With the Martin 0X tenor ukulele, this historic company hasn’t gone with tradition. Here the body is made from a high pressure laminate material. This is paper, mixed with resin and placed under pressure to produce a very durable, light material. It’s the same as you get with a kitchen worktop, so it’s strong stuff. There’s wood used for the bracing, bridge and fingerboard, but not the body. The neck is unusual too, with layers of birch sandwiched together to create a funky looking, but very strong feature.

The first thing that hits you is the bold, striking sunburst, which goes from the rich orange to deep black in a rapid gradient. I like this strong look, and you can see the wood grain underneath it. Except, as we have discussed it’s not made of wood, so that’s actually a print of a sunburst with wood grain. The same goes for back and sides, which have a more natural ‘wood’ appearance. It’s very common to see a three crowned headstock on a ukulele, usually copied from a Martin. This one is a Martin so it’s definitely allowed!

The Martin 0X tenor ukulele has good sustain and an initial, bright and chiming feel – in part from the Martin fluorocarbon strings that are fitted. But there’s more to it that brightness. I’ve tried to find a more straightforward way of describing it but keep coming back to the same phrase… After that initial bright attack there’s a blush of warmth, a deep ‘bloom’ that creeps in beyond the clarity of the first contact between strings and fingers. It’s not wood and it doesn’t sound quite like wood, but it’s loud and it’s interesting! That volume is good as you play further up the neck too.

The nut width is a slim 34mm with the 0X, but that’s paired with a shallow neck profile, which for me makes it nice and playable. Because of the slim depth of the neck, your fingers can arch round and meet the fingerboard vertically, aiding the accuracy of fretting. Of course, different players will experience it differently, but it plays well for me, that’s for sure.

Marting’s 0X sunset tenor uke is an interesting modern take on the ukulele from a company that’s very much associated with ukulele traditions stretching back many decades. That in itself is an interesting direction for Martin to take, challenging the norm rather than solely producing the ukuleles they make that pretty much invented that norm. Beyond this interest and innovation, the 0X is a nice looking tenor uke that sounds good and will withstand variations in heat and humidity because of the modern materials it’s made from.

At the bottom of the page are various easy to add options that are standard across every page of the website. You can ignore the gig bag option as there’s a fanastic, well padded one already included with the 0X tenor. Strap buttons are an option and they can be added. Inside the uke there’s a wooden strengthening block where a screw for a button would enter, so don’t worry about the HPL not being suitable.