Harley Benton DC-Ukulele CH Reviews

the SG replica that you always wanted

I just love this little guy! Stays well in tune, and has much better tuning than most of the other acoustic ukuleles I have used. Build quality seems good, it looks really cool (didn't you want to play AC/DC with a ukulele?), and it is sturdy.

This uses a passive piezo, so even though connecting it to an amplifier "just works", I believe a dynamic compressor is needed to reduce the output dynamic (sustain can be relatively low, while the click when fingerpicking can be high...). If they ever made a preamplified version, might be worth the investment.

Only thing I found weird is that the "tone" potentiometer actually lowers the volume too, which does not really make sense to me, and in general makes the tone control a little useless: you only have a brilliant tone, and you can tweak it with an equalizer in the amplifier.

Still this is a very good instrument for the price!

Looks great, sound misses bass

I bought for silent practice, but would have liked to use it on stage as well. Main problem is the tone controls influence the volume. If I add bass with my amp the sound is much closer to my Epiphone Les Paul ukulele. So if you want silent practice and great looks, go for it. Amplified I would definitely choose another Ukulele, like the Epiphany.

As good as it gets for 50 Euros

Just change strings.

The ones that come by default look as if made out of fishing line, they keep on stretching indefinitely, so the uke is almost always out of tune!

Apart form that, the painting is top notch, but if you open the back cover, OK, it should have better finish even to the spots that are not visible...

The reason I opened the back cover was to check the wiring because the tone control doesn't seem to be doing much, I will probably have to do some rewiring.

These minor issues aside, the HB DC Uke is a fine little instrument!

Tone Control Fix

As others have commented, I found that the initial problem with the Uke was that both volume and tone controls acted as volume controls. Upon inspection I discovered that the wiring was incorrect. I don?t know if this is down to fault of the schematic that it was wired to or a fault when being manufactured. I rewired the potentiometers to be in a standard electric guitar configuration. This however did not initially fix the problem. After a bit of testing and changing of the capacitor to a different value I settled on 2nF as a good value to replace the stock, this resolved the issue. Anything within the range on about 1-10nF will work but I think the best thing to do is to experiment with values till you find the correct value for you.

In conclusion; check that the wiring is correct to a standard guitar schematic (widely available). If it isn?t then that?s a good place to start. If both still function as volume controls then look at changing the capacitor to a value better suited to ukulele frequencies..

Enjoy!

Awful hum

When plugged in to the amp the Uke hummed and buzzed. Unusable. It needs an active pick up

Overall very nice Ukulele

I mainly nought it for the shape

Mine has some ground issue and has an annoying hum that has become better after re soldering the electronics. It was wrongly soldered inside so bout knobs worked as volume knobs and not volume and tone.

This Ukulele will be put on my wall as a decoration and will most likely order some other Ukulele to play on unless I figure a way to get rid of the grounding issue

NOT usable

Cut to the chase: my issue is simply that the thing is totally unscreened, hence unbelievable amount of hum and buzz, consequently unusable. Obviously it's designed to be used esclusively amplified/DId. With this amount of hum it's just impossible. Aòlso arrived with strings totally untuned, when I started tuning I immediately broke one of the (very poor quality) strings. VERY disappointing. NOT recommended.

Harley Benton DC-UKE

This was my first electric ukulele. Other than this, I have a mahalo soprano and a custom made banjolele. When I first opened the box, I was amazed at how beautiful this little uke is. The finish is much better than what you can see on the pictures and you can actually see some wood grain. I wasn't 10% pleased with the finish tough, as it had some scratches at the end of the neck. After playing it for a couple of days, I found it to be very confortable. There are no sharp fret ends, the neck is straight and it intonates perfectly till the 15th fret. After that, it's a little off, so I may try to adjust it. The factory strings are quite ok for an instrument this cheap. After they were broken in, the uke stays in tune quite well. I also love the neck. It's a quite chunky D-shaped neck. After plugging in and running it through my pedalboard, I found no additional noise. The piezo is quite harsh on the high end, so I use an EQ pedal to roll off the highs a bit. I have one complain about the controls. It's supposed to have 1 volume and 1 tone control. Mine seems to have 2 volume controls, since when I roll either one of them to zero, there is no volume. The tone would be very useful to tame the piezo. This is my only major complain. Overal, it's still an amazing ukulele for the price. It is NOT perfect nor comparable to mid to high end ukes, but holds its own against some 100?-200? solid body ukes on the market.

Not bad...

Okay, before I say anything, I did not pay a lot of money for this. It's unfair to expect a hand luthiered, fine crafted instrument.

But it did come with a free gig bag...

The set up was okay, the finish was okay, it sounds okay.

Okay. Nothing special. Not bad... But seriously, what do you expect? It's certainly good enough to play (based on my limited experience of ukuleles) and good enough to use as a practice instrument. It's a great value little thing.

All things considered, should you buy one? Just look at it! It looks so cool! Of course you should buy one! And yes. It sounds mad through a guitar amp... I know you were wondering.

I bought this to hang up in my house next to my LTD Viper (of a similar colour), but now I find myself taking up the ukulele.

A good offering that is a lot of fun!

Good and cheap.

Not being the best and most expensive Ukulele on the market, the Harley Benton DC-Ukulele is still worthy of owning. Featuring a pickup system that works surprisingly well, I'm able to use it for my more experimental music-projects.

The sound quality when connected to an amplifier is good. Nothing more to say about that. It's easy to control, quite comfortable to play with and at this price I also need to say affordable.

The Ukulele features only one strap pin, which is one of the few things i need to complain about here. Also it's a bit slow reacted when connected to a tuner. (Tip: use a Clip-on tuner).

It's one for you who don't want a usual Ukulele, but that kind that you can connect to an amplifier. But don't expect to rock too hard with it, this Ukulele is made only for the clean tones.

great little uke - with an AC/DC vibe!

This is a great little uke. Tunes up and stays in tune well. Need to experiment more to get the optimum amplified sound out of it (it can be a bit trebly), but backing off the tone helps enormously. Easy to hold and balance, even without a strap (it's not as light as an acoustic uke, but the extra weight isn't an issue). And the great thing about it is that it looks great! Gigged it last night at an open mic and the audience agreed it was very AC/DC! Wonder if Angus has one of these... :o)

Harley Benton have delivered again

Just awesome!!!!

If I said nothing else about this little ukulele, awesome would still cover it!

It's great, sound, looks, value, just awesome.

I love playing it, I really do. Very easy to learn on and keep jamming all night.

The cherry finish is deep enough to drown in, and its fun factor is huge!

A fast fingerboard, smooth playing capability and fantastic build quality.

And played through some effects is incredible, some very unique sounds and effects can be created unlike anything you will get from any guitar.

I am seriously considering buying a second one just so I can say I've got two!