEND TO FRIENDS

Great uke!

Love this little uke. I'm not a pro musician or anything but it sounds great. It's a fun relaxing instrument to play around with. The app is pretty cool, its only free for a few days then you have to pay $3 a month to use it. But its a pretty amazing app! When I get better playing the basic cords i might be tempted to pay for the subscription. The app is like guitar hero, you can pick from hundreds of songs and play along. You can adjust speed of the songs to fit your skill level and it shows you what cords to play and when. It also shows you what strum pattern to use on most songs which is pretty awesome! The app is so amazing that it actually recognizes which notes/cords you're playing and will give you points if you hit the right cord. When you're done with a song it'll also give you a score and even give you an estimate on how accurate with the cords you were per cord, so you can keep trying to beat your previous score! Minor update: After about a month and a half my uke barely needs tuning now. I used to have to tune it daily, now it seems to just stay in tune! I'm a little sad though since i liked tuning it hahaha. Oh well! Starting to learn new songs and still playing on it daily. 11/21/18 - minor update Just thought id pop back and do another update. I LOVE THIS UKULELE! I've since bought a Aklot Tenor ukulele and still end up coming back to my little soprano kala because the sound is just as nice, but the little soprano is so much easier to get the cords. I love the sound and i rarely have to tune it now, maybe once every other week and its usually minor. I went from 15-30 minutes a day playing on it back in July, 4 months later there are some nights i'm playing on it for 2-3 hours looking up songs to learn!

A nice uke to learn on

Bought for the wife after a trip to Maui. A nice uke to learn on. Holds key decently, but as with any stringed instrument, you will need to tune before each use. Not much, but you should at least put in the minute it takes to proper sound. As for the quality of sound, I’d say fair to good. But, lets be honest here. Your not getting high end sound because your not dropping $200.00 + either. And its doubtful most people would be able to appreciate that kind of commitment until they’ve put in some time on one anyway. Kala’s a decent brand. They make many ukes of different levels. This one is well worth the money. Shipping was fast, and it came well protected.

Very nice starter product

Our daughter plays several musical instruments, several self taught. She expressed interest in a ukelule and we wanted one that wasn't professional quality for hundreds of dollars, but wasn't junk either. This is not a toy. It is made of wood and sounds nice after tuning. In just a few hours, using the apps, she was able to start playing some basic chords and simple songs. This isn't something a professional would use, but is a very good value for only 50 dollars. It has a case to keep it safe. I think it is something she will continue to learn to play. I was pleased with it right out of the box. Good product for anyone with some musical aptitude.

Such a fun instrument to learn!

I'm new to playing music and this is has been wonderful! I did end up using Cynthia Lin from YouTube more for beginner-esque things like strumming and learning chords and songs. The app has only been useful for tuning thus far (I'm about a month in). For me, the video's in the app don't show a good enough angle, and the person playing doesn't say a word. No explanation of finger position or anything and I needed a lot more hand holding. Cynthia Lin is the way to go! I didn't even know how the strum! The Kala Ukulele designers should get with her!

Satisfied with Kala Uke

My purpose for buying a ukulele: I'm a young adult looking to learn the instrument for fun and to potentially write songs with. This uke is a great starter uke. You have to tune it pretty much every occasion you play but that doesn't bother me and it doesn't take long to tune, either. I DON'T like the Kala Tuner app, but I found another app that works REALLY WELL. It is: GuitarTuna. The gig bag isn't meant to protect. I found the little pamphlet to be helpful. Evaluate your purpose for getting a uke before buying one. If you are expecting the best quality you're gonna be paying for it. This is a decent uke for those who want a new hobby and to try something new.

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