Affordable, lightweight Ukulele?

My buddy has a backpacking guitar. he thru-hiked with it. Quiet, but fully functional and only about 1.5lbs.

I used to play this one:
http://www.guitarcenter.com/Mitchell-MU70-12-Fret-Concert-Ukulele-103815981-i1171408.gc
Good quality, but not a bank breaker.

I were to buy another, I'd just get a cheaper one, something like this:http://www.guitarcenter.com/Rogue-Hawaiian-Soprano-Ukulele-519269-i1150534.gcIf

I will be thru hiking with mine.

Do you know what he did for a case/water protection?

I am currently trying to brainstorm ideas.

I'd like for the Uke and the case to be 24 oz or less.

http://outdoorukulele.com/

You can find cheap ukes really easily. They have a $50 one at the bookstore on campus at the university where I work.

Another alternative, and what I like to play, is something called a Strumstick. Gosh it's so much fun to play! It's nothing like a ukulele or a guitar as far as tuning and chords go, but they do make a ukulele version of it if you can't adapt to an instrument tuned in 5ths with a diatonic fret scale.

Kala makes some nice cheaper ukes. Best sounding ukes for $100 or less in my opinion. Pretty light too, I'd weigh mine but I'm out of town at the moment.

Have you considered building a strum stick-type instrument?

I bought a cheap rogue brand mandolin off musicians friend and it sounds and plays well. My brother got one that arrived needing a fret job so I'd double check their return policy.

Temperature and humidity swings are hard on instruments so I'd go cheap and plywood and be ready to tune it every time you play it.

REI has one that's also a water filter.

Jk.. :-P

I had not, but I will probably attempt making that, thanks!

Craigslist has tons of great cheap ones,a hundred bucks should get a really nice one and they are all very light, mine is bamboo.
http://artofhookie.org/2012/01/11/cabin-fever/

I was traveling with a cheap soprano that I ended up tossing because the intonation was so bad. I picked up a 24 oz Kala Tenor and the sound is so much more full.

As far as lightest, here's a list I found of sopranos and a couple tenors:

Scale Length-Brand-Model-Construction-Weight/Grams
Soprano-Makala-Dolphin (Yellow)-ABS/Laminate 459
Soprano-Makala-Dolphin (Purple)-ABS/Laminate 433
Soprano-Makala-Dolphin (Pink)-ABS/Laminate 468
Soprano-Mainland-Chili! -ABS/Laminate 433
Soprano-Mainland-Honeybee-Mahogany 396
Soprano-Lanikai-LU-21 – Lam/Mahogany 360
Soprano-Gstring-M1 Longneck-Koa-366
Soprano-Vintage-No-name 30's-Mahogany-300
Soprano-Vintage-Camp Uke – Birch?-303
Soprano-Martin-20's Style O-Mahogany 260
Soprano-Martin-50's Style O-Mahogany 283
Soprano-Kamaka-Keiki 70's-Mahogany-343
Soprano-Sailor-SPC-S-Cherry/Spruce-393
Soprano-KoAloha-Pikake-Koa-355

Tenor-KoAloha-Super Concert-Koa-568
Tenor-LoPrinzi-Model A-Mahogany-556
Tenor-Fender-No'hea-Lam/Koa-662

http://forum.ukuleleunderground.com/showthread.php?46574-The-weight-of-your-Ukulele

+1 on the Kala

I think mine was around $30 from Guitar Center. The sopranos are smaller and I'm assuming weigh less. If you want to get better sound from a cheaper uke, change out the srtings to Aquila brand. They made a huge difference for me.

Did some research on awesome sound out of cheap Uke's while back and settled on:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0056I8STQ/

That said, I immediately replaced the strings with:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003NJF1G8/

Awesome sounding and not too $$

I just had to share this photo from my 2011 AT hike. Looks like someone got a little frustrated!

Just discovered Jake Shimabukuro. Wow.

I think http://outdoorukulele.com (14 oz when I last communicated with them) is the way to go as mentioned since it's hard plastic and isn't as fragile as a wood one and have no issues with moisture … they used to have a camo colored one …. and they're only $100 ….

That being said, I beat the hell out of my Martin Tenor 2 recently over about 6 weeks beach hopping / Island hopping around Hawaii …. cut limes for some Dos Equis on the back and even rolled a doobie (medicinal, of course) on it on Black Sand Beach on Maui and it fared fine, but the tuners were rusted to hell and had to disassemble and clean them completely …. they looked like they had been on the beach for years … apart from knicks and scratches, wood was stronger than I anticipated ….

Since this is Backpacking Light ,then it’s all about carbon fiber ;) Here is a VIDEO

Love carbon fiber, but damn …. ugliest instruments I've ever seen! Not cheap either. :)

Yes as you can see in my post it was not a serious suggestion, but I actually really like the way it looks , but to each their own.

20.8oz for the carbon fiber tenor and 25.6oz for my Kala Tenor. Not a great savings there.

Ya , again it was not a serious post just thought people on here might find it funny that it was carbon fiber, but I guess nobody got it … oh well, I look forward to reading all the posts about the terrible carbon fiber uke and why you shouldn't get it.

Think we got it :)