Table of Contents
Enya Ukulele Review: An Amazing Instrument
In this Enya ukulele review, we will speak about why this brand is among the most popular new ukulele brands available on the market. Despite the fact that they’re just a few years old, they’ve made a splash with their innovative designs, good sound, and affordable prices for their ukuleles. Here are all the things you should know about Enya’s ukuleles!
Enya Ukuleles Company Background
Enya is one among a crop of new ukulele brands based out of China. They’re headquartered in Huizhou, close to Hong Kong. Because of this, not like US-based brands that manufacture ukuleles in Asia, they’re very closely connected to where their instruments are made.
Enya Also Make Guitars
Enya is front-and-center, they’ve also built a line of guitars under the “Amari” label. While their guitars are still primarily accessible only in China, their ukuleles have made it worldwide.
They’ve even begun to mix the 2 instruments with their new “U-Guitar” line of smaller acoustic guitars modeled on ukuleles. Additionally, they have a “guitarlele” of their X1 series.
Enya Ukuleles Reviewed in This Article
1. Enya Nova U Carbon Orange Concert
The color of the satin orange Nova U Carbon Orange concert ukulele, a polycarbonate plastic, and carbon fiber provided by Enya are so rich you’ll be able to almost taste it. Plastic has been used for Enya ukuleles because of the well-known Maccaferri plastic ukes of the 1950s and ’60s.
Carbon fiber is a lightweight space-age material recognized for its strength and can be increasingly recognized for its resonance in music instrument applications. The combination of carbon fiber and plastic will imply you never need to mind the weather, temperature, or humidity, a lot less the occasional ding, bong, or bang, and this combination is great for ukuleles in this price range.
This ukulele is constructed for the beach, and never only as a result of the highly saturated colors blue, pink, black, and white, and this creamy blossom orange can be proper at home below a baking sun. The Nova U is marketed as a travel ukulele and this uke goes to be as close to indestructible as you’re going to seek out.
Enya took benefit of the brand new materials to incorporate some unconventional smooth designs into the Nova ukulele. The body, neck, bridge, fretboard, and even the frets are molded in two pieces, one top and one back and sides, glued together to form the uke. The saddle which sits on the bridge and holds the strings over the body is among the few separate pieces.
Made from identical materials as the body, it’s compensated, or carved, so the scale length of every string is slightly different to make sure correct intonation regardless of the different thicknesses of every string. Given the stability of the materials, we think it’ll never want adjustment, but if it did, a luthier or anybody with dedication and a file might adjust it or change it.
The neck is a full, rounded C shape. The neck width, which additionally determines the spacing between strings, is on the narrow side for a concert at 1-3/8 inches, about the identical width as my old Martin soprano. The 16-inch scale of the Nova can be unusually an inch longer than a standard concert ukulele, and an inch shy of a standard tenor.
We discovered the Nova intonated well and stayed musical all the way as much as the 18th and final fret. This ukulele will likely be nice for smaller arms and beginners, however, nothing is limiting it to them.
A part of the trick is that the neck sports a slight radius, something that’s relatively unusual on any ukulele, and unheard of in this price range. It makes for very comfy play on the fretboard. The body of the Nova is a narrow 1.5 inches on the top of the upper bout, rising slightly wider to only over 2 inches on the bottom of the lower bout.
Enya Concert Ukulele Nova U 23’’ Carbon Fiber features
The hollow neck and headstock something that’s not possible on a wooden instrument help with balance and weight, as well as tone. The back is arched, a cool characteristic that contributes to the comfort of holding the uke provides strength, and also helps the instrument’s quality sound projection.
The headstock and the end of the fretboard sport asymmetrical shapes and, with its Florentine cutaway the Nova appears so much like a Les Paul guitar he played. We can’t see any reason why that isn’t an excellent thought.
The Nova soundhole is cut to resemble a leaf or grass motif and takes benefit of the strength of the materials, and an oval sound port on the side of the upper bout directs the total volume of the sound up to the player’s ears. We’ve all the time questioned if these sound ports actually work, so we compared them with the port closed and found it makes an enormous difference.
Acoustically, we would put this ukulele on the quiet side of the spectrum, with a throaty tone that sounds almost prefer it’s slightly compressed. I don’t count on a complex tone from an instrument that’s not made out of wood, however, that is no toy.
It’s most likely not surprising to listen that the tone isn’t woody, however, it does deliver a resonant and musical sound, together with a stunning amount of sustain. The more we performed it, the much less we believed about the materials and just loved what we heard.
However, the pure acoustic tone was just the start of the fun. My Nova came geared up with the optional AcousticPlus pickup system. Turning on the system lets you add reverb and chorus to the acoustic sound to attain the wet, lush tone you’re used to listening to on recordings.
The reverb offers you a slight slapback consider playing in a medieval church or concrete staircase. The refrain is the key weapon used by each funk, prog, and heavy metal guitarist since about 1975 to extend the body and presence of a single instrument into, well, a chorus.
The system doesn’t amplify the general volume of the uke, but it provides the effects, coloring the tone after the initial attack out of your fingers on the strings, stretching out the decay of notes, and smoothing out the general sound right into a ukulele wall of sound.
The bag of goodies that comes with the ukulele features things like a spare set of Enya strings, a strap, a capo, and a slim padded carry case. It additionally comes with an activation code for OKMUSICIAN, a free online class.
