This Baton Rouge is an all solid model using the parent company's rECOtimber method to allow the use of indigenous woods, rather than reply on imported tropical hardwoods. This technique, developed with the Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development, involves treating wood with heat to harden and season it, making it suitable for instrument production.

Using this forward thinking technique, this tenor ukulele has been made using wood from Germany, with solid spruce on the top and solid Wild Service on the back and sides. The latter might be an unfamiliar name, but it is a tree native to Germany (and the 'service' in the name comes from the fact the Romans used to use it to flavour beer). Now this wood has been pressed into service to make an affordable, well-appointed, all solid tenor uke.

The Baton Rouge UTW-T has a wider, 37mm nut, a comfort edge, asymmetric fingerboard position markers, geared tuners and a fitted strap button, together with an abalone soundhole decoration. The fingerboard and bridge are made from dark eucalyptus.

The sound has a pop of brightness from the Aquila strings, with a good bass response. The tone delivered is full, with some nice warmth, but it projects well and never seems underpowered or muddy.

These are very well priced ukuleles, given the specification. If you check closely there may be tiny imperfections in the finish, but we're talking tiny forensic details, which are more than compensated for by the really impressive list of features and the full, bass-rich tone.