The Kiwaya KTS-4 has gone, gone to a good home.... but why?

It's gone. The Kiwaya KTS-4 that I bought and was so thrilled with when I bought it four years ago. I posted about it here in August 2012. Yes, it's a wonderful, superb ukulele - but I wasn't playing it. Why? because I have another superb soprano uke that I love even more and have played all the time since I bought it 18 months ago - My D J Morgan long neck soprano in spruce and bird's eye maple. "Sprucey Lucy". Every now and then I would get the Kiwaya out, marvel at its satin mahogany beauty and its wonderful sound - then put it away and reach for my craftsman-built D J Morgan. Being a spruce top, the sound is different from mahogany, it's champagne rather than cognac - but the volume, the tone, the sustain and the intonation are every bit as good, and I just love it even more. Gorgeous thing.

A friend at the GFS convention in November asked me if I still had the Kiwaya; he had played it some time ago and thought it wonderful - which it is! He asked if I would give him first refusal if I decided to sell it. Of course I would. I went home, got the Kiwaya out, marvelled at its satin mahogany beauty and its wonderful sound - and reached for Sprucey Lucy. I made a decision. Within a few days the Kiwaya was in my friend's hands, and fine hands they are, too - it has gone to a very good home! No point in keeping a lovely uke if it's not played. And now it will be played and enjoyed as it should be.

So My D J Morgan spruce-top soprano uke is still my instrument of first choice. I pick it up and the feel and the sound are just perfect. Everyone who has seen and played it who knows anything at all about the build of ukuleles thinks it superb - and since I bought it, I can pass a shop with ukes in the window, and not give more than a passing glance - I even went to Hawaii last year and was not tempted by the first-class K brands to be had there. You just can't say better than that!

I hope to post again before Christmas. Meanwhile, thanks for dropping in! Very much appreciated... now I'm going to fetch the Christmas tree in!