Blue Star Konablaster

Anyone have any info/knowledge of how well-made these are and/or how they sound?

i bought one a few years ago. they are very well made. one slight "problem" is that the strings don't align perfectly over the pick-up poll pieces. but when you crank the amp, it makes little difference.
mine sounds great. the neck (bird's eye maple) is comfortable, the bridge is a spent 30.06 shell (a conversation starter), and the amp carpet covered back and side keeps it from slipping.

i own 3 electric ukuleles. the Konablaster, a Eleuke, and an Epiphone Mandobird set up as a uku. i play them all but the Konablaster is my favorite.

I found this old thread wherein a bunch of UU regulars discuss (sort of) the Blue Star.

(I am no help, I know. But apart from actually owning one, this is apparently the best I can do for ya at the moment. )

OK... So this is an old thread.

A couple of posts on various threads mention problems with the magnetic post positions on the Konablaster. It should be noted that this is only an issue on the soprano version. The baritone uses a sealed humbucker and has nice, even, output on all four strings.

These are still available at Elderly and are just right for someone wanting something different in their collection, or to satisfy a latent urge to SHREd on a uke

Konablaster

Two weeks ago I purchased a Blue Star Konablaster baritone ukulele and I find myself asking me how I got along without one! The neck is as good as any guitar I've owned or own and the sound, played through a Fender Blues Jr amp, is, well, kick a$$.

Why the carpet wrapping is beyond me. I hope whoever makes the Konablaster is planning on producing one with finished wood, maybe even exotic. One problem with the carpet is that where your wrist rubs the uke's body receives some serious carpet burn. I solved the problem with a thin foam koozie, like you'd wrap a beer in to keep it cool. Simply cut the little butterfly bottom off and cram yer hand through it and it covers yer wrist just fine and depending on the koozie looks great.

Question, does anyone know who, what company, produces the Konablaster?

Casey

Casey said:

Two weeks ago I purchased a Blue Star Konablaster baritone ukulele and I find myself asking me how I got along without one! The neck is as good as any guitar I've owned or own and the sound, played through a Fender Blues Jr amp, is, well, kick a$$.

Why the carpet wrapping is beyond me. I hope whoever makes the Konablaster is planning on producing one with finished wood, maybe even exotic. One problem with the carpet is that where your wrist rubs the uke's body receives some serious carpet burn. I solved the problem with a thin foam koozie, like you'd wrap a beer in to keep it cool. Simply cut the little butterfly bottom off and cram yer hand through it and it covers yer wrist just fine and depending on the koozie looks great.

Question, does anyone know who, what company, produces the Konablaster?

Casey

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I know this is an old thread but blue star is
the company who makes the konablaster, mandoblaster,
banjoblaster and lap master. the logo is the little
blue star with wings it's very retro 50's looking
cool logo and great company.

If I can revive a really old thread here...
I've been looking to get an electric ukulele. Since I'm fairly new to the uke, I would probably go with soprano instead of baritone (fingering for chords is different on baritones, right?). Can the Konablaster soprano get that nice rock sound? Also, do I need a special amp, or could I use an old guitar amp?

quick reply now. fingering is the same but they sound different. The KB soprano is quite a bit different than the larger sizes as the stock soprano uses the shell casing bridge. This means you won't get near as good intonation as the models with the adjustable bridge. Whether you like that sound or not is a matter of preference. I went with a "custom" 19" scale instrument but you could get standard tenor 17" if you like. Not sure what you mean by "nice rock sound". Mine is tuned like a baritone DGBE and I think it has a great sound. You can also tune it GCEA (with different strings). I don't think it would take too well to reentrant tuning - not with much gain applied anyway. Just my opinion. Finally, you can use any guitar amp or amp sim that you like the sound of.

Bookworm said:

If I can revive a really old thread here...
I've been looking to get an electric ukulele. Since I'm fairly new to the uke, I would probably go with soprano instead of baritone (fingering for chords is different on baritones, right?). Can the Konablaster soprano get that nice rock sound? Also, do I need a special amp, or could I use an old guitar amp?

Click to expand...

the baritone is much higher in quality and sound i own one and love it.
No the fingerings (chord shapes) are exactly the same except its in a lower pitch G tuning instead of C. So a C major chord on soprano-tenor is a G chord on the baritone, your G chord on smaller ukes is a D chord on the baritone so its actually either like a ukulele tuned 5 semi tones lower or you can look at it like a guitar (if you play) with the E and A strings missing. I recommend the baritone size or a custom tenor. Its built just like an electric steel string guitar so you would not need a new amp your old guitar amp would work perfectly fine. The soprano will sound kind of hissy and annoying through distortion because of the re-entrant tuning, and lack of humbucker. the baritone has an adustable trus tod and being its in standard baritone uke tuning you have a low D which adds some bass and translates through a distorted amp much better than the soprano model would, you would play the baritone exactly as you would any other uke you just have to transpose the chords or if you know music theory or anything about the basics you can do it in your head pretty quickly or study it before you get it. ALso the baritone or custom models will have a humbucker pick up the soprano does not and the intonation on soprano will not be as good as the larger electric ukes which i recommend the stock baritone as i have it (and love it!), or a custom tenor.
The baritone will give you the playability of a ukulele but the rock sound of the guitar (being its tuned lower like a guitar and larger), the soprano will just sound like a metallic sounding soprano in an amp or a hissy mess with 'rock' effects if you play it clean though it could be a fun uke to play with but i think your looking for something to rock out with and i recommend a larger size.

hope this helps.