Harley Benton Kahuna CLU-Bass Ukulele FL

I had been playing some acoustic shows with my band, and wanted to play something other than an electric bass. I suppose I really wanted a double bass, but I neither had the funds or any way of transporting such a beast! I did some research, and came across the Kala U-Bass - which I came close to ordering until I discovered this.

It cost me less than £100, and is amazing value for money. I've used it at several acoustic shows with my originals band, and also for a few numbers with my function band - for covers of songs where a double bass was used on the original recording.

The general feedback I've received is it doesn't sound at all how it looks. Expect some confused faces when you gig this!

I've used directly into a PA system and my regular bass guitar amp. In both cases I've had better results by using the 'Fishman' pre-amp model on my Zoom B3. This allows me to match its level to my bass guitar for easy mid-show switching.

There are two minor niggles - there is one 'fret' that is slightly raised at one side (The fingerboard still has slots cut for frets and these are filled with veneer or similar). It's really not noticeable when playing though! Secondly, the pre-amp seems a little bit hissy, especially with the tone turned up. This noticeable through headphones or when using a cab with a tweeter - though only when the room is silent. Can't hear it at all through a tweeterless Ampeg SVT cab.

Please don't let this put you off - it's a great bass and well worth the money. I may upgrade

Overall, I'm loving this bass. Sounds almost like a small contrabass with less bass and more midrange honk. The rubber strings take a little getting used to, and I'm trying to get the hang of it at the moment.

PROS:
Fun, good instrument you can use to mimic the contrabass without the bulk. Well-made, fun, and plays great if not for the rubber feel of the strings - which really isn't anyone's fault. I think the strings are aquila thundergut, because I ordered thundergut along with the bass and they seem exactly the same.

CONS:
The piezo, like everyone else seems to mention, is problematic and needs to be taken care of. the D,A strings are very loud and even clips in my case. In comparison, G is soft and E is very soft.

Recording it with a mic (with noise reduction + eq) makes it sound very, very convincing. Recording with the piezos are a problem at the moment, but we'll see how the piezo fix holds up.

UPDATE: I sawed the saddle so each portion will accommodate 1 string each. It sounds great now, the volume between strings is very well-balanced and removed the clipping problem as well!

Firstly, sound-wise this is awesome, very interesting and useful for acoustic gigs or ethnic-jazz stuff.
The hardware is pretty nice, especially the tuners.
But: The fretboard and the finish were almost half-finished, the fretboard was not flat and leveled, the finish was rough and not uniform, the nut was too high, so the first position was out of tune and most importantly, after about 1-2 months the piezo died because of the tension of the strings, when I tune way down the piezo comes back, but in standard tuning it just can't handle the string pressure.

I fixed the fretboard, the finish, the nut, I put flatwounds, installed a guitar pickup in the soundhole and it's way better now, but I wouldn't recommend this instrument and I wouldn't buy it again.