The Mainland Tenor Ukulele is generally regarded as a good value for money for its appearance, construction, and sound. Let’s uncover if there’s actually truth to these in this in-depth review.
Written by John Allnutt / Published April 9, 2025
Last updated: N/A
Today, I’m going to be reviewing this Mainland Ukulele. It is a Spruce Top Classic Tenor Ukulele. I’ve got a soft spot for Mainland ukuleles, which is based out of Nashville, Indiana, and this company is run by Mike Hater and his partner Tookta. I bought mine at the Brown County Ukulele Festival back in 2021 or 2022.
Check out our top tenor ukulele picks here
About My Ukulele
This was a scratch-and-dent model, so I believe I got $50 to $75 off. It has a few nicks here and there. I think somebody was checking it out at the booth, and it fell, dealing a little bit of cosmetic damage. But other than that, it’s really nice.
First Impression of the Mainland Tenor Ukulele
I wasn’t initially attracted to this ukulele based on looks, but after picking it up and playing it, I was really astonished by its sound at its price point ($310 as of February 2025).
This is a standard-shaped, double-bout tenor, and like all Mainland ukuleles, it’s largely made in China. But they are sent over for Mike to take a look at in the US for final finishing, setup, and assembly of things like the tuners and the strings. He gets to take a look at all of them and just make sure they’re all up to spec.
Mainland Tenor Ukulele Review
Design and Build of the Ukulele
Now, this is a classic-looking ukulele. It has this rope binding around the outside. You also might hear it called “marquetry”. It’s also around the headstock at the very top. The bridge is made of Rosewood and has a very standard-looking tie bridge.
It has a straight bone saddle at the top, and the string spacing is fairly narrow at about 42 mil.
It doesn’t feel too small though, like some ukuleles that I have. I took a look at the inside of the ukulele and the bracing is small and tapered, and everything looks very neat without a hint of extra glue anywhere.
The neck is made of mahogany, and it’s a little bit lighter than the rest of the body, just based on the wood that they probably used on the top part of it. It’s in three different pieces and it feels really good.
Fretboard Finish
It does have that gloss on it, so you can slide up and down pretty fast, as long as you don’t sweat too much.
It has a medium feel, whereas my Fender ukulele neck – it feels really chunky and some other ukulele necks have a really thin neck, which helps you slide up and down really fast if you’re going to be soloing or something.
The neck is topped with a Rosewood fingerboard. It was in really good condition when I bought it. It already had a little bit of the lemon oil all over.
It has a dark stain that gives it a lot of character. If you look closely, you can see different patterns there. It’s definitely not a boring instrument to look at.
You’ve got pearly dots at the 5th, 7th, 10th, 12th, and 15th frets. Unfortunately, they don’t have any side dots on there, which can be really useful to try and find your place on the neck. But other than that, I’m fine with it. I just wish that they would update that now.
Headstock
So, the headstock’s pretty standard. It does have kind of a unique bell-looking top to the headstock, but it also has that rope decoration around. It looks pretty traditional, and the tuners are sealed gear tuners. So, if you turn around, you know, you don’t see any of the gear because they’re sealed, but they hold up very well. They hold tune quite well, and they’re very lightweight.
Mainland Tenor Ukulele Price
When you buy the ukulele, it comes with a set of Aquila strings (which is pretty standard these days) and retails for $310. This is a lot cheaper than something like a Kapono ukulele, as you know, these are factory-made. They’re not made one at a time by an artisan or anything like that, so you know they’re not a custom instrument, but at the $300 price point, I think it sounds and feels amazing.
Overall Rating for the Mainland Tenor Ukulele
This stands out in my collection as the loudest ukulele that I have, and that might be because it’s a Spruce top.
Overall, I’m really impressed with this ukulele, and every Mainland ukulele I’ve picked up has been pretty nice.
The only issue I have with this ukulele, at least at the moment, is something to do with the intonation. That is, the notes down here seem in tune, but when you go beyond the 12th fret, they go a little flat. So, I end up having to bend in order to match the pitch.
