Other Instruments

It has a nato neck and a basswood body and, apart from the bold graphics is the standard budget fair. What I particularly like about mine though is the bright green saddle, nut and tuning buttons. (In case you are wondering about the Eyes, it is a label in the sound hole that you have to line up to get the eye effect)

It comes in quite high for budget pricing and does have that little bit of extra quality to justify that. The decal finish is good, the neck is straight and the action is quite low. It sounds ok, is quite nice to play and would be a good first Ukulele if you like the animals pictured

It's VERY light for a resonator Ukulele, and quite small for a Tenor with a 42cm scale length, but it does have a very chunky neck and feels very solidly and nicely made. Its quite quiet for a resonator too, I think some spruce tops could match it for volume and quite trebly with a lot of top and not much base (a bit like a spruce top). It's certainly more ordinary, non-resonator Ukulele sounding that the other resonators. I'm thinking if I just heard it without knowing its a resonator Uke I would think it a spruce top? No just had another go and it's less harsh that a spruce top tone

The Cavaco itself has a much thinner more Mandolin type neck than my other Cavaquinhos but the body is much bigger. The Soundboard is pine with that lovely pine lumber yard smell. With the steel strings and the narrow neck I find it much harder to play than a Ukulele or even the other Cavaquinhos?

It is marked inside as the "Estudante" model and is dated 2007. When you look at today's range there is an Estudente but it doesn't have a slotted headstock or a pine soundboard, so this is probably better quality than the current one? The closest now is the Classico or the Studio but neither of those are quite right either?

It may have been labeled as the student model but it is more than good enough for most serious players - the person I sold it to was going to use it in a London based Brazilian music band so he certainly thought it good enough to use professionally (except he was going to have a pickup retrofitted)