Hadean Acoustic Electric Bass Ukulele UKB-28 Spalted

This is the first musical instrument I've ordered online, sight unseen. I was pretty nervous, but I have a musician friend who recently started collecting Agile electric guitars and Rondo is the parent company for both Agile and Hadean, so his enthusiasm and confidence really helped. We tried the Kala U-bass in spruce and mahogany in person and the mahogany sounded dead, the spruce didn't have that upright sound I was looking for. I'm not sure what the spalted Maple is laminated with, and individual instruments can vary, but this one is that perfect middle! I expected the rubber strings to be sticky, but they're not as bad as you'd think given some of these complaints (maybe use a lighter touch, folks.) They're smooth, soft and actually really comfortable for me and I play ukulele and an electric bass with flat wound strings. I have thin, sensitive fingers and I'm a small female with no callous built up and short arm reach and I love the light weight, short scale length and soft strings!Cons: The A string, (3rd up) is boogered up. It will need replacing since it's right over the sound hole and will probably drive me bananas. Not sure if that fault is with Aquila or installer. These strings are not cheap but at $165 for the instrument, it's not a huge loss. Also, the fret ends could be smoother. They're okay, not sharp, but they are rough enough to be distracting and I'll need to smooth those. The bridge was really dusty so I suspect perhaps a little shrinking of the fret board.The finish is silky, satiny smooth all over with a bit of roughness by the access panel on the back which is not magnetic like Kala. It's screwed on, but the veneer is cut out so the pattern is not disturbed (nice touch, the Kala's I played weren't matched there.)All in all it seems very good value to this beginner.

Not able to get this to work because we didn't know it needed a battery and the battery was defective - it didn't come with instructions (it is some sort of watch battery). The Allen wrench didn't work so I had to get an additional tool. This was a gift for my girl and by the time we unwrapped it and discovered the disappointments too much time had gone by for the refund process to be applied. There is a buzz in one of the strings (A string) a few frets up from the body we aren't able to be rid of. It is a nice looking instrument. The Aquila strings are cool but take a bit to get used to. Figuring out a strap for hanging it around your neck is not as easy as expected like a regular guitar. Just would have been nice to know these things ahead of time. There was no electric cord to attach the UBass to the Amp. This is a learning experience and recommend doing more research. The UBass is a fun professional instrument - not a toy.

The bottom string is not getting picked up by the electronic pick up. I emailed the sender and they said that happens sometimes in shipping. Probably a loose wire. They offered to take it back, but I probably waited to long and I disposed of the box so I wanted them to send me a new one and I would return this in the box. Hasn’t happened.

Plays and sounds fine. Worth the money and I'd definitely buy again!

Love it

a couple of flaws in the finish, but it plays well and stays in tune, and I am not a gentle player. Great deal for the price, would recommend.

Great sound and great product! Beautiful instrument

It looks great, but playing it can be challenging. I am a bass and guitar player so adjusting to the smaller size took a while but even after that I found that some of the frets buzz and I have had to teach myself to play certain frets in a certain way to get a clean, non buzzing sound(ie play on the far left of the fret to prevent a buzz on the A strings, frets 1-5). Tbh I had hoped that it would be better that it is and realize that I probably should have paid more and got a Kala or something.