Harley Benton Kahuna CLU-Bass Ukulele Reviews

Fun add-on for a bass player

It's a great add-on to use if you don't want to carry a double bass. Amplified the sound gets quite near. And it's unbelievably cheap.

If you want the real sound I guess the fretless one is better but then the finger positioning will need to be very accurate because of the short scale.

Fun to play with

I would not recommend it for professional use. It had to be set up by a professional luthier before use. Fun instrument for the price.

Very nice

A very nice portable instrument. The onboard tuner is very useful. The sound is "OK", especially when it is plugged in. Without an amp don't expect to be heard loud, but it is very logical for such a small bass instrument. The EQ is pretty good too. It sure is a value for money.

Impressive

I was looking for an instrument that could replace a bass + amp, for jamming / songwriting session, so an acoustic bass seemed to be the ideal solution, but I don't like how big regular acoustic basses seem to be.

This is perfect, as the (acoustic) sound is impressive, and way louder than you would expect. It is very light and small to carry around everywhere.

I had my 1st gig ever with it yesterday night, so it was plugged into a sound system, and it did not disappoint at all, as the sound was very round and warm... and loud! :)

The build quality is also very nice and solid, nothing bad to say about this.

The only negative point I would have to say against bass ukuleles in general is about the strings: as they are in a different material than regular basses, they tend to grip, both on the left and right hand, so it is a bit harder to play: you can't strum too hard, and you can't really slide on the neck.

Great for the money - maybe needs better strings

All of my review should be taken in the context of the price - this is cheap as chips for a uBass, and I only bought it to make sure that I was serious about learning the instrument before buying a better uBass. I didn't want to spend ¤500 on something that would gather dust after a month.

Sound quality is so-so. Bit of buzzing on the strings/frets, but that could be down to me as a learner. Tuning isn't as straightforward as a regular uke, as the string tension doesn't respond well to peg turning. The strings lodge in the nut, so you've to lift the strings out of the nut for the tension change to take effect, as you rotate the tuning pegs. One of the strings is significantly less loud than the others.

The pickup is the weakest point - buzzy and slight distortion.

The built-in tuner is pretty useless, so get an external tuner if you want to be in tune.

Sounds great plugged in and unplugged. Only slight problem is the strings but you get used to them after playing and stretching the strings. Currently looking to change the strings but apart from that, the ubass is good

Excellent

Couldn't be better for the price tag. It's a joy to play this beauty. Sounds awesome connected to a amp.

heap and fun

Decent and fully-utilized instrument for the low price. Not professional quality but still incredibly fun to play.

Can't beat it at this prce

It plays pretty well out of the box and sounds great, but I would reccomend to change the strings and have a luthier set it up so it doesn't buzz.

Fantastic little bass.

Just the job for practising, playing acoustically with friends or amplified to get that upright bass sound.

Tried a few others out before settling on this and I?m glad I did.

One piece of advice is - be patient when when you first get it when tuning the strings, they stretch a lot at first, like a lot! but once they have settled down they hardly need to be touched.

All in all a fantastic little bass. Terrific value for money. Well recommended.

Great bass uke for a small price

Can't really compare it to other bass ukes, as it's the only one I've tried, so going to compare what it feels like to a full sized bass. It sounds great acoustically, but only on the middle two strings (A and D) other two string will only sounds good when amplified. As expected, string don't hold tuning well, until they stretch properly. But bigger problem is tone offset by anything above 12th fret. For it's +0.25 tone of 12th fret for G string, which is a lot. Possibly can be fixed with other strings. But since barely possible to play on anything above 12th fret anyway, I'm not too fussy about it. Overall, it's a good instrument I enjoy playing when I don't want to connect my main bass guitar.

Very good for the price!

Seems solidly built! All in all, a very good instrument for a very low price!

+

Low price

Solidly built

Sounds very good on amp/PA.

Decent output volume.

-

Hard to keep in tune, probably because the strings stick to the nut.

