Classy and natural are the first two words to come into my head when looking at the ‘Oli L1-TMGS. There’s a lot going on, when you investigate closely, but all of the little touches have been well thought out so they fit together harmoniously. The headstock shape is different but not outlandish, the end of the fingerboard is nicely shaped, the soundhole decoration is unfussy but also not subtle and the position markers straddle both the side of the neck and fingerboard. It’s all very well thought out.

The L1-TMG is a real all rounder, with an accentuated bass from the low G that’s fitted as standard, with sweet and clear sounding trebles that marry up in a really balanced way. Individual notes sound out distinctly and cleanly when picked, and when strummed, there’s a warm, gentle character in the background, sprinkled with sunny, sweet highs. It’s extremely good, and worthy of my flowery attempts at description!

A lot of thought has gone into making a uke that hits as many of the current needs and desires of ukulele players today as possible, making this Oli an interesting marker for where the ukulele market it at right now. It has a 37mm nut width, a gloss finish with a satin neck, all solid mango body, lattice bracing, Gotoh UPT tuners and a side soundport. In short it ticks every box in the the typical modern ukulele buyer’s shopping list. A deluxe gig bag is also supplied.

The ‘Oli plays really well, with a radiused fingerboard aiding your barre chords by mirroring the natural curve on your finger. Aside from that feature, everything else seems ‘normal’. The set-up is really good – and while individual players will have different preferences to how they arrive from the box (including me), there’s no doubt they’re ready to go and ready to play from the start. I do make some adjustment as standard - lowering the action to a uniform height (they’re supplied with the action a little higher on the G string and lower on the A).

The team at The Ukulele Site in Hawaii have put all of their significant knowledge and experience into creating the ‘Oli brand, and it’s hard to argue that they haven’t got it bang on in every aspect. They’ve worked with a factory in Indonesia and gone back and forth designing, re-designing and tweaking until they’ve got a really first class range of instruments, of which the L1-TMG is an excellent example.

At the bottom of the page you’ll find a series of standard add ons. The bag that it comes with is really good, so I’d stick with that (though there’s a hard case option if you need added protection). And of course, it has a low G already, so you can ignore that one!