Tried out a Flea today...

I was in Grand Junction CO today (about 60 miles from home) and went into a music store I haven't set foot in in about 10 years (mostly horns and violins.. THAT kind of store). They had a Fluke, and a concert and a soprano Flea. The soprano Flea was pretty nifty, and I ALMOST bought it. I had never tried one. It had great intonation, sounded decent (would sound a lot better with better strings I am sure), and has the famous "built-in-stand". Now I want one!

Get the concert neck on the Flea. Its only $10 more and easier to play than a soprano neck - at least for me.

Hey, whichever neck you choose, that's up to you. I'm getting a lot of mileage with the soprano.

Chris T.: what did you think of the overall feel of the neck? Not talking plastic fretboard, about that, but the shape? I love it.

I waivered on that question for days before ordering.
I am getting the soprano since this is going to be my travel uke. I am a bass player and any uke scale is still alien to me.
I think the cute factor is cool too with the soprano.

angelopb said:

I waivered on that question for days before ordering.
I am getting the soprano since this is going to be my travel uke. I am a bass player and any uke scale is still alien to me.
I think the cute factor is cool too with the soprano.

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Enjoy it when it arrives! The Flea for me represents not just one of the best ukulele values but simply one of the best instrument values in many years of playing (guitar included) and singing. The Flea gets billed as a travel ukulele...it's also gigworthy.

I'm a bass player too, but I find myself liking the soprano scale more and more. I have a couple of concerts, a tenor, and a baritone, but I have 7 sopranos (one of which is junk). I play soprano more than any other. I think part of it is I find the contrast between bass guitar and soprano ukulele to be pretty amusing (at least to ME, which is most important!), but also because I like the sound and feel of sopranos. I do like my concerts and tenor though. It just seems that all the ukuleles I am interested in are sopranos. And yes, luvdatuke, I thought the neck on the Flea felt pretty nice. It was pretty different from any of my other ukes, but it was quite (surprisingly) comfortable. I just need to decide what color I want... heh. They had a Tiki-king print concert Flea and a natural soprano. I think the green one looks kind of nice. I don't have any ukuleles in funky colors (apart from my white front/Mother-of-Bowling-Ball backed Islanders).

i like the midnight blue, the black lava and the poipul. THe mango is cool. That pistachio green they phased out is my fav tho. I think the amusement factor is what grabs me too about the soprano.

I played guitar for most of my life. One of the things that grabs me is making so much sound with so little right hand effort...or when really letting loose with my hand making even more sound...

The necks on the Flea IMO are brilliant...

I agree on the neck issue, design, sound etc. as well as the freedom to choose. If you have the money may I recommend a rosewood fretboard?

The flat bottom of the neck does make a lot easier to hold than my other ukes. You can tell someone actually designed it.