Mine finally arrived. I like it! I'm sort of shocked at how loud it is, and the sustain ain't half bad. Also surprised at how solid it feels. And you'll be happy to know they apparently come with strap buttons and a shoulder strap on the case now, along with a much-improved zipper.
Your comments are always go to first for me. Thank you. I purchased this ukelele after listening to you playing it and your review. Can't wait for it to arrive. Thank you for all the hard work, information and knowledge you share with us all
I had asked about the strap button and side sound hole, and was told that they had structural issues with them on the soprano and then chose not to use them; however, a slight redesign is coming soon which will have strap buttons.
Here I am three years later with a comment. I got mine at a good (US) Black Friday price last Fall and I really enjoy it. All I'd add is that mine has strap buttons and side dots. It's great fun in a plastic uke that sounds very good, unlike some others. Great review.
I picked one of these up they are now 49 usd normal price on Amazon. New ones have startup buttons. The intonation is shockingly good, my only complaint is that the nut is too high for my taste it makes it tiring to play. I don't mind the stock fluoro carbons. The string spacing is a bit on the narrow side for me.
Just bought one after watching your video. It was enough to convince me that the quality and sound it their and that is enough for me so that I can play music for my baby nephew who I would wish for him to learn and love to play guitar
The Enya Nova U Mini that I just got has strap buttons and side fret markers. They listened to you and they are welcome additions. What strings would you put on it? I have a set of D'Addario Fluorocarbons coming but I was going to put them on my Flea.
I would be interested in knowing what kinds of strings people use as well. I installed some D'Addario titaniums on this since that's what Enya uses on their tenor version, but I don't like the way they sound at all.
I got them on my Outdoor too. Just to be clear they use 3m VHB tape. Which I've used before to permanently mount solar panels to the roof of a van. It's seriously permanent stuff.
I bought the concert-ish version of this (sans pickup) when it was offered at an introductory price of-if memory does not fail me-$79, shipped. It stays at our Fort Myers house so I don’t need to pack and schlep a uke when I go there. Nice beach uke but, if I am playing at a beach event, I’ll use my Outdoor tenor instead.
Someone from Enya must have paid attention to your review. They now offer them with 2 strap buttons, a strap and a capo. I just ordered one from US Amazon, they have 15% off coupon so with tax I just paid $53 and change. Thanks for the review!!
It's nice. The concert was nice too. These ukes are so well established by now. Wish they made the sopranos when I was in the market for a travel ukulele. I was seriously considering the concert but went with Flight TUS because of the tiny size. Not that I'm unhappy with my choice! But if this was out then, it'd be a much tougher decision.
Have they watched your review??? find out now...so i just received by nova u mini (from amazon US) and surprisingly it came with gold strap buttons and 4 side dots (5th,7,10,12th fret), this ukulele is small, but wow, it has a nice punch to the sound
I ordered a black one for my teaching set and will order more if they come in more fun colors. I generally use Makala Dolphins but like to have a few options to choose from. Of course if I would stop giving them away I wouldn't have to replace them so often.
It's nice to have you review the smaller one as well. It is very cute, I agree. I'm mainly a tenor player, but I love the concert Nova. I have never had the fingerprint problem on mine (also black).
Thank you for this review. I see this is from about 2 years ago, and it is May 11, 2023 today. I saw updates in a couple of comments about the strap buttons now being added. I have a comment regarding the comments made in the video about this being made of carbon fiber, as I suspected stating it is actually plastic was not correct, so I looked it up: "The properties of a carbon fiber part are close to that of steel and the weight is close to that of plastic. Thus, the strength-to-weight ratio (as well as stiffness-to-weight ratio) of a carbon fiber part is much higher than either steel or plastic." The one thing I had not considered (I have not purchased a Ukulele yet, looking for my first), was the fingerprints that will be left on the body due to it being made of carbon fiber. Does anyone have a comment / suggestion regarding that aspect of this otherwise seemingly great starter Ukulele?
No, definitely NOT carbon fiber - and Enya are not the only brand to name them like that. Yes it picks up fingerprints, but so does any gloss ukulele. Come off with a cloth.
Just got this uke today and thought you might be interested to know it now comes with strap buttons and dot markers on the side 5,7,10 and 12 interesting no strap. Maybe they were watching your review! Thanks for the great review.
I just bought this on sale at amazon , should be fun to play...on a side note, I also bought an Enya euc-mad blue concert (also on sale at amazon) and its really quite pretty...it would be great to see a review on this one.
I'm pretty booked up for the rest of the year, and there are an awful lot of Enya review on the site (so i need to be careful not to overload it)... but... I will try to get hold of one when I can!
I notice that the saddle is compensated (with bevels) just like its bigger sister. The bevels make small adjustments of the string lengths so they intonate correctly. That is, they play on pitch at the frets up the neck toward the body. I tried a low-G string on my concert-size Nova U and found that it doesn't intonate correctly due to the bevel. So anyone who buys one of these Nova U ukes with the idea of changing to a low-G, don't bother unless you have a "tin ear" and don't care that the high pitched chords will be a bit out of tune. It's great the way it is, as a gCEA uke.
They do that, yes. To be honest though - whether you have a straight topped saddle or a compensated saddle like this one, if you change the string gauge strongly (as you tend to do with some low g changes) you will need to adjust the nut / saddle irrespective of what sort of bridge saddle you have.
@@GotAUkulele I replaced the g string on my Kala tenor traveler with an Aquila Red low G. That ukulele has a straight saddle without any compensation bevels. The nut slot had to be widened slightly because it's a thicker string, but I didn't adjust the saddle. I find that the G string at the 12th fret is only 5 cents flat, which is about the same amount I can sharpen the pitch by squeezing the string hard down onto the fretboard. Close enough for me. When I put that same kind of string on the Enya Nova U concert, the pitch at fret 12 was much farther off and not acceptable to me. So I put the original string back on. (By the way, Enya now warns customers not to use any string that has metal in or wound onto it, as the Aquila Reds do, since they cause excessive wearing down of the plastic fret ridges. I noticed slight fret wear myself and removed the Red before Enya noticed it.)
