The next ukulele I am reviewing is the Islander AT-4EQ Acacia Tenor Ukulele.
Kanile’a is one of the 4K’s of Hawaii that produced high quality ukulele and like the other ukulele brands that are part of the 4K’s (Kamaka, Kaniele’a, Ko’olau and Ko’Aloha), knowing that people want quality ukulele’s but aren’t able to afford the higher priced koa ukulele, fortunately, these companies have ukulele that are made of mahogany, acacia, spruce, etc.
And for Kanilea, their affordable line of ukulele is known as Islander.
For Islander, there is the Mahogany (M) and the A (Acacia) and they also offer various versions such as a turtle etching, the Hawaiian islands etching. There is the GL series featuring Spruce and they also offer expensive solids, (MS) for Solid Mahogany which are about the double the price.
Islander ukulele, like many other non-koa ukuleles, are made in China but must go through Kanile’a’s strict quality guidelines and utilizes 1st Gen. Kanile’a bracing system.
The Islander AT-4EQ Acacia Tenor Ukulele from Kanile’a is a ukulele which comes with a Fishman pickup.
The Islander AT-4EQ Acacia Tenor Ukulele from Kanile’a features an Acacia top, back and sides. The neck is Okume and the fingerboard is walnut with 18 frets.
The color is natural and the finish is satin.
The inserts are ABS dots and features a NuBone nut with a Rosewood bridge with black ABS pins.
And the strings are Aquila.
The machine heads are open geared chrome tuners with white knobs, while the electronics is an under saddle pickup with a 3 band EQ (bass, middle, treble) and built-in tuner. The batteries that are good to have on hand are CR2032 batteries and are easy to replace.
For those not familiar with a pickup, it takes the organic sound from the ukulele and sends the signal to an amplifier.
I’m not a big fan of active pickups as I head the chances of it breaking or not working than a passive pickup (which is pretty much plug and play with no electronics under the saddle). Both have their positives and negatives and There are times where the pickup didn’t turn on, so that’s why I recommend having CR2032 batteries around just in case.
For the most part, the the Islander AT-4EQ Acacia Tenor Ukulele from Kanile’a is an affordable, quality ukulele. I wished it was RB like my Islander MT-4-RB as I like the RB versions for the tortoise binding framing.
It’s important to note that there are pictures of possibly an older AT-4EQ with the battery compartment near the input and has knobs (mine has sliders). Other pictures show the battery location is on the pickup input, while my input is not on the bottom center but is in the bottom right.
But overall, I do enjoy this Islander tenor and for those who want an acacia tenor from Islander, the AT-4 or AT-4EQ (with electronic pickup) are the way to go!
Recommended!
