This is a special edition ‘Oli tenor ukulele, using a special batch of Oregon cedar that was particularly highly rated for its stiffness and resonance. This has been paired with mahogany, for this all solid tenor ukulele, and finished in satin.

The cedar top gives this ukulele a crisp, responsive voice, with a lovely richness through the midrange and a rounded, full-bodied character coming from the low G. There's a natural sweetness to the sound, with enough clarity to keep individual notes distinct, even when playing more complex chord shapes. It has a pleasing depth without becoming muddy, and a good balance between the warmth of the lower notes and the clarity of the trebles. A very musical-sounding instrument, with a little more softness and warmth than you'd expect from a spruce-topped equivalent. I always think of cedar as being direct like spruce with the edges rounded off. I know what I mean!

There’s decorative rope purfling around the body, contrasting binding and a carefully finished soundhole rosette add a traditional touch, while the radius fingerboard and side sound port bring a more contemporary feel - plus more volume directed at you as a player. Plenty of people rave about a radius fingerboard making it easier. I don’t find it is a disadvantage by any means but neither do I find it a silver bullet. But marginal gains are no bad thing!

Bone is used for the nut and saddle, while the Gotoh UPT geared tuning machines offer a smooth, precise tuning action in a compact, lightweight design. The nut width is 37mm and this one comes with a lovely, rugged hard case.

One thing to note… ‘Oli have a logical coding system for their range, which makes sense. It doesn’t stick well in my brain though, and it took me a long time trying to work out what this one was from the label, which says X1SP-TCM-S on it. This is definitely an X1SP-TCMH-S. That’s a…

X - X-braced
1 - From the ‘Oli 1 series
SP - A ‘special’, or limited model
T - Tenor
C - Cedar top
MH - Mahogany back and sides
S - Satin finish

Someone at the factory finds this kind of logical naming just as hard as me to process and interpret. Just give your ukuleles a name! The ‘Oli… Bernard. There we go. We’ll call this one Bernard. Bernard is very nice indeed.

At the bottom of the page there are a number of different optional extras, standard across all ukulele pages on the site. So, some options here are are appropriate (strap buttons if required), and others aren’t, (low G - it already has one) and cases/bags (it comes in a great case).