My flea banjo uke is here! I love it!

pepamahina

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My flea banjo uke "Firefly" is here and I have to say I am not disappointed! It's everything I wanted it to be!
It is loud!
It is "banjo-ee!"
It is super duper ultra light!
It is everything that is awesome about fleas and flukes, but in a banjo uke incarnation!
I has a cute little firefly engraved in the wood on the underside, and a neat numbered sticker there as well!

I have to admit, I had no interest in a banjo uke until I found out that flea was making one. I don't have a flea, I guess because I prefer the more beautiful tone that comes from real tonewoods when it comes to my regular ukes. But the positives of the fleas and flukes seemed really appealing to me in a banjo uke, particularly the lightness and durability factor. This Firefly delivers the flea fun that I had in mind. Other banjo ukes that I have tried were heavy, clunky, and seemed like a pain. Not so for this one. And it's handmade in the U.S.A., not China. Yay! Highly recommend. If anyone is interested and has questions, I'll do my best.
Now to go start practicing some of the songs people have suggested for banjolele...one thing I didn't think about, now that I have two kinds of ukes, I'll have to practice twice as much!
 
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Congrats on the new uke! Photos would be nice. I would like to see the firefly engraving. When you get comfortable with it, maybe you can make a video for us.

–Lori
 
Alright, finally! Congratulations and enjoy yourself.
 
Congrats on the new uke! Photos would be nice. I would like to see the firefly engraving. When you get comfortable with it, maybe you can make a video for us.

–Lori

I'll go take a picture of the firefly engraving and post it tonight. I'm hoping one of the other expectant folks on the forum will provide video, I'm not quite brave enough yet! Are you out there guys? Give us a link!
 
Yay! I'm looking forward to my future where I'll hopefully possess one of these.
 
Here are the pics of the firefly engraving and sticker

fireflyuke.jpgengraving.jpgsticker.jpg

click on the images to enlarge
 
That's really awesome. Maybe just a teensy little video of a little strumming to see how it sounds? :eek:
 
That's really awesome. Maybe just a teensy little video of a little strumming to see how it sounds? :eek:

I would, but I don't know how really. I'm a little bit of a luddite and I haven't gotten around to figuring out how to record video of myself yet. I'm hoping one of the others who are "expecting" will post, I sent a PM to one who is online now. Maybe he'll respond. It sounds a lot like a mainland banjo clip that I heard on someone else's post. But, truth in advertising, I am not really a banjo uke connoisseur. When I got it I had just been playing my Kala solid acacia concert, so playing it was a bit of a shock at first. I mean, let's be real, banjo ukes in general sound like tin cans compared to real solid wood ukuleles. So if you really hate banjo ukes on principal, I doubt this one will change your mind, but I really wanted one good banjo uke to play with that has that banjo sound. It seems really loud at first, and the sound projects back at you through the open back. I had to spend a little time with it to get the strings to settle in tune, but it sounds good to me now. Oh, I also paid the extra $69 for an upgrade to Peghed tuners at the urging of others on this site, so I don't know what the standard tuners are like. The fretboard is rosewood right now, but I think they are eventually planning to change to a synthetic fretboard to help bring the price down. That is one drawback...with the peghed tuners I paid as much for this as my Kala acacia concert. I was willing to pay it because this is the only banjo uke I intend to buy and I wanted an early one with the wood fretboard, but I think many people will want to wait for future cheaper versions. The neck and headstock, by the way, are synthetic just like a flea. I think the whole uke only weighs 2 or 3 pounds at most, which was part of the appeal for me. Oh, it also comes with a denim gig bag. Oh shoot! I better go take a picture of that too!
 
Here's a shot of the gig bag

firefly bag.jpg

I've got some other photos in a parallel thread - but I don't have the ability to shoot video either, to the best of my knowledge.

At least I don't think I can transfer video from my vintage 1988 Montgomery Ward VHS Video Recorder to my computer....


-Kurt
 
Hahaha. Banjo ukes are my favorite instrument, so it's pretty exciting to hear about a pre-tuned, lightweight one.

You're not thinking fourth-dimensionally, Kurt!
 
Hahaha. Banjo ukes are my favorite instrument, so it's pretty exciting to hear about a pre-tuned, lightweight one.

Yeah, I wanted the weight to be more uke and less banjo. Easy of care and tuning was a big selling point for me too. I understand that many banjo and banjolele players take great pleasure in tinkering around with the heads and fussing with the adjustments all of the time, to me that seemed like a pain. I like too that I can hang this on the wall and not worry so much about humidity.
Oh, something else I forgot, the C string is metal. I'm not sure why (or what I will need to replace the strings). Can any banjo or banjolele folks enlighten me on that one?
 
It's just a wound string; it has nylon at its base. Some people prefer the twangy sound that it provides.
 
It's just a wound string; it has nylon at its base. Some people prefer the twangy sound that it provides.

I tried an Ohana 5 string tenor that had a low G wound string, and I didn't like the way it seemed to clash with thesound of the other strings, but the wound C on the Firefly sounds fine. Maybe because the "twangy sound" isn't out of place on the banjo uke.
 
Aloha Pepamahina,
Congratulationms on your new firefly, have fun and enjoy..would you say it has a real twangy bright tone? Happy Strummings,
MM Stan
 
Glad to hear you are enjoying your new banjo uke.
 
Hahaha. Banjo ukes are my favorite instrument, so it's pretty exciting to hear about a pre-tuned, lightweight one.

You're not thinking fourth-dimensionally, Kurt!

Actually, I'm not thinking that I have the patch cables and adapters....

-Kurt
 
Oh, something else I forgot, the C string is metal. I'm not sure why (or what I will need to replace the strings). Can any banjo or banjolele folks enlighten me on that one?

Aquila does sell a banjo uke set that is all nylon, unwound - I have that on my Stella. Both sets sound fine, but when I need to replace the C string, I think I'll go to the unwound set.

-Kurt
 
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