Electric Bass Ukulele UKBE-22 N

I'm a so-so piano player that got recruited to play upright bass with a mostly acoustic group. There are times I just don't want to tote the big bass, hence the hadean. Man, for the price, this is sure hard to beat. Intonation is quite good, at least on mine. This is a big worry on cheaper instruments with fixed bridges. Everyone was quite impressed with the sound. The E and A strings, run through a quality amp, are phenomenal. Now, it's not an electric bass sound, more of an upright sound, or maybe a little in between. I don't know, never played electric bass. Takes a light touch. I like the strings that are one it, don't think I'll change. Helps to have dry skin, or maybe a little chalk on the fingers.There are some woodworking things I would not want to see on a high end instrument: scarf joint at 3rd fret, two piece flat sawn body. I think it will hold up well, though, at the tension the strings are under. Was done well. At this price point, I'll accept it.I did have the ubiquitous 'D string volume drop off'. Seems to be common on the Hadean. The volume and tone on the D string dropped off to nothing compared to the other strings, no matter the settings. The G string was hot compared to the others. I tried the shim-ectomy: removing the plastic shim under the saddle/pickup. Not much help. I replaced the shim with a thin wood strip. slight improvement, not enough. Finally a simple solution: took a small piece of bamboo skewer (I had some handy) and inserted it under the string, behind the saddle. The string presses the bamboo against the back of the saddle/pickup. Still plenty of string pressure on the top of the saddle. Bingo bango, D string now sounds fabulous. Seems that d string needs some pressure on the back of the saddle for the pickup to work. don't know why. I'm sure any type of wood, dowel would work if its the correct size. I used the tapered portion to get the size right (sanded off the point). I hope that makes some sense. May look a little goofy, but I'm happy. Redneck lutherie at it's finest.