{ "id": "concert-ukulele", "sku": "concert-ukulele", "title": "Hricane Concert Ukulele 23 Inch Mahogany Starter Pack", "slug": "concert-ukulele", "price": 179.99, "currency": "AUD", "availability": "in_stock", "category": "string-instruments", "category_label": "String Instruments", "tags": [], "colors": [], "materials": [], "dimensions": null, "weight": "1.09 kg", "images": [ "https://musicinstruments.net.au/dropship-images/string-instruments/concert-ukulele/main-concert-ukulele.jpg", "https://musicinstruments.net.au/dropship-images/string-instruments/concert-ukulele/concert-ukulele-2.jpg", "https://musicinstruments.net.au/dropship-images/string-instruments/concert-ukulele/concert-ukulele-3.jpg", "https://musicinstruments.net.au/dropship-images/string-instruments/concert-ukulele/concert-ukulele-4.jpg", "https://musicinstruments.net.au/dropship-images/string-instruments/concert-ukulele/concert-ukulele-5.jpg", "https://musicinstruments.net.au/dropship-images/string-instruments/concert-ukulele/concert-ukulele-6.jpg", "https://musicinstruments.net.au/dropship-images/string-instruments/concert-ukulele/concert-ukulele-7.jpg" ], "description_short": "Mahogany body with a walnut fingerboard, four nylon strings tuned G C E A, and a carry bag plus spare string set so you can start the same day it arrives.", "description": "The problem with most first ukuleles\n\nHere is the pattern. Someone buys the cheapest small ukulele they can find, plays it for ten days, and quietly puts it in a cupboard. They decide they are not musical. Usually that is not what happened.\n\nWhat happened is the instrument was fighting them. The frets were too close together, so fingers kept muting the string next door. The strings were stiff, so fingertips hurt before anything sounded good. And the body was so small that even a correctly fretted chord came out thin and plinky. Nobody practises something that sounds unrewarding.\n\nA concert ukulele solves a surprising amount of this just by being bigger. At 23 inches it sits between the tiny soprano and the larger tenor. More scale length means more space between frets. A bigger body means more air moving, which means more volume and more warmth. For an adult beginner, that combination is the single biggest upgrade available, and it costs very little compared to lessons.\n\nHow a concert ukulele actually works\n\nThere is not much machinery involved, which is part of the appeal. Four nylon strings are stretched over a wooden box. You press a string down at a fret to shorten it, which raises its pitch. You strum, the strings vibrate, the top of the body moves with them, and the box pushes air.\n\nThat is why the wood matters. This instrument has a mahogany top, back and body. Mahogany is the traditional ukulele timber and it has a recognisable character, described here as warm, fuller, with deeper woody tones. Compared with a bright, hard-sounding laminate, mahogany rounds off the top end. Chords sit together rather than jangling, and a single note has a bit of body to it.\n\nThe fingerboard is walnut, which is the surface your fingertips spend all their time on. The strings are nylon, tuned G C E A. That tuning is worth understanding, because it is the standard. Every chord chart, every beginner video, every songbook assumes G C E A. You never have to translate anything.\n\nOne quirk of ukulele tuning that confuses newcomers is reentrant tuning, where the fourth string is not the lowest note. It is why ukuleles have that particular bouncy sound. You do not need to think about it to play. Just tune to the notes and everything works.\n\nWho this suits\n\nAdults starting from zero are the obvious group. If you have never played anything, four strings and three chord shapes is a far gentler entry than six strings and barre chords. Within a week you can accompany yourself on something recognisable, and that early win is what keeps people going.\n\nGuitarists are the other big group. The shapes rhyme with guitar chords, so the learning curve is short, and the nylon strings feel kind after steel. A lot of guitar players keep a mahogany ukulele on a hook near the couch simply because it is the instrument they actually pick up.\n\nFor kids, it depends on size. A smaller child may be better served by a soprano, which they can get their arms around more easily. Older children and teenagers generally handle a concert fine and will not outgrow it. At 1.09 kg it is not a burden to hold or carry.\n\nTravellers and campers like the format too. The packed footprint is 58.4 x 21.3 x 6.1 cm, which goes in a car boot without negotiation, and the included bag keeps dust and knocks off it. The best travel ukulele is usually just the one that is light enough that you bother taking it.\n\nHow to choose between the sizes\n\nThink about hands first, sound second, portability third.\n\nHands decide more than anything. Put your fingers in a C chord shape and look at the gaps between them. If your fingers are broad, a soprano will crowd them and you will mute strings without meaning to. A concert gives you breathing room. If you have genuinely large hands and long fingers, you might eventually prefer a tenor, but concert is the safe default for most adults.