Harley Benton Kahuna CLU-Bass Mahogany Uke

I have trouble playing long scale bass so I wanted to try this. I didn't expect much but this little thing really surprised me positively. My family has some long scale electric bass guitars too and of course this is quite different from them and the intonation is not that accurate but I really like to play this.

This also doesn't have much sustain but for my purposes it's good enough and the rest can be fixed with a sustain pedal.

The original A-string was quite bumpy. It was much thinner at some places and when a thin part happened to hit a fret, it was almost impossible to get a clean sound. Thomann customer care helped me with the issue and now I have a set of Aquila UBass Strings Thundergut strings which are much better.

I have a standard bass guitar (a Yamaha) but I wanted to try out a U-Bass for several reasons - the unique sonics (sounding close to an acoustic double bass at a fraction of the size), the portability, the ease of play (no blisters or calluses with this bass...), sheer curiosity to how it would play and of course the eye-turning form factor...

My uses are mainly sofa playing in front of the TV as well as recording in my home studio.

So how did this U-Bass fare regarding my above expectations? Basically it excelled in most of them.

Pros:
- Great sound.
- Easy to play once you get used to the rubber strings.
- More that acceptable pickup which works well both with an amp as well as plugged in direct to the mixers insert.
- The ADG strings sound fantastic and stay in tune all the way up to the 22nd fret.
- Turns head...

Cons:
- The E string is problematic. It sounds different than the other strings. It's distinctly softer. It also feels muted and not as bright as the other 3 strings. And worst of all - it goes out of tune beyond the 5th fret, so basically you can go up from E to A and that's about it. Takes time to adjust playing style so that it blends with the rest of strings seamlessly.
- Tuning is weird, but that's due to the rubber strings. Basically - you have to turn the tuners several turns for even a slightest change in pitch.
- It doesn't stay in tune very well. Maybe this will improve over time as the strings settle.
- You need to adjust playing style slightly when recording in order to minimize finger noise (which can be rather loud through the pickup).

So overall - a great U-Bass definitely worth the price with a more than capable pickup for recording purposes.