My Pocket Rubin arrived a couple of days ago. I must say that I'm very pleasantly surprised with just how much Uke I've got for the money (around £30 delivered) I'm a big fan of Pocket Ukes and I would have no hesitation recommending this for anyone who is thinking of trying one out.
Rubin Ukuleles seem to have disappeared from Amazon and EBay. Their website returns a blank HTML page.
EBay listings say the instruments were pulled offline by the seller. No reason given.
Anyone have news?
I picked up an RT-301 in July (solid spruce top tenor, laminate blonde back and sides, active "UK-2000" pickup).
My experience was much the same as earlier posters--the nut/saddle needed adjusting, and the electronics were roughly installed and needed some finessing.
But, all-in-all, the "fixes" were easy and the instrument is outstanding considering the $80 (shipped!) price point.
I planned to order a couple more Rubins as Christmas gifts. . .I hope they are transitioning, and not gone forever.
They seem to be available in the USA on Amazon under Aquila iukes for the spruce version.iuke isn't available across the pond and they look to cost almost 3x as much as the rubins.
I struggled to find any Chinese information about this Rubin brand....but I did come across a Chinese online factory store called "Boyale" which ukuleles resembles quite a lot to the Rubins, though without the pocket uke option.
My guess is that Rubin store operator made custom orders from these low-end factories while requesting a more decent looking pickup.
i liked my rp-400 so much (see review upthread) i bought another Rubin: the RP-700 Solid Cedar Top Zebrawood 17" Sopranino
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but this time not so happy.
problem is the fretboard, see image below:
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if you look closely you'll see the frets don't actually span the board as there is a strange edge-strip on either side; however the nut is a standard width with the result that the G and A strings fall off the ends of the frets when you play them near the nut!
As a temporary solution, I cut new nut slots for the outer strings further in which of course means the strings are now unevenly spaced, but at least I can play it.
The ultimate solution will be to fit a completely new narrower nut.
Besides this, the uke body is a bit deeper than the rp-400 (about 10%) and it's louder but not as sweet sounding to my ear -- more like a regular Chinese soprano. the C string in particular barks.
It does look nice though.
I'm going to give it to my 11 year old daughter once I've fixed the nut.