\n\nSound is next. Bigger body, deeper and louder tone, broadly speaking. The soprano is the classic chirpy ukulele sound. The concert keeps that character but adds weight underneath it. With a mahogany body you get the warmer end of that range, which flatters singing voices.\n\nPortability only matters if you will actually be carrying it. A concert is still a small instrument by any sensible measure.\n\nThen there are the practical bits that decide the purchase. Does it come with a bag? This one does. Are there spare strings in the box? Yes, a string set is included, which matters more than it sounds, because a string usually breaks at the worst possible moment. A beginner ukulele kit that covers those two things saves you a second order.\n\nBe careful about specs nobody has confirmed. The fret count, the country of origin and warranty terms are not stated by the maker, so we are not going to put numbers on them. If one of those decides it for you, ask us and we will check current stock.\n\nLiving with it day to day\n\nTuning is the habit to build. Nylon stretches, so a brand new ukulele will drift noticeably for the first week or two. This is normal and not a fault. Tune it, play it, tune it again. Gently pulling each string away from the fretboard and retuning speeds the process along. After that settling period a quick check before each session is enough.\n\nHumidity and temperature move wood. Leaving a ukulele in a hot car, next to a radiator or in a damp garage is how instruments develop problems. A normal room is fine. The bag is the easiest storage solution and it also keeps dust off the strings.\n\nCleaning is a dry soft cloth and nothing else. Wipe the strings and the polished body after playing. Finger oils dull both. Skip household sprays and anything with alcohol or solvent in it, because polished finishes do not forgive those.\n\nStrings need replacing when the tone flattens out, when they look grimy, or when tuning stops holding. For someone playing a few times a week, roughly once or twice a year is typical. The spare set in the box covers the first change. Changing nylon strings is a ten minute job and there are clear videos showing exactly how.\n\nIf a tuning peg feels loose or stiff over time, a small turn of the screw on the peg button is usually all it needs. Nothing on a ukulele is complicated to maintain.\n\nGetting the first fortnight right\n\nLearn three chords before you learn anything else. C, F and G7 between them cover an enormous amount of music. Play them slowly, one strum each, until the change is clean. Speed comes free afterwards.\n\nShort practice beats long practice. Ten minutes a day will take you further in a month than a single two hour session on a Sunday. Leave the ukulele out of the bag somewhere visible, because an instrument you can see is an instrument you pick up.\n\nExpect sore fingertips for about a week. The nylon strings make this much milder than a steel string guitar, but there is still an adjustment. Push through it and the calluses arrive.\n\nThe short version\n\nA 23 inch concert ukulele is the sensible middle ground. Bigger and easier to fret than a soprano, smaller and friendlier than a tenor. This one has a mahogany top, back and body with a polished finish, a walnut fingerboard, and four nylon strings in standard G C E A, giving a warm, fuller tone with deeper woody character. It weighs 1.09 kg and comes with a bag and a spare string set.\n\nIf you are an adult or older child starting out, or a guitarist who wants something easy to grab, this size and this wood are a reliable combination. Tune it often in the first fortnight, keep it in the bag, wipe it down, and it will keep doing its job.", "llm_summary": "The Hricane UKM-2 is a 23 inch concert ukulele sold as a beginner starter pack. The top, back and body are mahogany with a polished finish, the fingerboard is walnut, and it carries four nylon strings in standard G C E A tuning. The stated sound profile is warm, fuller and deeper woody tones. It is an acoustic instrument with no electronics. Listed item dimensions are 58.4 x 21.3 x 6.1 cm and item weight is 1.09 kg. Included components are the ukulele, a bag and a string set. Hand orientation is listed as left. UPC is 780150794713. Colour is mahogany. Country of origin, warranty terms and fret count are not listed by the maker.", "returnable": true, "return_policy": "Voluntary 14-day change-of-mind returns in original condition, buyer pays return postage; Australian Consumer Law consumer guarantees for faulty goods. Return postage on faulty goods is ours.", "shipping_profile": "standard", "warranty": null, "brand": "Music Instruments", "gtin": null, "mpn": null, "condition": "new", "url": "https://musicinstruments.net.au/concert-ukulele/", "canonical_url": "https://musicinstruments.net.au/concert-ukulele/", "json_url": "https://musicinstruments.net.au/api/products/concert-ukulele.json", "updated_at": "2026-10-18" }