Nova U Carbon Orange Concert
- BODY: 70% polycarbonate, 30% carbon fiber top, back, and sides
- NECK: Same composite, 18-fret, “open gold classic” tuners
- OTHER: Slot-style bridge, Enya Fluorocarbon strings, (optional) AcousticPlus electronics
- EXTRAS: Semi-hard gig bag, strap, capo, spare strings
2. Enya M6 Solid Mahogany
Next up in our review list is something far more standard: the M6 solid Mahogany concert/tenor ukulele. The gloss-finished body isn’t bound, and sports solely a simple abalone rosette that lets the beautiful and understated grain of the wood do the speaking. This can be a striking-looking instrument with its flowering vine motif across the fretboard, a dramatic swooping cutaway, and a sharp inline headstock.
The inline headstock means the strings line up straight with the tuners after breaking over the nut, enhancing tuning stability. However, with its hard-angled design, the headstock is reminiscent of the Nineteen Eighties, which we discover a bit jarring on a ukulele.
Visuals aside, the very first thing we have actually seen about M6 is that it’s lightly constructed and admirably light for a factory-built instrument. Tapping your finger anyplace on the top, sides, or back of the body you get a way of how full of life and resonant a soundbox is maybe once you maintain its light and let the wood actually speak. The light build interprets right into a rich, punchy tone that’s precisely what we’re searching for in a mahogany instrument.
There’s a reason mahogany has long been the primary selection of premier mainland ukulele builders and players. The M6 will work nicely when you play it for all styles, however, when you’re going to be playing with others or you want to be able to play with the dynamics of volume, this ukulele offers you a lot to work with.
The neck on the M6 is full and comfy at 15-1/8 inches, the scale and 1-1/2-inch neck width are standard for a concert, and the radiused fretboard, which appears to be a feature of many Enya ukes, is downright luxurious.
The bridge, neck, and headstock veneer are a material known as Richlite ebony. Manufactured from pressed paper, Richlite is a substitute for rare, tropical ebony and is marketed and licensed as a sustainable alternative. It’s an excellent substitute, with comparable durability and the same deep uniform color, and it performs similarly to dense hardwood.
Enya EUT-M6 EQ Cutaway Acoustic-Electric Tenor Ukulele features
The M6 features strap buttons and high-quality tuners with nice-looking pink/amber abalone buttons, a gig bag, and can also be out there with built-in electronics, as a tenor or concert, and in a light translucent blue.
Solid Mahogany EUC/T-M6
- BODY: Solid mahogany top, back, and sides, gloss finish
- NECK: 15-1/8″ solid mahogany, 1.5″ width, radiused Richlite fingerboard, gold agate die-cast tuners
- OTHER: Richlite bridge, NuBone nut, and saddle, Enya fluorocarbon/D’Addario EJ87T strings
- EXTRAS: Premium gig bag
3. Enya K5 Solid Acacia Concert
Last in our review made in China is the K5, a solid acacia tenor/concert ukulele with abalone binding and inlays and a shiny finish. We needed to double-check that this was from the same company that constructed the Nova, despite the fact that they both arrived in identical boxes.
Acacia, which grows like a bush where I stay in California, grows as a hardwood forest tree within the tropical South Pacific, making it an excellent substitute for endangered tropical hardwoods. It’s not a lightly constructed instrument, however, the tone is woody, warm, and clean ringing clearly and evenly across the complete range of the instrument.
It’s a tone that we associate with koa ukuleles. It’s not about volume, it’s in regards to the lovely balanced tone. Individually picked notes ring out, however, when strummed the notes are blended.
The neck is mahogany with a radiused ebony fretboard, which is a comfy full shape and left unfinished, which we choose to gloss or some other finish on the neck. This concert has the usual 15-inch scale and 1-1/2-inch width. The slotted headstock has a shiny Richlite ebony veneer with the inset Enya brand name; a classy touch.
The fingerboard is an area of deep black, apart from a single elegant hibiscus flower inset in white abalone with two green flowers on the 12th fret. That is our favorite function of the K5 ukulele. You won’t miss extra markings on the fretboard as a result of this uke has dots on the side on the 5th, 7th, 10th, 12th, and 14th frets.
Enya Concert Ukulele 23 Inch, All 5A Solid Acacia features
Colorful abalone is used as a part of multilayer binding and the soundhole rosette. The bridge is carved with Richlite ebony. The K5 can also be out there as a tenor, and both sizes can be found with electronic pickups installed.
EUC-K5 Solid Acacia Concert
- BODY: Solid acacia top, back, and sides; gloss finish
- NECK: 15″ mahogany concert-scale, 1.5″ width; radiused Richlite fingerboard with floral inlay; open headstock, black agate open tuning pegs; NuBone nut and saddle
- OTHER: Richlite bridge; rosewood and abalone binding and inlay; Enya fluorocarbon/D’Addario EJ87T Strings
Conclusion
Enya is quickly changing into probably the most popular ukulele brand not just within the US or China, but worldwide. They provide unbelievable value and have some revolutionary designs alongside traditional wood ukuleles.
When you’re in search of a travel ukulele, a first ukulele, or just a different sound, check out Enya ukuleles. You can read reviews online or you can hear how the ukulele sounds before you choose one of Enya’s ukuleles. You’ll make sure to discover something that can suit your style!
