What You Get
For around $150 you get a solid laminate mahogany concert ukulele, rosewood fretboard and bridge, built in Luna preamp with a laser etched lizard/leaf pattern on the top. It comes strung with Aquila (what else?) and has pearl moon phase fret markers on the fingerboard. Oh and there’s a slightly padded gig bag too. It’s probably not a ukulele that I would seek out to buy on looks alone (this one is on loan to me) but that said, I can see why people would go for a Luna. It’s probably worth pointing out that being a 37 year old male, I very much doubt that I fit into Luna’s core target audience.
In the hand it feels pretty good and it’s well put together – there’s a different feel to this one, it doesn’t have a super smooth finish to it. It’s unusual – or at least it is to me. I quite like the feel – it’s a bit more tactile than some of my other ukes.
On the whole I think it’s been put together very well, the fretboard in particular stands out to me. It looks and feels very good to play and the edges are really quite smooth. There’s something about a well finished fretboard that goes a long way to making a uke look and feel like there’s been some care in the build.
The onboard preamp is fitted well onto the lower bout and it does the job. It’s a bit tricky to get your hand to it quickly (should you need to) and maybe would have made more sense to have it located on the upper bout – but maybe that’s just my own personal preference.
The Sound
Time for the acid test – what does it sound like? Well, that’s a difficult one and I’m a little bit on the fence. There’s nothing wrong with the sound but there’s nothing great about it either. It’s perfectly playable but it does suffer from a lack of note separation, which is something I always look for (or should that be listen for) in a ukulele. When playing an open C chord for example it can be quite hard to hear the difference when you play an open C with the 7th fret of the A string fretted rather than the 3rd. Perhaps I’m being a bit picky there, and to some I doubt they’d notice. I tend to play quite a bit of chord melody style songs on my ukulele so note separation is important to me. If you’re more of a strummer and singer then maybe you could let this slide.
Beyond that the sound is fine, once you string a ukulele with Aquila you can be pretty confident that you know what it will sound like. Rather than me try and describe the sound which is always a difficult one – here’s a few sound samples (all recorded with a Blue Snowball) so that you can form your own opinion.
Unchained Melody
Lava
Crazy G
When it comes to playability I like this uke, it feels good in the hand, the setup is good. I can’t really fault it.
Final Verdict
Overall I think the Luna Mo’o Concert is a decent ukulele that will have obvious appeal in the looks department to a certain audience, and, when it comes down to I don’t think they would be disappointed with their choice. It’s built well, the finish is great and for the large part it plays just fine too.
Luna Ukuleles are available direct from Luna’s website…
I own 5 Luna ukes and think they’re good for the price. Very good review!
I think this highlights one of the things I really dont like about Luna I am afraid. You have said this is made of solid mahogany and Luna themselves list it as ‘select mahogany’. Actually, it isn’t though.
It’s laminate wood. Nothing wrong with laminate of course, but I find Luna do tend to make things vague. And to call laminate wood ‘select’ is simply ludicrous.
Hey Baz, thanks for leaving a comment.
I’m sure I saw this actually listed as solid mahogany somewhere. I did think it was a lot of uke for $150 if it was all solid. I did take a look at the sound hole but the wood is so dark there I actually can’t see the layers.
Review now updated!
yeah, i’ve seen that with one or two other Lunas at certain dealers – it’s how the confusion happens – if a manufacturer doesn’t use the word ‘solid’ – you can guarantee that it isn’t – no matter how much they use things like ‘Grade AAA’ or ‘Select’!
Great site with good information. I don’t care if a uke is made of solid or laminate if it sings on every note on every string at every fret with clarity and sustain. By sing I mean a clear, bell like tone, not the muddy thunk often found on so many ukuleles on one or two strings at one or two frets. With extra large hands I much prefer the tenor size (although the concert size works) and my go-to Low-G is an acacia Koa Pili KoKo. I just bought the Peavey Composer (hoping it sings) for playing high-g tunes. What is your favorite ‘singing’ tenor or concert?
Hi Don, thanks for the comment. Unfortunately when it comes to concerts and tenors I’ve not actually played that many. I own one of each at the moment – a Peavey concert and the Outdoor tenor (both reviewed on here). I wouldn’t call them ‘singing’ but they do a job for me.