This is the Martin T1K, a tenor ukulele made by a historic company, from a material long bound to tradition too, koa from Hawaii. The result is a very neatly made instrument, that’s well built and critically, built lightly. Koa is quite a dense wood and unless used thinly, I find it’s a bit muted - but in this case we have a really lively instrument that’s bright and clear.

I had an enquiry about a Martin ukulele recently from a customer and they said that reading information online, Martins were a bit like Martin, people either love them or they hate them… I replied that a plus point of Martin is that their reputation is such that people are always going to want one. But a negative was that people will enjoy having a pop at Martin because… well, because they’re Martin. I think this is a really nice made tenor uke, that’s got a lovely chime, pep and spring in its step, so there’s lots to like there. Perhaps, in a market where people are often asking for a wider nut width, the thinner neck on these Martins might be a cause for concern for some. But not me or anyone else used to playing a slimmer neck. Other than that I can’t think of a great deal to criticise it, particularly when I personally like the neck.

The T1K comes with Martin Fluorocarbon strings, naturally enough, and is equipped with very good quality Grover geared tuners. Another plus point is the gig bag, which is excellent with lots of padding - a big upgrade on the lightly padded gig bag provided with this model when it was first released.

Talking of ukulele gig bags, there are number of options at the bottom of the page for easy-to-add extras. One of these is a gig bag which you can ignore of course. That gig bag is also so good I’d argue a hard case is unneccessary too. But you might want to add a strap button or two, or a fitted low G, for example.

The final word is on price. Shop around and you can beat my price, I’m sure. Fighting it out with high-volume big name music stores isn’t my thing. They can beat my price. They can’t beat my set-up, which is included (and I think, needed as there’s work to do on these as there is on just about anything else from any factory, if you ask me!).