The
Enya Nova U Concert
and the
Enya Nova U Mini

Why did we get these specific ukuleles?

My wife Patty and I are spending most of our time in our RV moving about the country.

We have a guitar and banjo we are learning to play, but they are large and take up space. We do not have the room to comfortably play them together. Then we discovered Ukuleles!!!! We can both be sitting on our couch having a blast playing, without getting whacked in the cheek with a banjo head.

Among the many ukuleles we own or have played, we wanted some ukuleles that would withstand the harshest environments. A wooden ukulele is very susceptible to heat, cold and humidity. We try to keep our wood ukuleles at 50% relative humidity. That’s another story for a different day or video. We need ukuleles that are durable and resilient. You know, the kind you can leave in the truck for days at a time and not worry about them breaking or cracking from the extreme temperature changes. So we bought both the Enya Nova U Concert size ukulele and the Enya Nova U Mini soprano size.

As far as durability, these totally satisfy that need. All of my wooden ukuleles have humidifiers in them but not these. We could play these in the rain or in the desert. We are spending this winter in dry Arizona. As far as leaving these in the truck, the truck gets extremely hot in the day and cold at night. I still feel safe with the Nova Us in the truck, especially because they come with cases that will insulate them as well as protect them from getting whacked. These cases can protect the ukuleles from having their temperature change rapidly. I would not want my solid wood ukulele closed up in the truck, even for an hour on a hot day. With the Enya carbon fiber Nova U this is not a concern.

The construction

All of the products in the Enya Nova U line are composed strictly of polymers (except for the tuning gears). This is not the same material you will find in a toy ukulele though. The Nova U has a percentage of carbon fiber mixed into the composite to give it extra strength, rigidity and to allow the body to be thin enough to resonate. I have inquired to find out what this % of carbon fiber is but I have not been successful.

As you can see in the photos, the entire instrument is one complete piece. The body, bridge, saddle, neck, frets, nut and head are all modeled as a single unit. Notice that the saddle is compensated. That is a nice touch to help with intonation. The Nova U comes in many colors. Take note that, whatever color you choose will be entirely that color. This includes the frets. We ended up buying black ukuleles in both the Concert and Mini size. One of the first things we noticed was that the frets are hard to see. Having your frets be the same color as the fretboard adds a little to the challenge of making music. The latest version of the Nova U is the Pro version. This has nickel frets and a few other improvements. However this is only available as a Tenor size as of this writing. Hopefully Enya will produce the Concert and Mini in a Pro version. The Nova U comes with clear Enya Fluorocarbon strings. I replaced these with white Aquila Super Nylgut strings. This made it a little easier to see the frets but not as easy as with nickel frets. Of course, as you learn more, you need to look less.

The body on the Nova U is thinner than a standard ukulele. Like most “travel” ukuleles the body is about ⅔ as thick as a standard model. This thin shape is notably different when playing. The first is obvious, the thinner body does not have as deep of a sound as a regular ukulele. This is true of all thinner body travel-style instruments. The thinner the body, the more difficult it is to hold when you play. This is especially true if you are used to playing a regular sized instrument, regardless of whether it is a ukulele or a guitar. One thing that I need to mention about the Nova U is that the material surface is a bit more slick than I would like. I am not saying it is slippery, it just kind of slides out from you while you are playing it. The strap helps. The strap helps a lot! It is great that is comes with preinstalled strap buttons and a strap.

The Nova U Concert and the Nova U Mini are almost identical. Besides the size, the only difference is the Nova U Concert has a second sound hole on the top. You can see the difference in the photo.

Each version has fret markers on both the fretboard and the top of the neck. They each come with a padded gig bag. The bag for the Nova U Concert version is a soft, self supporting, shaped bag where the bag for the Nova U Mini is less padded. You can see the difference in the photos.

The Sound Quality

The sound quality of both versions of the Nova U are a lot better than you expect when you first see these ukuleles. As I referred to previously, they are manufactured from a single, molded piece of polymer. They look like they could be a kids toy. Yet they sound truly acoustic, with a really nice tone. This makes them a toy for adults!!! Each has a sound hole under the strings that is in the shape of the Enya logo. The Concert version has a second sound hole (see photo). This, as well as the fact, that it is larger, makes the concert a bit louder and less trebly than the Mini. They both have a nice tone. Blind folded you would never guess that they were both purely composite. Neither has the sound of a wooden ukulele however each has a very pleasing, bright yet sweet, tone. The intonation on each is also very good. The compensated saddle helps with this. Watch my Youtube review or other review to get a sample of the sound quality. There are some Youtubers out there that can really make the Nova U come alive. I am still in the beginning stage of playing. Is there an end stage!?

Bang for the Buck

The Enya Nova U Concert can be found for $70 or less. The Mini can cost as little as $50. We found them on sale and got both for just over $100. There are a lot of cheap ukuleles out there on Amazon. You can get a ukulele for a lot less. But you will be getting a cheap laminated ukulele. Often these sound a little dead and are hard to keep in tune. The Nova Us are not the highest quality ukuleles out there, but they are definitely quality ukuleles and worth the money. For the money, you get a lot. These are nice sounding, durable, unique ukuleles. They have good geared tuners that keep them in tune. They come with a gig bag and a strap. The cheapest strap I own was at least $12. That's 25% of what a Nova U Mini goes for on sale. And, it comes with a gig bag plus the strap. I read and watch a lot of product reviews. When the Nova U is compared to other ukuleles in the sub $100 price range, it is usually at or near the top choice.