Kala Ziricote Baritone - Natural Ziricote

I love this baritone. I took a chance and ordered a "good" used instrument from Amazon warehouse deals. It was shipped in a normal Amazon box with a small amount of packing paper so it had some playability issues plus it seemed someone was hard on it then returned it (saddle cracked when tuning, deep gouging on the fretboard, fret corrosion, etc). Even still, the sound was deep, resonant, and beautiful. The action was perfect and frets were decently smooth. The body is glossy but not overproduced and the neck is a lovely satin finish. Just beautiful. I love Kala, especially the ziricote models. It's so hard to buy online, but I think they have pretty good QC and I have been happy with their instruments straight out of the box. I have one of the older Kala ziricote baritones with the blonde sapwood striping but my older model sounds very similar to the entry level KA-BG baritone whereas this new all dark wood ziricote baritone sounds far deeper (though to be fair, sound can vary by individual instrument). I love my sapwood but I also love darker, glossy version (almost black) and I much prefer the deeper/richer sound over my 2020 model. I ended up returning after a professional agreed that the "good" condition wasn't worth the marginally discounted price, but I was very sad about it and I hope I can get another one someday. One thing to note: if you experiment with different strings, you might have to widen the string groove at the nut. I bought Perry's whole octave lower GCEA to use on my Kala 2020 Ziricote baritone, but the 3rd and 4th string grooves were too narrow. I didn't want to widen so it'll stay dGBE, but the Perry's fit fine on my Kala Baritone KA-BG with no alterations needed.

First off I need to say that the shipping box and materials this Uke comes in was impressive. The shipping box itself was sturdy and arrived dent-free from FedEx. Inside the box there were multiple thick layers of plastic air filled squares that cushioned the smaller Uke box that contained the instrument. The protective packaging inside that box was great too and my Ukulele was scratch-free, shiny, glossy and perfect. No damage at all and mostly still in tune. It plays like a dream and as my first Kala Uke and my first Baritone Uke I am very happy and satisfied with my purchase. Previously my other Uke's have all been Enya's, which are a concert and two tenors. I saw the popular YouTuber, Marco Cirillo, feature this exact Ukulele on his channel and was very impressed. I never considered a Baritone Uke before watching his video on this Uke, but it sounded so nice and looked great I had to have it. This Ukulele is now my every day main instrument as I vastly prefer it over the sound of the concert and tenor ukes.

Although a guitar player, I cannot claim extensive experience with ukeleles. However this baritone ukelele has a nice tone, with good sustain. Tune it up and it was immediately fun to start strumming some chords (basically guitar chord fingering without having to finger the two strings that aren't there...). The ziricote has a very appealing aesthetic. We are quite pleased with the value for the money.

Great sounding instrument. Fingerboard is a little damaged. Doesn't affect tone, but I can feel it as I move up the fingerboard.

The color and everything about it is beautiful I have no complaints about my baritone ukulele.