New ukulele day! fluke Firefly

bazmaz

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Pleased! New Firefly banjo uke arrived, it's its a pretty little thing.

Wound C string?? (a new one on me!). Typical Magic Fluke build quality too - perfect.

Full review with pictures soon on Got A Ukulele!

Any tips from Firefly players? Action is good, will be stuffing a sock in it though as a bit ghosty on the notes.
 
Enjoy your Firefly, Barry - I certainly enjoy mine! (What is the SN up to, these days? I've got 022).

I've tried a few different head-muting stuffers - t-shirts, socks, wool cap, but a good open cell foam rubber seems to work best, because it compresses easily, and you can shape it the way that you want it - and it is actually what I first saw banjo players using back in the dark ages of High School (Early 70s).

Yes, the Firefly comes with a set of Aquilas with a wound G - when I replace the strings, I'm planning on getting the unwound Banjo Uke set, although I've been told by many (here on the forum) that there really isn't a different between the Aquila Banjo Uke and regular uke strings.

So, did you get the Peghed tuners, the Grover 2B, or the Grover 4B tuners? I'm assuming that you went with the rosewood fingerboard, rather than the plastic...

I don't have anything against plastic fingerboards - my Harmony has one - but I like wood better.

Anyway, enjoy! The firefly is a good player across the spectrum, and while I don't play Formby -style, Gillian did play "When I'm Cleaning Windows" on mine, and it sounded just fine.

-Kurt​
 
Just saw the photo on Gotaukulele.com - The FireFly came in broken????? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Did you get it from MagicFluke, or someone else?
 
In those pics, it looks like your action is high at the 12th fret.... very high... one might say it's concave, like the neck snapp.... Oh? Oh...

:(
 
Yikes. That really stinks it came broken. :(

There was a banjo uke (not a firefly) at the ukulele jam I go to last week. He had one of those banjo mutes from Gold Tone, and it worked GOBS better then stuffing a sock in it. Gobs better.

Happy travels!

ETA: It looked like this. Although now I'm confused because he said it was a Gold Tone mute...but Amazon does not agree. Oh well. That's what it looked like.
 
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I'm not sure I'm on-board with Fluke's new design for their neck. Seems to me it might play around with intonation, as well as making it a bit more difficult to play high on the fretboard.
 
I enjoy my Fire-Fly. It is a great little uke to take to a jam when I need to be heard.
It is extremely light and easy to carry around at festivals and such.
I switched to an unwound G, for both feel and sound. The wound had a little more punch and sustain, but I like the voice and balance of all unwound strings.
Congrats on the new addition, enjoy and strum happy.
 
Thanks for posting. I had a chance to play a Firefly a while ago and I really liked it. I'm hoping that Magic Fluke will make one someday with a tenor scale neck.
 
It came with a wound C?? Mine came with an unwound C, looks like regular ol' Aquilas to my unschooled eyes....
I should add I did get it through Elderly, not direct from MagicFluke.

Steve
 
Love the new one, congrats. The first one is such a clean break I have to think that might have been defective from the start
 
Hi folks, sorry, I neglected this post.

Full review of the new one on Got A Ukulele (link in reviews section) and I love it.

Actually came with La Bella strings and wound C which I don't much like. Aquilas going on it, but anyone tried worths?

Oh, and the broken one, the store were brilliant and refunded - full marks.
 
And I see your S/N is 1218 - almost 1200 Firefly Banjo Ukes since Mine was made last year - that is around 100/month!

Now I see why Magic Fluke is supposed to be the biggest ukulele maker in the continental United States! And considering that the shop is a little smaller than my 1200 sq. ft. house, that is pretty phenomenal!


-Kurt​
 
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