This is the ‘Oli L1-BMG, an all solid mango baritone ukulele with gloss finish, a great example of the brand that’s been thoughtfully created by the team at the Ukulele Site in Hawaii. They’ve used an Indonesian factory to put together their ideas and benefit from their vast experience, to produce a rich sounding, lively, smooth and beautifully playable baritone uke.

There’s a lovely warmth from the solid mango body, accentuated by the DGBE tuning and it’s natural richness. While that warm character is prominent, the lattice bracing, thin top and fluorocarbon B and E strings all combine to counter the deep bass with some crispness and definition - so it never feels overly warm and allows you to carry your melodies nicely without being overwhelmed by the bass notes. I can find with baritones, when they’re extremely dark sounding, that they can excel with strumming, but feel a little lacklustre when picked or using chord melody. But with the ‘Oli L1-BMG, you get just the right amount of creamy richness, punctuated by enough defined punch to be particularly effective when picked too.

I love the playability of the L1-BMG too, with its fairly shallow C-shaped neck profile and 37mm nut width. For me it’s just right - with enough room to fret cleanly, while not being so wide as to need much of a stretch. Certainly, I made a video demo of this model, then immediately afterwards another uke with 38mm nut and even that 1mm difference was noticeable. This one just had the comfort factor just about perfect. Especially with a satin finish to the neck (with the rest of the body, a brilliant executed gloss).

The L1-BMG, like other ‘Oli ukuleles, is fitted with Ko’Olau Aho strings, with wound D and G, paired with beautifully smooth B and E strings (fluorocarbon). These strings are a real winner, the perfect combination as far as I am concerned, for this baritone ukulele. It also has superb rear-facing Gotoh UPT geared tuners which are at the top of the tuning tree in quality terms.

There are plenty of subtle, but attractive, visual features too, like the bound fingerboard and it’s combination side/position markers, and the shaped end of the fingerboard and soundhole rosette. That silky richness is directed towards the player with a side sound port as well.

At the bottom of the page, there’s a series of optional extras you can add on which are standard on every ukulele play on the website. You can ignore the case/bag options as it comes with a good quality semi-rigid case, and the low G fitting (as this has DGBE tuning with low G AND low D), but you might want to add a strap button or two.

You’ll find a video demo of this model if you click additional information below. Now, you can also search YouTube and find the Ukulele Site guys doing a much better job of it, but if you want to hear what the ‘Oli L1-BMG sounds like in the hands of an average player, then you can watch mine!