I don’t end up there that often, but I do notice that it goes flat quite a bit, and that might be a little bit of sag in the neck or something.
Balance
The balance of this ukulele is great. A lot of cheaper ukuleles don’t consider the balance when holding them. There’s no neck dive or anything like that with this instrument.
Volume and Sound
Volume is very good, and the sustain is not bad either. I have updated to Seaguar Strings, which aren’t really ukulele strings. They’re a Japanese fishing line, which to me helped the sound of this instrument considerably. The Aquilas that came on it were just the standard ones. They sound a little bit toy-like and didn’t have much sustain at all.
Cost-wise, Aquilas are probably going to be the best option, and they make most beginner ukuleles sound pretty good. But I think these are way better and they have so much more tone to them.
Materials
The top is Spruce, the sides are mahogany, and the back is mahogany. So, it’s mostly a mahogany instrument. The final assembly is done in the USA.
Sometimes people say Spruce tops are overly bright. I don’t think this one is overly bright, and I think that’s probably due to the mahogany added to it. If this were all Spruce, it would be way too bright, I think. But it has a lot of punch to it.
Sustain
The sustain is not too bad. It sounds very nice and you’ll definitely be heard if you play it due to the projection. As I mentioned, when I picked this up, I wasn’t blown away by its looks. I thought it would look kind of standard or classic. But. When I began to play it, I realized how much more sound this had than the ukuleles I was using.
I believe that at that time, I may have had a Fender Grace VanderWaal ukulele, which is really quiet. You can plug it in, but that was a pretty big disappointment. Maybe a Fender Venice too, I had one of those as well, and this was about the next one that I picked up when I went to the Brown County Ukulele Festival.
As soon as I picked these up and started playing, I just started noticing how much louder, especially moving up the neck. Solid body instruments, I’m noticing, have a lot more tone as you go up there. They’re definitely not overbuilt.
Pros and Cons of the Mainland Tenor Ukulele
Pros
So, I’m going to go over the pros now. The pros are a very good build for the price of around $300. It’s got really pretty looks. It’s got the rope binding around the outside of the headstock and the body. It’s very tidy on the inside, not that you’re going to be looking in there very often.
It’s got a lot of volume and sustain. It has got almost like a music box characteristic to it when you’re playing along with it. And there’s a lot of clarity and just a lot of punch as you go up.
Cons
Again, my only big gripe is just when you play further up the fretboard, it goes a little bit flat.
Some people would prefer a wider nut on a tenor. My Enya Nova Pro Tenor has a much wider nut at the top, which you know, allows you to kind of get in there and noodle around a little bit easier without hitting other strings. But this isn’t tiny to me. It seems pretty standard, and I’m pretty used to it now.
The only other gripe I have is no side dots. So, as you’re looking down, you pretty much need to know exactly where you’re going, or you’re going to have to go by feel and not look down.
Conclusion
If you’re looking for a traditional-looking ukulele, you’re going to think the looks of this one are pretty top-notch. It almost has an orange glow on the mahogany parts of this instrument, especially on the neck. You know, very orangey, which I think is kind of unique – at least for the ukuleles that I normally see.
So, if you’re looking for a traditional ukulele, I’d give this a 9 or 9 and a half out of 10.
If you’re interested in buying one, contact the friendly folks at Mainland Ukes.
Click here for a sound demo.
Parting Words
I hope you enjoyed this review of the Mainland Spruce Top Classic Mahogany Ukulele. If you have any ukulele brands and types that you are eyeing that you’d like us to review, just leave a comment below.
Happy strumming!
John Allnutt
Writer & Ukulele TeacherJohn has been teaching music since 2008 and resides in Richmond, Kentucky with his wife Laura and dog Sam. In his spare time he enjoys growing and cooking food, roasting coffee, playing board games, and spreading joy through playing and teaching music.
