Harley Benton Kahuna CLU-Bass Ukulele

I was looking for a short scale bass - maybe a Hofner or a Squire - just to mes around with. I didn't want a big lumbering heavy thing with a long scale - I tried one like that previously and it was just too much effort. I look at my favourite site (Thomann) for inspiration. I nearly went for the Harley Benton Beatbass as it fit the bill, short scale, light weight and really cool looking. I trawl YouTube for a while to see if there were any reviews of the Harley Benton Beatbass. There are, but as I was trawling I came across a uke bass, made by another company, so I took another look at Thomann to see if HB made a uke bass. They did/do! and that's when I found the Kahuna CLU-Bass Ukulele. Another half hour spent looking at reviews on YouTube and I was hooked. I sent for mine immediately and within a few days it was here with me.

I like the size, it's not as small as I imagined it could be - being a uke - the body is a sort of dreadnought shape so it sits nicely on the lap - a bit like a little travel guitar. the finish is a sort of sheen and the whole thing is pleasing to the eye and the hand. The neck is is a nice size too - much like the dimensions of a bass guitar but shorter. There is plenty of room on the fret board, it's not at all cramped. The fret ends feel ok too.

The strings are a bit strange to begin with but after a few minutes feel fine. Tuning is a constant necessity at the moment but I have read that the strings do settle in after a week or too. It's no problem tuning as there is the inbuilt tuner. The thinner strings seem to need the most attention at the moment, the low E seems to stay in tune best.

Played without amplification the bass sounds fine and is really very good for practice, just pick it up and go. Amplified it has a real thumping bass sound. It's quite amazing when you think of the size of it but it does sound very double bass like.

One thong I have found is that, as with all bass playing, you need to kill the note as soon as it's played. On a full size bass a note just rings on but on this Kahuna CLU-Bass Ukulele it sort of thudily rattles. I have also found that positioning the fretting finger back from the fret works better. Playing guitar it is usual to fret just behind the fret to get a clean note but with this Kahuna CLU-Bass Ukulele it works better to just move your finger back towards the next fret. I have also found that a clearer sound is produced with a pluck upwards with the finger (double bass style) rather than plucking down with the thumb. Maybe a leather pick would work too.

I've only had this Kahuna CLU-Bass Ukulele for a few days now but it's really growing on me and making me want to learn a few bass lines to play along to some tunes.

I would highly recommend this Kahuna CLU-Bass Ukulele as many more buyers seem to have done before me.

If you want to try a bass this is the ideal starter and I'm sure would be be ideal for bass players as a travel option.

Well made, functional, plays well and sounds great - get one!!

I?ve always been interested in the concept of Ubasses since it first came on the market. However, the first ones were quite expensive, at least for me too expensive, to just buy out of curiosity, and to fiddle with at home. By coincidence I stumbled upon a forum where they were discussing the Harley Benton Ubasses, and it got pretty good reviews. Unfortunately at the time, they were sold out. I e-mailed the thomann customer support, I got a quick response about when the Ubass would be back in stock, and so I waited! I have to admit I often checked the website to see if they were back in stock, and when they were I immediately ordered one.

I loved it from day one. When it arrived in the box, it wasn?t tuned, and it takes some time to get used to the strings, so, it took quite some playing to get the strings ?settled in?. But after that, the strings kept tune very well! The built-in tuner does what it?s supposed to do, however it has some trouble picking up the E-string. For me this isn?t a problem, I usually just tune the G-string, and then do the others by hearing.

The instrument itself feels quite solid, the tuners are light (so no neck dive) and operate very smoothly. The finish is OK, nothing more, nothing less, it?s very well built, the neck is comfortable to play, no sharp frets, the fretboard is a nice big slab of rosewood. But it kind of feels like something is missing, I guess I don?t really take to the satin finish. But, seeing as this is a budget instrument, I?m not complaining!

About the sound, acoustically, it?s louder than I expected, loud enough to use at home, perfect to play along some songs on the computer. And it just sounds great! Now amplified, the buttons of the pre-amp are quite small, and feel a bit cheap, but again, for that price, I?m not complaining. When amplified it sounds HUGE, I couldn?t believe the tones I got out of that small instrument! The tone and volume buttons do what they are supposed to do, although in my opinion, it?s best to keep the tone button somewhere in the middle stand, when it?s completely open it sounds quite shrill. But hey, whatever floats your boat!

In conclusion, I?ve had this UBass for a year now, and it still gets a lot of playtime! It?s just easy to pick up, sit on the couch and play some riffs, or play along with the music. It takes some getting used to playing it, but it is so much fun! Like stated before, there are some minor flaws, like the finish and the pre-amp, but it doesn?t really bother me, and if it would bother you, those are 2 things you can adjust relatively easily.

In my opinion you get a lot of bang for the buck! If you are interested in a Ubass, or just want one to fiddle with at home, but don?t want to spend hundreds of euros, this bass is the way to go!

I'd heard about the Harley Benton Kahuna bass Uke and it has good things said about it so was interested.

