c.2013 Collings UC1K Concert Koa Ukulele

Oh, my, this honey of a uke is a honey-brown colored koa beauty made by Collings in Austin, Texas. It's essentially brand new (zero playwear, zero marks) and goes by the model name "UC1K" meaning it's a plainly-appointed concert uke with koa body. But... it's hardly "plain."

The body is entirely made from high-quality flamed koa and the top is lightly fan-braced. Proportionally and cosmetically, this instrument is very similar to older Martin concert ukes and it has the traditional 12th-fret neck join.

I'm selling this uke on consignment for its owner (who has a huge collection of new and vintage ukes) as it's in the "one too many" section of the collection! It's a fantastic, professional-grade instrument, so if you've had your eye on one of these... ask!

This has a satin nitro finish that's flawless. I love the look of the satin on this guy as the uke has a smooth, simple look to it while still retaining the pop and zing of the wood's figure.

Fit, finish, and playability are all flawless.

Tonally, this is an interesting uke: it responds and feels like playing an older Martin yet has more of the balanced, rich sustain that Favillas and high-end 20s Washburn/Lyon & Healy ukes tend to have. I'll bet that in most hands this would record beautifully. There's no frustrating "stand out" frequency response that would make putting it in front of a mic difficult.

It also feels like it'll last through decades of heavy gigging... it's just built so well.

The nicely-inlaid Collings script in the rosewood-veneered headstock and the mini-dots on the fretboard are all made from ivoroid plastic.

The rosewood board has a light radius for a good, professional, modern feel and a fret gauge that recalls 20s ukes.

Simple but egads-pretty.

Rosewood bridge.

Isn't that flame painfully pretty?

The tuners look like wood pegs but they're actually 4:1 geared banjo-style pegs. This makes tuning way, way, way easy and smooth.

Note: the neck is mahogany.

Here you can see those Pegheds (that's the brand) 4:1 tuners a little better. I love the look.

Note that the saddle wings stick out from the slot just a hair. I'm not sure why this is -- maybe it's so that you can flip it around easily if you're using strings that don't like the compensated C string area? -- but if you want the wings of the saddle flush with the bridge, that's a 5 minute job. Just let me know.

The uke comes with its original, good-quality, Collings-branded Ameritage case as well as the original sales material.