NBD Rondo Hadean acoustic bass uke, walnut cutaway.

KohanMike

Los Angeles, Beverly Grove West
UU VIP
Joined
Sep 15, 2013
Messages
6,724
Reaction score
2,334
Location
near the Beverly Center.
I just received this bass uke today, a Rondo Hadean acoustic cutaway solid walnut for $185.90 shipped from Amazon. It's well built and sounds very good. I love that it has an access panel on the back to make string changing easy. I'm going to eventually replace the strings with black pahoehoe and better chrome tuners with pearl knobs.

It's replacing my custom Bruce Wei solid acacia koa fretless that I've been using for hospital gigs roaming room to room, which does not have an access panel, the neck is too wide, and I got tired of fretless.

Rondo Hadean Walnut 800.jpg
 
Last edited:
Congrats on the NBD Mike!

I am glad the Rondo keeps carrying these uke basses, and has come out with new models over time.

If I had the cash, I'd make you an offer on that fretless BWA model, but I have to downsize a handful of instruments first in order to raise funds, so maybe if you still have it and want to let it go in a few months we can discuss...
 
Thanks Booli. I was planning on parking it in a cabinet, so I will have it. It has Aquila Thunder Reds, and I'm going to move the tuners over to the walnut Rondo and will install the original ones. I paid $565 in August of 2014 and added a preamp/pickup and strap buttons for $50. I will make you a good deal when you're ready.

I had Bruce extend the fretboard around the sound hole to be a thumbrest. The neck is wider than I wanted and after the build started I asked if he could make it fretless, but if the frets were already done not to bother. He didn't listen and yanked the frets, replacing them with abalone lines, but did not cleanup the edges of the fretboard, leaving cracks, which I fixed as best as I could. Also, the access to feeding the strings is through the sound hole, which I found difficult.

Before the Thunder Reds
BWE bass uke done.jpg
 
Kohanmike

I have read so much it is all blurry at this point
Since you have so many bass ukuleles can you tell if one or some of the Hadeans are better than others? I have read the thread on them and it seems that there were problems with the electronics early on. Seems like there were a lot of little things going wrong with some strings louder than another or just not working.
The Rondo/Hadean that I am focusing on is the UKB 23.
Thanks,
John
 
Hi John. The problem with the pickup was on the older solid body ukes in my experience. The newer ones I've bought do not have the problem. The UKB-23c acoustic I listed here does not have any problems with the pickup.

Rondomusic.com does a very good job for returns if there's a flaw, they pay return cost, which I did with my first solid body.
 
Top Bottom