Harley Benton Kahuna CLU-Bass Mahogany Uke Reviews

Excellent

Another great instrument from Harley Benton that, by far, surpasses it's price tag. I read the other reviews regarding strings, tuning, intonation and pick up problems/differing string signal strength and I have no problems whatsoever. I did need to adjust the truss rod but that is all I needed. Plugged it in and played away. Nygut strings are strange to play but the tone range is immense.

Shocking price for this instrument

I thought there was an issue with this early on when E string seemed much quieter than the others. With a quick search I discovered the bridge needs to have a slight gap on both sides for pickup to work. Once I solved this I haven't looked back. Unbelievable sound for such a small thing. Great fun and well worth the price

Very practical for rehearsal!

A very funny small instrument, for praticing, very portable. Nice sound for the price. A little difficult to tune due to the silicone strings, but after that it sound deep... almost as a upright bass.

It arrived as crap, master adjusted string heigths and pieso was so crap and glued incorrectly so he placed new one, cost was 100 eur.But now it plays well and happy with it, nice little and low weight to carry.Tensioners are bad too!

Too much fun

If you haven't tried a Uke bass yet, all you really need to know is that they're hilariously fun to play. Chunky strings, great tone, fun to put through an amplifier. These are also the perfect size to take anywhere, or just leave around the house for spontaneous practice. A great "toy" that also happens to be a seriously capable instrument in its own right. Plus at this price it's hard to argue against. I own a lot of different basses, few have brought me as much joy as this thing.

Great instrument, especially for the price

While I did this this as a gift for my sibling, I use it often myself, and I can easily say I was blown away. Not having a U-Bass previously made it hard to figure out exactly how useful it would be, but we’ve been able to use it in a lot of fun situations. It’s perfect for playing unplugged, but works great amped up too. Harley Benton kicks bass!

Interesting sound

A fun to play bass. Needs frequent tuning but overall ok

Good quality U Bass

This instrument is really comfortable to play and i love to leave it laying in my sofa for some quick practicing and song writing.

Good Low end Uke bass

Pros:

Great sound and nice onboard options to change tone.

Cons:

Cheap electronics and hardware. Mine came with very poorly wound strings

Fab Bass

I love my Uke bass it looks and feals fabulous and sounds great. Ideal for that acoustic sound

This could have been a great instrument...

if it wasn't ruined by an improperly installed pickup which made the E string almost inaudible when played through an amp. I do not understand how did this pass QC. Everything else seemed great, but this issue is just unacceptable. I have returned it without hesitation.

Really good

Good sound for good price.

I highly recommend it for practice and learn.

For these cases I cannot see any clear cons.

nice piece for fooling around

I use it as a toy thing while traveling and is good for this job

E string sounds way quieter as the others and is far less resistant, like it was from set of lower gauge

Intonation is satisfying, sound in highest position weak

Good U-Bass with a few drawbacks

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.

First time uke-bass user

A very nice product. It is hard to tune, but that is normal, if you must trust youtube :-) Good sound.

to expensive for its quality

Great little bass

Great little uke bass. Great for faking a double bass but also for other types of bass lines. Pickup quality is amazing, sounds like it was eq'd by a pro out of the box.

Good Value, Strings improperly installed

Good value for the price; it needed some setup, especially I had to reinstall a couple of strings unproperly installed.

Good setup and sound. Heavy laminate body.

The bass is constructed from laminate with very thin mahogany facings. I was a little disappointed by this as the description states the top back and sides are mahogany.

You can clearly see the composition of the laminate by examining the edges of the body. What looks like a lighter coloured binding is in fact the core of the laminate. The laminate is quite thick making the instrument feel on the heavy side.

Other negatives are the layout of the tuners on the headstock which results in the A string coming into contact with the windings of the E string on the adjacent tuner. I also didn?t like the operation of the active electronics which automatically switch to tuner mode when plugged in. You have to press the tuner button to hear the instrument every time it's plugged in. (This bass shares the same electronics as the Goldtone micro bass which is 3 times the price !)

I really like the traveller style body very like the Goldtone micro bass. I think standard ukulele bodies look out of proportion on a ubass. The setup out of the box was good with the twelfth fret action around 3mm. Most notes sounded cleanly and I only noticed a slight buzz on the A string at the 5th fret. Intonation was good on the EAD strings but a bit sharp on the G. This maybe down to the strings.

General finish was very good with a very nice looking fingerboard and no sharp fret ends.

Overall I'm very pleased with the instrument which for the price represents excellent value. Playability and sound are comparable to instruments many times the price.