With the ‘Oli L1-SP-BMG-P, you have to remind yourself that it’s a really rewarding, beautifully voiced baritone ukulele that needs to be played. Because it’s so lovely to look at, it can be tempting to do just that… gaze at it! The mango grain shows through the purple stain really nicely, giving colour and vibrancy, while retaining the striking patterns of the natural wood. The choice of maple is a lovely contrast too, framing everything beautifully.

These ‘Oli ukuleles are made in Indonesia in a very well respected facility. The brand is the brainchild of Andrew Kitakis and his team at The Ukulele Site in Hawaii, and they’ve given everything from their experience as the US’s top ukulele retailer to give ukulele players everything they could want. A smooth, C-shaped neck. A side soundport. A 37mm nut with. Brilliant DGBE tuned fluorocarbon strings with a wound D and unwound G - giving the perfect mix of punch from the D and mellowness from the G, the best of both worlds for me. Add in excellent Gotoh UTP tuners, a fine hard case and a radiussed fretboard and you’ve got a brilliant, modern package in this L1-SP-BMG-P baritone ukulele.

Visually the purple is the star but there are lots of lovely smaller features too, the rope purfling, maple soundhole rosette, shaped end of the fretboard and subtle logo on the headstock. I do have a story about the colour though…

I had an exclusive model in preparation with the factory that make ‘Oli, for another brand that uses that facility. I had asked for a solid mango, stained instrument, in purple. During a visit to the factory the sample of the colour, stained on a square of mango, was left out. Andrew Kitakis spotted this and announced on a social media post that they’d be making ukes in purple. That was my sample! Anyway, no hard feeling as a) I like this baritone a lot and b) they got there faster than my World of Ukes exclusive model too. When this L1-SP-BMG-P was unveiled it had that contrasting maple binding which I loved. So, I got the factory to put that on my model too to get my own back! Technically this ‘Oli is finished in ‘cosmic purple’, but I prefer ‘World of Ukes purple’, or ‘Don’t leave my samples out at the factory in Indonesia purple’.

The all-solid mango body gives the ‘Oli L1-SP-BMG-P a wonderfully rich, warm voice, with plenty of depth and a lovely rounded quality to the bass notes. There’s a natural sweetness to the sound, but it’s not at the expense of clarity. The individual notes remain nicely defined, with a particularly pleasing balance across the strings and a good amount of sustain. Mango has something of the character of koa, but with a little more warmth and a slightly softer, more relaxed quality.

Despite that richness, there's plenty of liveliness here too. Strummed, it has a lovely full-bodied sound, but it's equally rewarding when picked, where the instrument has a really nice response and allows individual notes to ring out clearly. It's a sound with plenty of character, rather than simply being loud for the sake of it, and one that should appeal to players looking for a baritone with warmth and depth without losing definition.

At the bottom of the page there are options you can easily add to an order. It’s important to note that these appear on every page, whether you need them or not. And in the case of this ‘Oli baritone ukulele, you’re looking at strap buttons as really the only thing you might need. This has a hard case so don’t get another! And a gig bag seems irrelevant given you have the hard case. Low G’s are mentioned but this is DGBE tuning which has a low G already. So you can ignore that too!