DK vs. KSR Kanileʻa Ukulele Comparison Full Explanation of Two Models

Kaimana Souza presents DK vs. KSR Kanileʻa Ukulele Model Comparison

Kaimana Souza explains what they are and compares these two models in this video blog

Camped fingers. Sore forearm. Fingertip calluses. ʻUkulele players who truly love to play are all too familiar with the "price we pay to play." But there are features incorporated in our DK and KSR models that can provide comfort and better playability. 

TRANSCRIPTS

Aloha i'm kaiman asuza here in the kanila sound studio and if we were to list out all of our model variations it would be three pages long with two columns at size nine font you can say we have a lot of model variations but we wanted to make this video to help you understand just two of them and really dive into the ksr and the dk right here on the breakdown [Music] now the ksr and the dk are our player friendly models both specifically designed with comfort features with the player in mind we wanted to design these models to be played for hours on end and not feel any fatigue whether that's on stage in your bedroom practicing or in front of family and friends both instruments have some similarities but also some differences which we'll look at later in the video first let's look at the similarities both instruments both models have our traditional which means flat top thin slotted headstock so very thin profile here specifically designed to fit these goto stealth tuners a japanese made tuner with swiss watch parts with an 18 to 1 gear ratio and they're very lightweight so your fretting hand doesn't have any weight to hold up and the ksr and the dk both have an armrest here different materials which we'll look at both models also have an ebony head plate fretboard bridge with bridge pins both have white mother of pearl logo inlays front position markers and side position markers in terms of similarities that is about it so let's look at the differences between the two the ksr is available in super concert tenor and super tenor sizes it's available in select deluxe premium and master grade wood options and it's available in gloss silk and natural finish options so quite the high variability in terms of wood and finish but only available in super concert tenor and super tenor and the only real added feature is this nice koa armrest that we have here which sits under your playing forearm and really just takes away that 90 degree edge so in combination with the lightweight headstock as well as the armrest under here you know we're getting a very comfortable instrument to play for hours on end that's the ksr model and something to note with the similarities would be slotted headstock other than removing mass and making it much lighter with this break angle off the nut as opposed to going to the top of the headstock we're going into the headstock which creates a steeper angle break off the nut here which increases tension across the scale length increasing some tone and some resonance with our beautiful dk model introduced in 2021 modeled off our 2020 platinum we have the real kicker the d-shaped sound hole as well as the side port now we'll touch on that in just a second but we have an abs black front binding with an ebony armrest so same feature just a different material this is an ebony armrest that is put on there and shaped nicely so you have a nice rounded edge under your playing arm now the reason that we use an off-centered sound hole is to open up the area of our soundboard to give us more flexibility and more vibration in the soundboard i can do a slight little test here to show you what i mean and why losing sound hole to the side is actually slightly better than having a sound hole in the center now if we tap the edges versus the center you're going to hear a major difference [Music] you can really hear the tone and the volume when i tap down the center versus the edge so by moving the sound hole to the side allowing that center to be open and free to vibrate we're increasing the volume the tone and the resonance with our side port what we're doing is we're creating a monitor for you as the player when you're in player position some of that sound is exiting the body to you so you can hear it as the player instead of all the sound traveling out to the audience our dk model is available only in tenor and super-tenor only available in gloss silk and natural and only available in deluxe premium and master grade wood options so not quite as variable as the ksr but you can get really what you want i hope you enjoyed today's breakdown of our ksr and our dk model if you like this please hit the like button we have a bunch of other videos as well that can kind of give you more insight to our sizes our wood grades our finish options and really have a better understanding of everything that we do here at khan and that's the purpose of these videos that we do to really share about who we are and what we do so to continue staying up to date please subscribe to our Youtube channel if you have any questions please comment we'll be sure to get back to you and keep on strumming out there stay safe aloha.

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Kanileʻa ʻUkulele Model Comparison DK vs. KSR