Having never played a Uke before I spent the weekend watching YouTube videos and decided to try one.As usual the ordering and delivery process from Thomann was second to none.4th day the Uke was here in Scotland.

Opening the box I found this tiny wee instrument,being a bass player it's something I'm not used too and the only acoustic I have is the HB-30 BK and it dwarfs the Uke.So I've got this wee thing that weighs 1Kg and has strange strings.What to make of it ?

As normal it has no flaws,just a nice satin finish,no sharp frets,tuners all work.
In short what I've come to expect from the Harley Benton range.Out of 51 basses this is my 8th HB.

Unplugged the Uke plays quite quiet,perfect for practise alone but I think with acoustic guitars it would struggle.Plugged in though it shows it's true colours.
How something so small can sound so big amazed me.Very similar to a Double Bass tone.Control-wise full bass or full treble worked best with volume full up too.

I'd like to end this with a couple of observations.I'd never played a bass Uke before so it was a new experience but here's what helped me. The silicone strings can get sticky so using talcum powder on them or on your fingers solves that issue.Another thing is the strings are thick almost twice as thick,the G is the same as a standard A string.The combination of thick strings and smaller frets meant I had to take care when fretting or the notes didn't ring true.Also the tension of the strings was a lot less than any bass I've played so a lighter attack was needed to avoid the strings bouncing off the fretboard.This was a comment I'd read from others regarding the Uke.

If you think of the Uke as a new instrument and not just a wee acoustic bass and take some time to adapt you'll get the best from it.

I'm very glad I bought one now.How long before I buy the fretless version ?
Not very long ;)

Before ordering this bass I played the fretless version. I loved the sound, the vibe and concept of the bass! I didn't want fretless though as I wanted to be able to play without looking at the fretboard.

The bass played and sounded great on the top 2 strings, but on the bottom 2 strings had bad fret buzz beyond the first few frets. I wound off the truss rod all the way and it didn't improve the situation.

Bit confused why no-one else seemed to report the fret-buzz issue so perhaps mine had some kind of flaw, but looking at the bass it seemed fine.

I would say get the fretless or look at something a bit higher quality.

For the money this is a lovely little bass and despite being a little rough & ready in its setup and finish it can sound fantastic. I would prefer the option to spend a little more for a version with a better standard of finish.

The stock Aquila strings sound very full and punchy but can feel a little sticky on both the fretting and plucking fingers. This can be remedied by applying a little talc to the fingertips of both hands before playing. I have had success using 'simple' brand unscented talc and would be concerned that oils in scented talc might react with the strings and so weaken them.

The acoustic volume of the bass is loud enough for private practice in a quiet room, however it does need to be amplified once you're playing with other acoustic instruments no matter how quiet they are. The tuner built into the preamp is a nice addition and is useful if no other tuner is available. The strings have a tendency to stick in the nut when tuning, but getting into the habit of gently lifting and releasing them helps to equalise the tension each side of the nut. The preamp has just one volume and one tone control. The piezo pickup seems to accentuate some harsh-sounding treble frequencies. For me the most usable sound was obtained with the tone control turned all the way to the bass side. With this setting, the bass sounded massive played through either a small or large bass amps and sat well in the mix with both acoustic and electric instruments. I wasn't troubled by feedback even when playing fairly loud - possibly in part due to my preferred eq setting. The string to string balance is not even - the E string seems a little louder even when the eq is not boosting the bass response, but a limiter pedal is effective in improving this.

I tend to avoid brands like Harley Benton assuming there is not much to expect in terms of quality. But then a friend of mine, a professional musician, recommended the Harley Benton American TrueTone pedal that turned out to be an amazing combination of high quality and low price. And this made me think miracles were possible. So I decided to try this little bass. I had no big illusions and was prepared to tolerate imperfections and do some extensive "tuning" on this 150-euro instrument (like levelling bumpy frets or getting rid of sharp fret ends).
Unfortunately, the bass is so miserably crappy that there is virtually nothing to improve. Build quality and sound are too bad to consider this bass seriously, even if you are buying it just to toy with.
I cannot recommend this product and suggest trying a more respectable brand, which of course will cost you at least twice as much.
Also, I have feeling that there are objective physical limits to what one can get in terms of bass sound from a short-scale instrument. Thus, I guess that my Gold Tone micro-bass whose scale is 635 mm is indeed the lower limit beyond which no decent bass is possible at all (whereas the Harley Benton has 534 mm that presumably do not suffice to reach this limit).

Based on various reviews and opinions, I've been wanting to try a Bass Ukulele for a number of years but couldn't see spending $400 or more on a Kala sight unseen. But the cost of the Harley Benton model was more in my comfort zone so I took a shot and I'm glad I did.

It's a fun switch from my normal basses. The build quality of the instrument is much better than I expected and the sound is really good (for an acoustic bass obviously). The only minor issue is that the pickup/preamp works fine but the tuner doesn't seem to register at all. I didn't really plan on using it so it's not a big deal. Other than minor problem, the instrument exceeded my expectations in every way.

This is the most fun $150 instrument I've purchased to date (and I have quite a few) and I already have a couple of the guys I play with thinking about buying one for themselves.