Lanikai LU-21P Pinapple Ukulele
Product Features
- Soprano Size
- 12 Frets
- Pineapple Shaped
- Easy Playablilty
- Limited Lifetime Warranty
- Easy Playability
- 12 Frets guitars
- Soprano Size with 12 Frets
Product Details
- Product Dimensions: 21.1 x 6.6 x 2.9 inches ; 14.4 ounces
- Shipping Weight: 4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
- Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
- Shipping Advisory: This item must be shipped separately from other items in your order. Additional shipping charges will not apply.
- ASIN: B0018TF0Q6
- Item model number: LU-21P
Product Description
The LU-21P Pineapple Soprano Ukulele is a favorite offered by Lanikai. With the attention to detail and easy playability it is easy to see why. This handcrafted ukulele is made with Nato wood (otherwise known as Eastern Mahogany) on its top back and sides. When this wood choice is paired with the Rosewood fingerboard it brings out a mellow tone with an enhanced midrange that is often missing in instruments in this price point. With the easy playability, and included instruction booklet written by Mary Lou Dempler you will be playing in a matter of minutes.If you have never played ukulele before get ready for a world of fun. The ukulele is an addicting instrument that can and will be taken everywhere. The standard tuning on a Soprano, Concert, and Tenor ukulele is GBEA, and on a Baritone DGBE. If you can play one ukulele you can play them all! Pick up a Lanikai today and see why people are saying Lanikai Makes Me Happy! For more information about this model or Lanikai please visit www.Lanikaiukes.com
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
I was looking for uke stuff and noticed there was no review for this little guy. I'm originally a guitar player but after my second deployment to iraq started looking around for a more portable instrument, a guitar is always welcome at a FOB (ends up being passed around enough to be almost community property) but it just takes up too much room in an uparmored humvee or chinook or what have you. I was looking at things like the martin backpacker but it seemed like too much of a compromise, I thought about picking up the violin but playing one badly is liable to create tension in tight quarters, so I eventually found my way to the humble ukulele. The main problem was the *image* of the thing, the whole steely eyed killer routine kind of clashes with the tiny tim stereotype of the uke. But I persevered, did a lot of research and settled on this.
I think it's just about the perfect starter ukulele, it's got a nice warm tone, the shape helps I think almost as much as the quality construction, it's not as "plinky" as you'd expect from a ukulele. It's also got quality tuners that don't require constant tuning, and every note is playable right on down to the sound hole. It's also cheap enough that you're not likely to regret buying it, even if the uke doesn't turn out to be your thing. It followed me everywhere for a 16 month deployment, and now that I'm home and out of the military I play it for my infant daughter, she loves the sound and always grabs for it, I'm probably going to buy a duplicate uke since it's a nice sized instrument for a kid and built strong enough to take a bit of abuse. The musical range is obviously a little abbreviated but you'l be surprised how much music you can wring out of one of these when you give it a chance, do a search on youtube and you'll hear some crazy good covers of nearly every kind of music.
Can't wait to graduate to a full on pro ukulele but I think this one will always have a place.
(incidentally, I would have given it a five, but I don't consider myself expert enough to go that far, but I can say that you won't regret buying it. Oh yeah, the hard case that they sell works well to protect your uke but the nylon is cheap and eventually split underneath the zippers with no way to fix it except some hundred mile an hour tape, but then I'm used to milspec gear and it would likely last longer in *normal* circumstances.)
Take care.
I've been wanting to learn ukulele for a while now and the price of the Lanikai LU-21P convinced me to finally get one.
The ukulele arrived in a coffin shaped box with some thin foam padding and an instructional booklet. The booklet contains some quick instructions on how to tune your new instrument and also a short introduction to reading ukulele tabs. It also comes with tabs and lyrics for:
- Row, row, row your boat
- He's got the whole world in his hands
- Are you sleeping?
- Twinkle, twinkle little star
- Amazing grace
- When Irish eyes are smiling
The ukulele itself is extemely light weight, but I wouldn't expect much more for such an inexpensive ukulele. Everything seems to be made of a light wood except for the frets and tuning gears which are metal. The tuning knobs are plastic. The strings are made from something called Nylgut, which look like thick fishing line. Despite the light weight, the construction feels very solid. Short of stepping on it, I don't think I'll be able to break it on accident. For anyone who is wondering, there is a "Made in China" sticker on the back.
Straight from the box, it definitely needs to be tuned and for the first week or so, you'll find that it goes out of tune very, very quickly. I read that this is common for new strings because the strings haven't yet had time to stretch out and settle. I've had the ukulele for exactly a week now and it stays in tune for much longer and doesn't go out of tune nearly as much anymore.
The instruction booklet explains how you can tune by ear using a tuner or another instrument like a keyboard, but the easiest way is to actually go on the internet! Use your favorite search engine to look for "ukulele tuner" and you should find websites that have tools that can help you tune each string.
Overall, this is an excellent ukulele for the money. I've only just started learning how to play so I'm no aficionado by any means, but to me, the LU-21P feels and sounds exactly how I expected a ukulele would.
i'll make this short and to-the-point (no life story here): the Lanikai LU-21P is a great starter ukulele for someone who needs to learn the basics or wants to figure out if this instrument is for them. i know there were some complaints about the strings not staying tuned and being of "cheap" quality, however, this is not so. one must always tune and re-tune brand new strings a couple times. this is normal for stringed instruments and does not mean they are cheap. while the body itself is on the cheaper side (Nato wood: the body won't last too long and the sound is pretty shallow) the strings are Aquila Nylgut, which are some of the best out there. altogether, i found this instrument to be very easy to tune. the accompanying book is pretty useless, i suggest searching YouTube for tuning help.
a side note: if you're a fan of Beirut, i read that Zach Condon uses a Lanikai LU-21, which is the standard-shaped version of this ukulele.
anyway, i wish you luck in your quest for 4-stringed-instrument-greatness!
