Arcy
Strummin' in the Rain
Mini Aklot review (ok. maybe not so mini. I'm a rambler. TLDR version: Looks good. Feels good. Plays easily. Bad pickup. Bummer.
After discussing fretless U-Basses with some folks on Facebook last week I insomnia-bought one of the Aklot uke bases (https://www.amazon.com/Electric-Blackwood-Prof…/…/B07Z4FVCL4 ). I admit it: I'm a sucker for 20% off coupons at O'dark thirty.
The pictures looked good. The description was pretty wonky (the truss rod is not primarily for adjusting the action, and the point of fretless is not to save your fingers from scratches #pettynitpick). In my head I mixed up Aklot & Enya - the write up and pictures looked very Enya-is, and I have a pretty good impression of Enya. The next day I realized my mistake. There are a lot worse morning afters.
Today a giant box arrived on my doorstep. Seriously giant: 22"x36"x15". Inside was a uke-size box wrapped in a wisp of craft paper. No other padding. Not impressive. No idea if that's Aklot's fault of Amazon's.
In the small box things looked better: the Ubass was packed in a pretty solid looking foam case along with a strap and a pair of batteries. I didn't actually pull the case of the box, but it looked like it would provide some protection. It's much better than the typical cheap-uke dustcover. So far all pretty good, and no obvious damage from being loose packed in the giant box.
The bass itself looks pretty decent. It's very pretty: better than in the pictures, which were pretty good. I didn't give a thorough examination, but no obvious flaws jumped out at me. The fretboard looked and felt like a photographic laminate rather than wood or epoxy. Not my favorite, but not a real problem. No frets, so obviously no problems with them.
No surprise: the thunder guts took quite a bit to tune up to pitch, and I had to touch up a few times while giving it a test run. This is what I expect from fresh thunder guts.
Also as expected, there wasn't much volume played acoustically. According to my dB meter it registered just under 70 dB about a foot from the sound hole. For comparison, my baritone registers around 80 dB at the same distance.
It's loud enough for acoustic practice at home, but not ideal. I doubt you'd get anywhere playing it unamplified with others. It'd be a good traveller: you could probably play it in a hotel room without bothering the neighbors.
I walked a short trip around the circle of fifths and was pretty pleased - the sound and feel were pretty good. The thunderguts felt a lot better on the fretless than they do on my fretted solid-body uke bass. At acoustic volume I couldn't hear the pitch well enough to judge intonation, but on a fretless intonation's on me not the uke.
Plugged in to my 12" practice amp it made a mighty boom. Rubber strings on a uke bass sound really cool and very different from an electric bass guitar. I'm a fan.
Walking the same circle of 5ths sounded great on the D string, then up to the A string, and on the E string. And then I got to the G string. Where's the ka-boom? There was supposed to be an earth-shattering ka-boom?
As is unfortunately too typical with cheap uke basses, the pickup didn't pick up all of the strings evenly. Reseating the strings over the bridge didn't make any difference, and I couldn't see any way at the pickup without doing more disassembly than I'm willing to do.
So the bottom line is that it's 3/4 great, but that remaining 1/4 means it's going to go back rather than going to uke group with me this week. Bummer.
After discussing fretless U-Basses with some folks on Facebook last week I insomnia-bought one of the Aklot uke bases (https://www.amazon.com/Electric-Blackwood-Prof…/…/B07Z4FVCL4 ). I admit it: I'm a sucker for 20% off coupons at O'dark thirty.
The pictures looked good. The description was pretty wonky (the truss rod is not primarily for adjusting the action, and the point of fretless is not to save your fingers from scratches #pettynitpick). In my head I mixed up Aklot & Enya - the write up and pictures looked very Enya-is, and I have a pretty good impression of Enya. The next day I realized my mistake. There are a lot worse morning afters.
Today a giant box arrived on my doorstep. Seriously giant: 22"x36"x15". Inside was a uke-size box wrapped in a wisp of craft paper. No other padding. Not impressive. No idea if that's Aklot's fault of Amazon's.
In the small box things looked better: the Ubass was packed in a pretty solid looking foam case along with a strap and a pair of batteries. I didn't actually pull the case of the box, but it looked like it would provide some protection. It's much better than the typical cheap-uke dustcover. So far all pretty good, and no obvious damage from being loose packed in the giant box.
The bass itself looks pretty decent. It's very pretty: better than in the pictures, which were pretty good. I didn't give a thorough examination, but no obvious flaws jumped out at me. The fretboard looked and felt like a photographic laminate rather than wood or epoxy. Not my favorite, but not a real problem. No frets, so obviously no problems with them.
No surprise: the thunder guts took quite a bit to tune up to pitch, and I had to touch up a few times while giving it a test run. This is what I expect from fresh thunder guts.
Also as expected, there wasn't much volume played acoustically. According to my dB meter it registered just under 70 dB about a foot from the sound hole. For comparison, my baritone registers around 80 dB at the same distance.
It's loud enough for acoustic practice at home, but not ideal. I doubt you'd get anywhere playing it unamplified with others. It'd be a good traveller: you could probably play it in a hotel room without bothering the neighbors.
I walked a short trip around the circle of fifths and was pretty pleased - the sound and feel were pretty good. The thunderguts felt a lot better on the fretless than they do on my fretted solid-body uke bass. At acoustic volume I couldn't hear the pitch well enough to judge intonation, but on a fretless intonation's on me not the uke.
Plugged in to my 12" practice amp it made a mighty boom. Rubber strings on a uke bass sound really cool and very different from an electric bass guitar. I'm a fan.
Walking the same circle of 5ths sounded great on the D string, then up to the A string, and on the E string. And then I got to the G string. Where's the ka-boom? There was supposed to be an earth-shattering ka-boom?
As is unfortunately too typical with cheap uke basses, the pickup didn't pick up all of the strings evenly. Reseating the strings over the bridge didn't make any difference, and I couldn't see any way at the pickup without doing more disassembly than I'm willing to do.
So the bottom line is that it's 3/4 great, but that remaining 1/4 means it's going to go back rather than going to uke group with me this week. Bummer.