Flight Travel Series TUS50 Soprano - REVIEW

Here is a sound sample of my TUS 50 with Freemont blackline strings (first sample of the video)
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the nice review Barry!

Seems like a few folks are following the 'mold' (pun intended) of the Alic and Mahilele, and now the Flight brand.

Currency conversion from the Music Room, puts this one @ $56 USD, DHL 2-4 day shipping from the Music Room to the USA is $16, so it's pretty competitive to the other brands as well as the Waterman in terms of price.
 
Thanks for the nice review Barry!

Seems like a few folks are following the 'mold' (pun intended) of the Alic and Mahilele, and now the Flight brand.

Currency conversion from the Music Room, puts this one @ $56 USD, DHL 2-4 day shipping from the Music Room to the USA is $16, so it's pretty competitive to the other brands as well as the Waterman in terms of price.

When I got my Flight, the exchange rate must have been a bit better. It came to the west coast in two days! You can get a Mahilele on Amazon for about $65. It will take longer to arrive, but they're identical.
 
When I got my Flight, the exchange rate must have been a bit better. It came to the west coast in two days! You can get a Mahilele on Amazon for about $65. It will take longer to arrive, but they're identical.

I'm not a fan of the pale yellow, nor the cherry red versions on Amazon, and also neither the other wood-looking tops with animal patterns etched into the wood, which are almost double in price of the solid color models.

If you look at the Italian web shop (https://mercatinodellukulele.it), they have a lot more color options for the Mahilele-labeled version, see https://mercatinodellukulele.it/ind...tegory_id=2&Itemid=253&lang=en&language=en-GB...

They have one with an Acacia top and another one with a flamed Okume top (likely both laminate), for a little bit more money, but with these you get what looks like a removable saddle, so if one needs to swap it out for different compensation adjustment, these would seem to be the way to do for that:

Acacia model, 66 Euros, or $77 USD:
https://mercatinodellukulele.it/ind...tegory_id=2&Itemid=253&lang=en&language=en-GB

ml-aca-dscf3025.jpg


Flamed Okume model, 66 Euros, or $77 USD:
https://mercatinodellukulele.it/ind..._category_id=2&Itemid=253&lang=en#prettyPhoto

ml-oku-dscf3036.jpg
 
Booli, do you know if the Italian web shop ships to the USA? If they do I wonder how much the shipping would cost.
 
Booli, do you know if the Italian web shop ships to the USA? If they do I wonder how much the shipping would cost.

Not sure of their shipping options or cost.

You can get their email or phone # from the site:

https://mercatinodellukulele.it/index.php?lang=en and ask them.

IIRC, this company is an offshoot of Aquila, and maybe send a PM to Mimmo (Founder and CEO of Aquila strings) here on UU, he is 'Mimmo' on UU. Maybe he knows or can direct you to the right person.

Were I to hazard a wild guess, DHL shipping may cost about $15-25 USD to ship to the USA. I dont know about other options or pricing.
 
They are 'almost' identical Booli - not quite - only Flight have the walnut top option with the sound hole engraving and the Flight headstock is a different shape. FWIW, I much prefer the Flight headstock.
 
I wish that Flight...or whatever company makes these...would release a version in Concert size. That’s terribly self serving on my part, but I know what I would buy. I have had one of these in a website shopping cart several times and just can’t pull the trigger as I don’t really need another “weatherproof” soprano, and I’m not interested in the Waterman or Bugsgear concert alternatives. I might just have to go and buy a Fluke.
 
No - Mahilele don’t own the core design. They just licenced it. Flight have done the same. A few years back a brand called Alic did so too.

It’s incredibly common in Chinese production lines.

Other example are the Clearwater round backs and Ohana round backs - identical ukes with different head stocks, and the Korala Explore which is identical to about three other ukes.
 
OK great thanks for clearing that up. I was interested in one of their higher spec models and just wanted to be sure the company was ok. They have certainly done a better job of marketing than Mahilele, who do a wide range of nice stuff but a very poor presence (unless they have enough sales in Italy to keep them happy).
 
Flight TUS50 looks and sounds great, but it has a compensated saddle. As a lefty, I would need to flip the strings (don't suggest otherwise - this is what works for me). Would that saddle cause any issues?

Hi Moorhens, I think you'd be okay with the Flight's compensated saddle even if you reverse the order of your strings (as a lefty), because the saddle compensates the "outer" two strings exactly the same as each other (more "forward"), and then it compensates the "inner" two strings exactly the same as each other (more "rearward"). Now, even when you reverse your strings, ultimately your current "outer" two strings will still end up as "outer" strings, and your current "inner" two strings will still end up as "inner" strings. So it doesn't appear that reversing of the order of the strings will result in a different compensation amount for any of the strings. Does that make sense?
 
In case someone is interested in buying one of these, noticed Amazon has the turquoise blue version of this one now for $23 and change now. Just thought I would give a heads up.
 
Chris, you are welcome. I got one that I will save for next year to give to a grand daughter, if I can wait.
 
I got one. And I already have one. I hope someone asks for a uke for Christmas. They are a great deal at full price.
 
Top Bottom