42 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars great little instrument, March 22, 2009
This review is from: Lanikai LU-21P Pinapple Ukulele (Electronics)
I was looking for uke stuff and noticed there was no review for this little guy. I'm originally a guitar player but after my second deployment to iraq started looking around for a more portable instrument, a guitar is always welcome at a FOB (ends up being passed around enough to be almost community property) but it just takes up too much room in an uparmored humvee or chinook or what have you. I was looking at things like the martin backpacker but it seemed like too much of a compromise, I thought about picking up the violin but playing one badly is liable to create tension in tight quarters, so I eventually found my way to the humble ukulele. The main problem was the *image* of the thing, the whole steely eyed killer routine kind of clashes with the tiny tim stereotype of the uke. But I persevered, did a lot of research and settled on this.
I think it's just about the perfect starter ukulele, it's got a nice warm tone, the shape helps I think almost as much as the quality construction, it's not as "plinky" as you'd expect from a ukulele. It's also got quality tuners that don't require constant tuning, and every note is playable right on down to the sound hole. It's also cheap enough that you're not likely to regret buying it, even if the uke doesn't turn out to be your thing. It followed me everywhere for a 16 month deployment, and now that I'm home and out of the military I play it for my infant daughter, she loves the sound and always grabs for it, I'm probably going to buy a duplicate uke since it's a nice sized instrument for a kid and built strong enough to take a bit of abuse. The musical range is obviously a little abbreviated but you'l be surprised how much music you can wring out of one of these when you give it a chance, do a search on youtube and you'll hear some crazy good covers of nearly every kind of music.
Can't wait to graduate to a full on pro ukulele but I think this one will always have a place.
(incidentally, I would have given it a five, but I don't consider myself expert enough to go that far, but I can say that you won't regret buying it. Oh yeah, the hard case that they sell works well to protect your uke but the nylon is cheap and eventually split underneath the zippers with no way to fix it except some hundred mile an hour tape, but then I'm used to milspec gear and it would likely last longer in *normal* circumstances.)
Take care.
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent beginner's ukulele, May 10, 2009
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Lanikai LU-21P Pinapple Ukulele (Electronics)
I've been wanting to learn ukulele for a while now and the price of the Lanikai LU-21P convinced me to finally get one.
The ukulele arrived in a coffin shaped box with some thin foam padding and an instructional booklet. The booklet contains some quick instructions on how to tune your new instrument and also a short introduction to reading ukulele tabs. It also comes with tabs and lyrics for:
- Row, row, row your boat
- He's got the whole world in his hands
- Are you sleeping?
- Twinkle, twinkle little star
- Amazing grace
- When Irish eyes are smiling
The ukulele itself is extemely light weight, but I wouldn't expect much more for such an inexpensive ukulele. Everything seems to be made of a light wood except for the frets and tuning gears which are metal. The tuning knobs are plastic. The strings are made from something called Nylgut, which look like thick fishing line. Despite the light weight, the construction feels very solid. Short of stepping on it, I don't think I'll be able to break it on accident. For anyone who is wondering, there is a "Made in China" sticker on the back.
Straight from the box, it definitely needs to be tuned and for the first week or so, you'll find that it goes out of tune very, very quickly. I read that this is common for new strings because the strings haven't yet had time to stretch out and settle. I've had the ukulele for exactly a week now and it stays in tune for much longer and doesn't go out of tune nearly as much anymore.
The instruction booklet explains how you can tune by ear using a tuner or another instrument like a keyboard, but the easiest way is to actually go on the internet! Use your favorite search engine to look for "ukulele tuner" and you should find websites that have tools that can help you tune each string.
Overall, this is an excellent ukulele for the money. I've only just started learning how to play so I'm no aficionado by any means, but to me, the LU-21P feels and sounds exactly how I expected a ukulele would.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Great for Beginners & Dabblers, September 16, 2009
This review is from: Lanikai LU-21P Pinapple Ukulele (Electronics)
i'll make this short and to-the-point (no life story here): the Lanikai LU-21P is a great starter ukulele for someone who needs to learn the basics or wants to figure out if this instrument is for them. i know there were some complaints about the strings not staying tuned and being of "cheap" quality, however, this is not so. one must always tune and re-tune brand new strings a couple times. this is normal for stringed instruments and does not mean they are cheap. while the body itself is on the cheaper side (Nato wood: the body won't last too long and the sound is pretty shallow) the strings are Aquila Nylgut, which are some of the best out there. altogether, i found this instrument to be very easy to tune. the accompanying book is pretty useless, i suggest searching YouTube for tuning help.
a side note: if you're a fan of Beirut, i read that Zach Condon uses a Lanikai LU-21, which is the standard-shaped version of this ukulele.
anyway, i wish you luck in your quest for 4-stringed-instrument-greatness!
A thoughtful insight and ideas.. I will use it on my blog. You’ve obviously spent a lot of time on this. Congratulations!
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