Ukulele starter kits: what you need beyond the ukulele

Why the ukulele accessory list is so short

A first violin needs rosin, a shoulder rest, a case and a setup before it makes a decent sound. A first clarinet needs reeds, a swab, cork grease and a mouthpiece it probably did not come with. The ukulele needs almost nothing, and that is a large part of why this site recommends it so often to a nervous first-time buyer.

Which means the accessory conversation is not about length, it is about order. There are four things worth buying and a clear sequence to buy them in, and the mistake people make is buying the decorative ones first.

We have not played these accessories and do not claim to have. Sizes, padding figures, fit and attachment methods below are read from the makers’ published listings on a dated visit — see how we work.

What a ukulele bundle actually includes

Most budget ukuleles are sold two ways: bare, or as a bundle with a bag, a tuner, a strap and some picks. The bundles are usually reasonable value and the contents are usually the cheapest possible version of each item.

The order to buy things in

1. 1

   A tuner, before anything else

   A ukulele goes out of tune faster than any other beginner instrument because nylon strings stretch for weeks after fitting. An untuned ukulele sounds bad no matter who is playing it, and a beginner cannot tell the difference between a bad instrument and an out-of-tune one.

2. 2

   A padded bag, if it leaves the house

   If the ukulele lives on a stand in a bedroom, the bundle sleeve is fine. If it goes to school, to a lesson or to a grandparent's house, padding is the difference between a knock and a crack.

3. 3

   A method book, by week two

   The gap between 'I can play four chords' and 'I can play a song' is where most beginners quit, and a book is what bridges it. Books also pay this site more than instruments do, which is disclosed on every page.

4. 4

   A strap, if there is a child or a standing player

   A seated adult can hold a ukulele against the body with the forearm. A child frequently cannot, and the hand that should be fretting ends up supporting the instrument instead.

5. 5

   Spare strings, before you need them

   Budget ukuleles often ship with strings that are the cheapest component. A set of decent nylgut strings costs about ten dollars and changes the instrument more than any other ten dollars you can spend on it.

Straps, and the strap-button problem

Here is the thing nobody mentions before you buy a strap: most soprano ukuleles have no strap buttons. A guitar strap hooks onto two pins fitted at the factory. A typical first ukulele has one at the bottom if you are lucky, and often none at all.

That gives three options. You can have a shop fit strap buttons, which is a real and permanent modification to a new instrument and costs more than the strap. You can use a single cord strap that loops behind the neck and hooks into the sound hole, which is what most bundles supply. Or you can use a two-point strap with hooks that clip on without drilling, which is the compromise most beginners should start with — it spreads the load across two points without anyone taking a drill to a new instrument.

Both strap types are below. The honest trade is that a sound-hole hook puts load on the instrument’s top rather than on a fitted pin, which is fine for something that weighs as little as a ukulele and would not be acceptable on a guitar.

Bags: size is the whole specification

Ukulele bags are sized by the instrument, and soprano, concert, tenor and baritone are genuinely different lengths. A concert ukulele does not fit a soprano bag, and a soprano in a concert bag slides around inside it, which is worse than a snug unpadded sleeve.

If you are not sure which size you have, our ukulele size guide covers how to tell and which size suits which player. Buy the bag for the instrument you own, not the one you might upgrade to.

Padding is the other number, and it is one of the few places where listings publish something checkable. A figure in millimeters is worth more than the word “padded”, and 10 mm is the sensible budget floor.

What we picked, and why

The criteria: does it solve a problem that actually stops a beginner playing, is the fit specified rather than assumed, and is it proportionate to a ukulele that frequently costs under a hundred dollars. That last one rules a lot of things out — a sixty-dollar case on a fifty-dollar ukulele is not a recommendation, it is a different purchase.

The tuner at the top is the same clip-on this site recommends for guitar, because a chromatic clip-on tuner does not care what instrument it is clamped to and buying one good one beats buying two mediocre ones. Everything else is sized specifically for a ukulele, with the size stated on each.

For the instrument itself, start at the best beginner ukuleles; if you are weighing it against a first guitar, we compare them directly at ukulele against guitar for beginners. The guitar version of this page is at guitar starter kits, and the pick question — which matters far less on a ukulele — is covered at guitar picks for beginners.