@@stanleysokolow It depends entirely on how accurately the uke was set up before the change and the diffference in gauge change you are dealing with. I too have changed to low G's on some and not felt the 'need' to adjust, but equally done the same on others and definitely did. Ultimately - if you get dow to measuring with a strobe tuner (which is a bit overkill) ANY string gauge change needs an adjustment - most of the time though, we just live with it. Thinner the strings to start with, the more you notice the change - why electric guitars tend to have micro adjustable saddles!
@@GotAUkulele Thanks for that info. The physics of strings seems simple until you get down to the details. When I replaced the high g with a low G on my Vorson solid body electric, I did have to adjust the saddle quite a lot.
Thanks!! Picked one of these up after watching this review and reading the review. Crazy! I really enjoy this beautiful instrument! I absolutely play it more than any instrument I've ever owned, (and I own dozens) except my voice. I play it every day! I feel okay about leaving it under the edge of the bed. Hubby leaves the room while we're watching a show....pick it up and strum. Throw it over my shoulder, head out to the garden with good intent...end up in the old metal glider-chair in the deep shade, next to the big moss covered rock....strumming, picking and singing. Get up in the morning, first cup of tea, on the front porch, wicker chair, cats, birds, insects buzzing... strumming real low on the little black Enya. Can't wait for the Acoustic Plus review! Won't order one until I see the review here!!!
@@GotAUkulele Nova U Pro the sworn-to-secrecy uke or is it still a secret? Know you're not a fan of the electronics on ukes but the new Acoustic Plus is very tempting. When I play with my band no worries on the PA...haha, it just gets set up. But I've been strumming and singing on my own, first time after decades of gigging, partially at the mercy of others. Now and can do those tunes i know and love that we haven't gotten to yet. Want to play in the park or somewhere like that when I visit kids all over the world as a way to meet people that want to play with me. They'll be like, Lord, just a uke, the girl needs a band. Then when I go to Stockholm, Portland, Austin and Guanajuato I can leave my band home...which I do anyway. $199 seems like a fun gamble! Need a singer, acoustic player amp eventually but....It's all about fun!!!
This soprano was my first Enya, and I now have my second Enya and a third to be delivered soon (the latter two are mahogany). Enya is an incredible value. My Flight concert-neck travel quickly became unplayable for some reason (dead G string) and I didn't like the feel of the Flight textured-plastic fretboard, even with the metal frets.
Thanks, Baz! I'm really excited they're offering this in a soprano. I hope they add more colours; it would be odd if they didn't. I suspect the other colours are better with the fingerprint issue.
I'm curious how you would compare this uke with the Flight travel soprano that you reviewed a while ago. If you had to choose, which one would you give the edge to? Thanks for all of your great reviews.
I've had offers (not Enya) - but will never happen - would be impossible for me to impartially review - and I never want the brand tied in to one particular brand
Not bad at all. :) yeah shame about the strap buttons. I think it would be a great little ukulele to travel with or take to the beach... or to learn on. Cool :)
I received the concert yesturday and the saprono today i wasn't sure on which so orderd both. The saprono is so much better for me and it only cost £50 off Amazon UK absolute bargain thank you for the reviews.
Excellent! - they DO listen! Nice company who are nice to deal with to (I give a lot of weight to that). They send my 11 year old daughter a Christmas card each year with a decoration in it. I am happy to report that as whilst I go on about Got A Ukulele not charging brands for reviews (which i don't) - it's nice when a brand says thank you in a non-commercial way.
Hello Baz - I'm a new subscriber but I've listened to many of your reviews. What I'd like to ask is what is the tune that you pick each time you do a review, and do you have a tutorial for the piece? It starts at 4:39 on this video. Thank you for all of your hard work!
By the look of it and according to your observations this is a soprano that even my gnarly old polar bear paws could handle. I like the concert and even managed to get the electronics to function eventually. Might even give one a try at that price. 👍
Baz, you got an opinion on PUkanala and Smiger ukes? I looked for a review on those on your chanel but did not find any. If you have a word of advise i d appriciate. Thanks man, happy weekend!
Sorry, never played a Smiger (though Matt at World of Ukes liked them I think). Last Pukanala I played was many years ago before I even made videos - so not sure I can help. Sorry!
I wonder if omitting the side soundhole would make it more difficult to change the strings on this one. Where should one feed the string through after tying the knot? Through those “flame shaped” slots where the front soundhole is supposed to be?
Could you do a little piece on using fishing line for strings? Or if you have already done that, could you point me in the right direction? Pretty please :-)
@@GotAUkulele Greetings, only thing I could find was this and perhaps that was/is the problem. I'm quoting this from the Amazon add. "♫NOT compatible with wound strings or strings containing metallic compounds. US warranty and customer support." Thank you for the heads-up and the reply. pax, PL
Sorry - didn’t never recommend strings. - it’s pointless as we all hear and play differently. Grab a few distinct sets, experiment and trust your own ears. What my ears here means nothing
@@GotAUkulele I ordered one. If it's no good, I'm blaming you. LOL I'm kidding. I just finished reading your thread on reddit about personal recommendations so I figured I'd tease you. At $60 you can't really go wrong. If I don't like it, there are plenty of local kids I could give it to who'd love it.
Christ that sounds so nice. I have a Kala I’m happy with but I want to give it to my nephew to learn and was looking for something. Well just different and this form factor jet black design and carbon plastic body fit that to a T.
