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This page provides provisional information prior to publication and is intended to allow a ‘Bruce Wei’ response.

Over the past ten weeks I have purchased a total of five different Bruce Wei instruments with a total spend of around £900 (or $1400):

This is a provisional review of my experience:

The ukulele feels very solid and this particular model has a very comfortable bevel for the right arm. I was slightly disappointed with the tone of the instrument, which is quite abrupt and lacking in quality sustain, but at the price it is a harsh criticism. The uke was well set up and very playable.

Unfortunately, there was very poor finishing around the area of the bridge where glue was applied (and there were similar, though less noticeable, cosmetic faults around all the glued bridges of the instruments I purchased). The uke also had a small dent in the back of the neck at the headstock end.

Despite the faults, I was relatively happy with the purchase. This is a very inexpensive solid-wood instrument with a nicely contoured body. It is just a shame that a lack of quality control has prevented this from representing truly exceptional value.

At this point the overall experience with Bruce Wei, including in term of shipping and communication, left me with enough confidence to make future purchases. I just hoped that the quality control issue would not arise again…

When the guitarlele arrived I was thrilled. This is a delightful instrument which feels very solid and has a beautiful bell-like tone with plenty of sustain. The bird inlays are also well implemented. All in all the instrument immediately turned me on to the new world of guitarleles (or guileless, or guileless or 1/4 sized guitars or whatever you want to call them). I am extremely grateful for this and hope to write and record for the instrument in the future.

However…

…under close inspection very fine cracking in the body to the rear and sides was revealed. This was hugely disappointing because my research into Bruce Wei had already uncovered many reports of cracking, potentially due to humidity change. The fact that this instrument already had cracks did not bode well for the future!

I contacted ‘Bruce Wei’ who responded quickly and, after seeing pictures of the faults, asked for the instrument to be returned. It was notable that there was no mention of refunding the return postage, although I assume this would have been covered. However, as my primary concern was to get hold of a perfect copy, I offered to purchase another one with a discount that would act as a partial refund.

By saving Bruce Wei the entire refund plus postage charges I actually expected a fairly substantial discount (!) but this wasn’t to be the case. The offer was only for free postage and, as I later found out, the actual amount charged for the second uke was MORE than the same model was being offered on eBay (without attracting bids)! Bearing in mind that this replacement purchase was being arranged outside of eBay and therefore costing Bruce Wei nothing in charges, there was no real discount at all. This was disappointing but I was still keen to get my first perfect guitarlele!

The first thing I noticed about the replacement instrument was that the strings were terribly corroded. I don’t know whether it was just the strings or the instrument itself which was old stock, but this didn’t fill me full of confidence. The neck binding was also rougher on this one and the frets were sharper at the high end. The biggest problem, however, is with uneven frets. there is terrible buzz at the fifth fret on the low ‘E’ (see the video below). The frets could probably be levelled, but this is very time consuming and they are very fine and shallow frets in the first place.

In total I have now paid around £250 in order to receive a non-cracked and fully playable guitarlele. And I still don’t have one!

This is a nice parlour-size instrument with a very solid build and rich tone. However, it does have some serious intonation problems. At the price (£300) it makes a decent compact practise guitar.

The mandola is a beautiful looking instrument but on close inspection it exhibits some poor finishing. Most importantly the bass strings have very pronounced fret buzz. At £230 this was probably the worst value of the bunch. (It was also unlucky that there was an additional £27 in customs charges for this delivery which would have taken the cost to over £250. Thankfully Bruce Wei did cover this charge but only because they had previously told me that no import taxes would need to be paid. It was made clear that customs charges are not normally covered by Bruce Wei, which is understandable.)

A very professional custom inlay was added to the headstock of the mandola. This was at a reasonable cost of £28. My only disappointment was that only simple font options were given. It would have been nice to be offered a slightly more elaborate design… Bruce Wei are usually very good at elaborate inlays!

Before forming a firm conclusion, I need to see what Bruce Wei’s response is to the problems with the guitarlele and the mandola. I made it very clear to the company that all the instruments were intended for recording purposes and would also be reviewed. It is a great shame that there appears to be quality control issues that have prevented me from any possibility of recording with these two particular examples. And the classic guitar, which could so easily have been stunning, was also marred by a lack of attention to playing detail. On the whole, the jury is ‘still out’ on this company, but if they just stepped up a notch, they could be a high calibre supplier. Frustrating …