Aug/15/08
11comments

Mahalo and K Wave Telecasters, Bass Ukes on eBay

I caused a bit of a run on the Mahalo Les Paul copies when I mentioned them last week. eBay are now all sold out. You can listen to krabbers on his here. Obviously, I couldn’t resist. Mine arrived this morning and I’m very happy with it. It has some of the failings you’d expect from a cheap uke (the intonation is off further up the neck and the paint job is a bit shoddy in places) but the action is great and it plays very easily. I’ll have to get some Aquila strings on it and give it a real test.

Andy pointed out that Mahalo are also making Telecaster copies. I’m not so keen on them. Without the scratchplate on them, they look quite misshapen. But I am tempted by the Kiwaya K Wave Telecasters, and there’s this one currently for sale at £99. It’s a butterscotch (my favourite colour of telecaster) which, according to the Kiwaya website, is now discontinued.

Heather found this very nicely decorated Dresden Dolls themed uke.

MGM has a Bass ukulele up for sale at the moment – it’s the size of a baritone ukulele but, apparently, it’s in the range of a double bass. You can find out more and listen to it here.

I wish Weissenborn had made more ukes. There’s a nice early one here, but what the hell was that guy thinking with that description?

11 Comments

  1. Andrey August 15th, 2008 9:34 pm

    payday is on the 28th of august. after that ill be ordering myself a wine-red k-wave, to replace this 30 pound Stagg.

    i cant wait!

  2. Chris August 15th, 2008 11:05 pm

    I was checking out those Bass ukes the other day out of curiosity. They all say something like that ebay ad:

    “Due to the acoustic nature of this instrument and low bass frequencies a amplifier must be used with this ukulele.”

    Does that just mean it’s so quiet it needs to be amplified? Overall it seems strange to even call something like that a ukulele. I don’t know much (anything) about instrument classification but what makes a “bass ukulele” a ukulele at all? Is it the physical specifications of the instrument?

  3. Cardboardfrog August 16th, 2008 1:38 am

    it looks like its tuned EADG too, which would make it technically a bass and not a ukulele and surely then a member of the viola family.
    Mind you its possible that the scale would classify it as a ukulele,
    a cute idea but i mean REALLY, do you need one?

  4. Howlin' Hobbit August 16th, 2008 5:27 pm

    If it kicks out a good bass sound its benefit is its small and lightweight size.

    Actual electric basses are heavy. They also take up more room in the vehicle when you’re trying to cram a whole band and their gear into one car.

  5. Woodshed August 16th, 2008 7:15 pm

    Andrey: Have fun with it.

    Chris, cbf and Hobbit: I think the description ‘bass ukulele’ is fair enough. Even if it’s not technically right, you know what to expect from it.

    I think Hobbit is right about the advantages. I also think it would be good for uke groups. You need a bass sound in a uke group, but having a huge bass in their spoils the concept a little.

  6. Cardboardfrog August 17th, 2008 2:05 pm

    surely an ashbory bass would suffice? they’re small scale and bassy.
    is it just me whos noticed how many uke players start off playing bass?

  7. Woodshed August 17th, 2008 6:40 pm

    The Ashbory bass doesn’t look like a uke though.

  8. Ukisociety January 30th, 2009 3:17 am

    I just bought the Mahalo tele. Had a chance to play both it and a Les Paul style Mahalo and the tele sounded much more resonant. It was the same way when I bought my K-Wave Kiwaya tele. Sounded better that the LP version. I wonder why…. But also the butterscotch tele I bought sounded better than the brown tele – both by Kiwaya. strange… I haven’t compared the Mahalo tele to the K-Wave, but for 50 bucks, the Mahalo is the winner. It sounds great!

  9. Woodshed January 30th, 2009 9:50 pm

    Thanks for that, Alan. Really interesting that Teles are more resonant than LPs in both cases.

  10. Tuscadero February 14th, 2009 11:34 pm

    I picked up a tele mahalo today. If it’s true that 1 of 5 mahalos sound great then I think I lucked out. This one sounds pretty sweet. I agree it looks a little weird without a strikeplate, but the guitar store I shop at had some cheapo deapo stick-on strikeplates for only $6. I trimmed it to size and shape and stuck it on and it really balances out the design. Granted, I wouldn’t do that with an expensive uke, but this is a novelty, so the cheesy solution doesn’t bother me much. I’m off to your rock riff tab section to pick up some hot licks for my cool uke!

  11. Woodshed February 16th, 2009 6:00 pm

    Tuscadero: Congrats on the new uke. If you’ve got any photos of the new look uke, I’d love to see them.

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