This is the Kala Umbra tenor electro ukulele. Also known as the KA-UM-ACBW-TE. I am so glad they called it the Umbra as that’s nice and memorable! The Kala codes for me are hard to remember and all of them start with KA-UM for me. As in ‘it is a Kala KA-Ummmm, nope can’t recall the code’. Anyway, enough of that! It is a very impressive looking beast, that’s for sure.

I can imagine the process when putting the specification together. It’s a bit like writing a shopping list when you’re really hungry. You start with your basics, like bread and milk (in this case, all solid tonewood and a pickup), and then you keep adding and adding until you’ve got a huge list of everything you could imagine. That’s the case here, except with everything any modern player could ask for. The list of stuff it has is mind-boggling. It might be quicker to say what it doesn’t have… but I’ll give it a shot!

Starting from the top, you have a slotted headstock, with interesting tuners, with a little engraved ‘K’ on them, that are definitely not a standard model out of a catalogue, but designed with this instrument in mind. The Kala logo is inlaid in that headstock. The shape of the headstock is called a Bézier curve - a smooth curve used in mathematics apparently. There’s some thought gone into this! The word ‘Umbra’ refers to the dark, central part of a shadow where light is totally blocked, such as during a solar eclipse - so I suspect the maths reference has something to do with this. (Alternatively, I once visited the town of Béziers in France, and had a memorably huge meal - and my tummy had a similar curve afterwards).

Moving down, there’s a 38mm nut width with the Kala Umbra tenor, with the ukulele’s fingerboard featuring ring shaped position markers which echo the solar eclipse which the name is connected to. aNueNue might have given us the phases of the moon with their Moon Bird position markers… but Kala have gone with their solar equivalent. There’s then a curved shape to the fingerboard where it meets the body, and joins a really stunning looking soundhole decoration. So stunning in fact it deserves its own paragraph…

That decoration is made from pieces of inlaid mahogany, spalted maple and abalone, with black and white purfling, arranged in a really beautiful circular, geometric pattern. This Kala Umbra is no shrinking violet when it comes to visual flair, that’s for sure!

On one side of the body there’s a side soundport, facing the player and directing a little more volume to your ears. I am never 100% sure about this as I never have issues hearing other ukes that don’t feature one. But the celebrated luthier Martin van Humbeck swears by them and suggests the overall tone is sweeter as a result and he wouldn’t build a uke without one. So I’ll not argue with him.

On the other side a bevelled cutaway, giving better access to the upper frets. Useful if you want to use them now and again and don’t want them getting all dusty!

The top uses a highly figured acacia, with lighter and darker portions, framed with abalone purfling and featuring a pleasantly curved rosewood bridge, with bridge pins holding the Worth Brown strings in place (with a low G as standard). And there’s STILL more, with a comfort edge in place to stop you getting a red mark on your arm when playing for long periods.

What else? A professional level L.R.Baggs Five-O pickup system, with a pre-amp (powered by small internal battery), with a soundhole mounted volume control. In debates this always features highly in what people consider to be the best sounding ukulele pickup, along with the Mi-Si. And at the time of writing this description they’re nearly £200 just for the unfitted kit, so you can start to see where your money is going if you haven’t already with the specification list as long as your (red-mark free) arm. This has a centrally placed jack socket at the bottom of the uke, with a lip that can be used to mount a strap.

If that wasn’t all, there’s a rugged black hard case included too.

Sound-wise, Kala themselves say this: The Umbra has a harmonically complex voice with warmth and crystalline projection, while a unique reduced-mass bracing for improved sustain. That warmth definitely comes through, especially with the mellow sounding Worth Brown low G that is fitted. It’s a very pretty sound, and rich too. It’s not the loudest uke (or the quietest - it sits in the middle), but there’s a definite dreamy quality to it that is impressive.

You have to congratulate Kala for producing the Umbra and showcasing pretty much every practical and decorative feature that is possible in a ukulele! And the Umbra sounds very nice too - so it’s not all eye candy and practical extras for comfort.

At the bottom of this page you’ll find some optional extras. It will come as no surprise that Kala have thought of most of them (like the fact it has a low G already, and comes with a hard case), so you can ignore those. But I can fit a second strap button if required so those extras aren’t all redundant!