Treble filter on eq adds annoying scratching sounds and noises. Keep treble low, and it sounds great!

I enjoy this one very much, and have used it on many gigs!

i mean! for this price !

the price/quality ratio is good i think

i like it !

Found my acoustic bass

Have it for almost a month. This ubass has a perfect acoustic tone. It is unbelievable how such a small instrument can deliver this tone. For home practice you don't need an amp. With a guitar and drums you can plug it in an amp. Played in an acoustic setting (two guitars and vocals), and sounded like a charm. The strings felt a little bit weird at first, but got used to them very quickly. No particular problems with tuning. Highly recommend it to anyone wanting to have a true acoustic sound.

Great little instrument

This is a fantastic Ukebass, small, lightweight and great sound. I am a guitarsit but bought this bass so i can play sometimes for fun. I played at some gigs, and my friend played it on a radio show. Definitely worth the money!

Fun Ubass.. don't expect miracles

I ordered this Ubass with a pair of thundergut strings because on the internet, people where complaining about the "sticky" strings (they're like rubbery elastic). It turned out the Ubass actually is equiped with thundergut strings which are still very "sticky". The CLU Ubass is a fun instrument and it does sound a little like upright bass. I was planning on taking it to gigs as a backup for my URB but to be honest, even though it's great fun to play, I doesn't come close and I would not gig with it. Some positions have serieus rattle 'n' hum, it's fun but no more than that. When connected to an amp, the sound is impressive and the controls are very efficient. Also the internal tuner is handy (but not that accurate compared to a "serious" tuner). A fun but not a professional instrument. Of course you can't expect that for the price but still, for a gimmick it's a little too expensive. I'm ordering the HB electric URB, probably a better backup.

great instrument for the price

I am very pleased with my ubass. I was really surprised how good it sounds. I bought it for home use but it is probable good enough for some gigs too. The only issue is with exchanging strings: I bought pyramid strings and wanted to replace original rubber strings but there is absolutely no info how to do it properly on this model. When I asked support team for advice I only got a suggestion to do it via acoustic hole but no details at all. There is no plate at the back to get inside. So this lack of instruction is very disappointing - but I will not deduct stars this time because I really like this Harley Benton Kahuna CLU-Bass Ukulele and I think it is great for the price. Fortunately, original strings play surprisingly well so I will give them some time. I hope I will find the way how to change them properly one day.

Mostly good Quality though slight blemish but poor customer service

The item came very quickly and upon first impressions it looked very good. Though shortly I noticed a slight raised spot on the sound board behind the bridge and a closer look showed a smear in the finish as if there was a speck of dirt had been unsucesfully wiped away. This had no reflection on the sound quality but did affect the appearance in my oppion . I tried communicating to the repairs / damaged department and customer services to no avail, no response just a wall of silence. So I am unimpressed with customer services and I dont think I will buy from them again.

Good sound, good size, good price

I bought this bass mostly for its practical size, its smaler than a regular acoustic guitar!

I'm happy with the sound quality. It reminds me of a double bass when its pluged in to a speaker or an amp but in terms of acoustics don't expect a big sound to come from such a small box.

The strings are interesting, very thick and rubery. I guess its the material that makes it possible to achieve the sound in this size but it also makes it a bit harder to do slides for example, so its not going to be just like playing your regular bass, it has its own character!

Looks good to me, the acoustic wood look was what i wanted although the frets could have been beter sanded at the edges but i guess you cant ask much more for this price.

I'm a singer/song writer and play mostly guitar but was looking for a cheap and practical bass to use for looping live, recording, jamming and creating new music and i'm happy with this one!

Surprised.

Bought this as something to have a mess around with at home. I was very surprised by the quality of the sound when plugged into an amp. There is a lot of fret buzz when played acoustically but it is still playable. Good quality pickup and the tuner is fairly accurate but the instrument itself tends to go out of tune quickly. It is also very light which is a plus.