Martin 0X Tenor Uke

A great-sounding, durable ukulele.

January 1, 2025

Already well-established as a premier guitar maker, Martin built its first ukulele in 1907, and the company began regular production of its style-1 soprano model in 1915. As with Martin’s guitars, vintage ukes are coveted by collectors and players alike, and Martin continues to produce new versions of classic models built with solid mahogany or figured koa wood. But Martin has also made an effort to create more affordable models, including its entry-level X series. We have previously demoed the soprano-size 0X Uke Bamboo and concert-size 0XK Concert Uke. Martin recently sent us an 0X Tenor Uke to check out, and in this video, I demo it in the Peghead Nation studio.

As its name indicates, the 0X Tenor Uke is a tenor ukulele, the third-largest standard ukulele size, after the soprano and concert. (Check out Marcy Marxer’s Welcome to the World of Ukuleles video, which is part of her Ukulele course on Peghead Nation, for a full run-down on uke sizes.) Like most tenor ukes, the 0X Tenor Uke has a 17-inch scale, resulting in a longer neck that players with large hands will find easier to manage than the shorter necks and fingerboards on smaller instruments. Like all X-series Martins, the 0X Tenor Uke’s body is built using a material called High Pressure Laminate (HPL), a composite material that fuses a special paper with resin using extremely high pressure. HPL is incredibly durable and highly impervious to changes in temperature and humidity, and it can be finished in a variety of ways. The 0X Tenor Uke is available with a black or “Sunset” sunburst finish option, and has traditional wooden bracing and kerfing on the inside. Similar to other X-series instruments, the neck is made from a birch laminate with a cool striped appearance. The instrument has Martin’s standard pointy ukulele peghead shape and is outfitted with open-gear Grover tuning machines. It also comes with a high-quality padded soft case with backpack straps.

The 0X Tenor Uke is a fun instrument to play. It was set up with low action that made it very easy to play, but was also high enough to allow for typical strumming techniques without string buzz. I have large hands, so I appreciated the fretboard space that the tenor size provides. In the video, I strum some chord patterns and play through a bit of Marcy Marxer’s arrangement of the jazz standard “Autumn Leaves” (which she teaches in her course). The 0X Tenor Uke more than proved that it can easily keep up with different playing dynamics, and it had precise intonation, making it easy to tune.

The 0X Tenor Uke is a great display of Martin’s ability to combine its long history of building ukuleles with its ability to build value-packed instruments at a relatively low cost.

Martin 0X Tenor Uke Specs