This baritone is a nice looking, sleek and handsome instrument. It’s name, the Kala KA-CT-SSRW-BG-C, is the exact opposite - ridiculously long and cumbersome! It stands for Kala (KA), Contour (CT), Solid spruce and rosewood (SSRW), Baritone gloss (BG), Cutaway (C). It seems a shame for such a pretty baritone to be lumbered with such a name, but there you go, at least there’s some sense in it. As I’m writing this I am 46 years old and feeling every day of it and so there’s no chance I’ll ever remember that, so I’m just going to go with the contour series solid spruce and rosewood baritone ukulele.

This Kala has a nice Venetian cutaway shape, so called as it resembles the curve of a gondola. Actually, I just totally made that up, but it sounds plausible! Certainly it looks graceful and the combination of pale, good quality solid spruce on the top and the rich brown solid rosewood back and sides makes a classic combination. Separated as they are by purple heart binding and it, to me, looks great. The KA-CT-SSRW-BG-C has a slotted headstock, but it’s nice and slim, which adds a point of difference and stops it being too heavy. The soundhole decoration has an ‘eclipse’ theme, with purple heart and mahogany used, which is another attractive, yet fairly subtle visual addition. I’m not sure this ‘eclispses’ the lunar eclispe theme on the decoration on an aNueNue Moon Bird, but if anything, this homage shows that Kala are looking up for inspiration in their new models, rather than simply, ‘more of the same’.

The contour series from Kala is aptly named as the curves are very apparent. For a start, there’s a comfort edge to increase your comfort when your strumming arm rests against the edge (you’d never have guessed!). And while the vast majority of ukuleles have plenty of curves, this Kala has a larger than normal bottom bout, and a very nicely shaped bridge that just adds an extra layer of curve to the contour series.

Strung DGBE, with Aquila strings, the KA-CT-SSRW-BG-C makes use of that spruce top, and its traditonal brightness, to give a clearly defined notes and enough clarity to hear your melodies, while the bigger ‘bottom’ gives plenty of warmth and depth to the mix. It’s my kind of baritone, with the tuning and body size giving the lows and the wood combination giving definition and even tone. Nicely balanced I’d say.

This baritone uke has a 38mm nut width and has a truss rod. The latter you might not need to adjust, but its a) there if you need it, and b) really helps me when I’m setting it up (and therefore, you can probably just leave that to me!)

With that bigger body, the Kala Contour series could be a pain to fit into a hard case, but it is supplied with an good quality, well padded gig bag - which is handy as that definitely fits! For other extras, like strap button fitting, scroll to the bottom of the page where you’ll find standard ‘add-ons’ you can easily add to your basket along side the Kala KA-CT-SSRW-BG-C baritone ukulele.

If you click additional info below you'll find two video demos of this instrument. One, 'as it comes' with the standard Aquila strings, and another using one with Aquila and the other with aNueNue Blue Moon baritone strings.