Best Bass Ukulele for under $150?

I am a bass player looking for a cheap bass uke. I've been looking at the following models:

Harley Benton Kahuna - kind of a mix between goldtone and a typical uke bass

Hadean 23-33 long scale - longer scale is probably more comfortable.

Hadean UKB-22/23/24- there are alot of different ones in this price bracket

Donner DUB-1 - seems to be highly regarded

Caramel CUB402 - another one that gets positive reviews

Any advice would be appreciated. Fretted or fretless doesn't matter. I would like to be able to gig or record with it if I want, so a preamp that is decent would be important to me I think. Also does having a truss rod matter on uke sized instruments? Some models do and some don't.....

Truss rod probably doesn’t matter.

You should narrow down your fretless vs fretted choice as well as acoustic or solid-body, flooby synth-rubber strings or metal wound, etc. There’s no better or worse amongst these- just a lot of personal preference where only your opinion matters.

That said: I have a 20” scale fretted Hadean solid body with flooby strings and it’s pretty good. I’d prefer the slightly longer scale (and a 5th string). It’s blue. I like blue. I have a longer scale flooby stringed acoustic fretless ordered, and I may change the solid-body to flat wounds when that arrives.

The hazard with all of the cheapos is quality control. You may end up with a winner, but uke-scale
basses depend on pickups (even the “acoustic” ones) and the under-saddle piezos are notoriously cranky. I’m done with the real cheap ones: they’re too expensive. I’d spend a bit more and order from a trusted seller who will check it out before delivery. Mim and Uke Republic both have UBasses and I’d probably look there first if you don’t have a good local vendor.

I like the Hadeans, I have eight, one is a 20.5" acoustic and six are solid body, five are longer scale, two are shorter. When I first started to buy them six years ago, I had to return a couple, but was well taken care of by Rondo. I use poly strings, Road Toad Pahoehoe, which I prefer, but also use Aquila Thunderguts (kinda sticky), and also steel flatwounds. Could never make the round wounds stop rattling and farting no matter how careful I was.

I also have a Kala Journeyman that I had to send to Kala for fixing when their dealer Sam Ash couldn't (and also discovered their one in stock had the same twisted neck problem as mine).

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This is Michael Kohan in Los Angeles, Beverly West near the Beverly Center
9 tenor cutaway ukes, 6 acoustic bass ukes, 12 solid body bass ukes, 14 mini electric bass guitars (Total: 41)

• Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children in hospital music therapy programs. www.theukc.org
• Member The CC Strummers: YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/CCStrummers/video, Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheCCStrummers

I like the Eddy Finn bass ukes with frets and the ones with fretmarkers but no raised metal frets. One can get sliding sounds that a raised fretted one cannot make. ( I also play a full sized upright bass)
I like the sound and feel of the Aquila strings. There is a stick on pickup that can be placed where you think it sounds best and can be moved to unelectrified units to amplify them. I lay my Ashbory bass from a Roland Microcube.

kohanmike said:

I like the Hadeans, I have eight, one is a 20.5" acoustic and six are solid body, five are longer scale, two are shorter. When I first started to buy them six years ago, I had to return a couple, but was well taken care of by Rondo. I use poly strings, Road Toad Pahoehoe, which I prefer, but also use Aquila Thunderguts (kinda sticky), and also steel flatwounds. Could never make the round wounds stop rattling and farting no matter how careful I was.

I also have a Kala Journeyman that I had to send to Kala for fixing when their dealer Sam Ash couldn't (and also discovered their one in stock had the same twisted neck problem as mine).

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This is Michael Kohan in Los Angeles, Beverly West near the Beverly Center
9 tenor cutaway ukes, 6 acoustic bass ukes, 12 solid body bass ukes, 14 mini electric bass guitars (Total: 41)

• Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children in hospital music therapy programs. www.theukc.org
• Member The CC Strummers: YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/CCStrummers/video, Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheCCStrummers

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Did you like the long scale Hadeans? Also did you try the galli/kala flatwounds? How was the tension compared to stock rubber strings?

juicemalone said:

Did you like the long scale Hadeans? Also did you try the galli/kala flatwounds? How was the tension compared to stock rubber strings?

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Yes, I like the long scale Hadeans, my sweet spot scale is 23 to 24 inch. I tried the Galli but they're not truly flatwound, they have a coating on roundwound. As I mentioned, no matter how careful I was, I couldn't stop them from rattling and farting. I'm very happy with Pahoehoe poly and La Bella steel flatwound, which I use on all my fretted basses. I tolerate the Thunderguts sticky feel. I just bought a set of La Bella Magic Fluke Timber true flatwound bass strings that I'm going to try on one of my 22 inch scale to see how well they fit.

Had one unfretted acoustic bass uke, but it was too awkward switching back and forth with fretted, so I shelved it.

I got a UK Dream bass from Amazon for pretty cheap and it's decent enough (maybe not to someone coming from a bass background), except the fret ends were a little sharp and I needed to file them.

Whatever you choose, since you're shopping at the low end of the price range, consider what kind of strings you want. If you want wound strings and it comes with unwound, that's a significant addition to your under $150 purchase, whereas another model might already have wound strings.

kohanmike said:

I like the Hadeans, I have eight, one is a 20.5" acoustic and six are solid body, five are longer scale, two are shorter. When I first started to buy them six years ago, I had to return a couple, but was well taken care of by Rondo. I use poly strings, Road Toad Pahoehoe, which I prefer, but also use Aquila Thunderguts (kinda sticky), and also steel flatwounds. Could never make the round wounds stop rattling and farting no matter how careful I was.

I also have a Kala Journeyman that I had to send to Kala for fixing when their dealer Sam Ash couldn't (and also discovered their one in stock had the same twisted neck problem as mine).

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How do you think the higher end Kalas (Exotic Mahogany, Striped Ebony, and Solid Mahogany) compare to the acoustic Hadeans?

tm3 said:

How do you think the higher end Kalas (Exotic Mahogany, Striped Ebony, and Solid Mahogany) compare to the acoustic Hadeans?

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I've never tried one of those so I couldn't say, but in general I think the really expensive stuff is not necessarily that much better than the less costly. As an example, I bought a Kala tenor uke by recommendation of Mim with a solid cedar top acacia koa body, paduuk binding, cutaway with preamp for $379 that I compared side by side to Kamaka and Ko'aloha $1000+ ukes and I didn't discern a 3x difference in them. That Kala is my go to uke for gigs.

Unless your're a pro that gigs and records all the time, I think the Hadeans work very well.

kohanmike said:

I've never tried one of those so I couldn't say, but in general I think the really expensive stuff is not necessarily that much better than the less costly. As an example, I bought a Kala tenor uke by recommendation of Mim with a solid cedar top acacia koa body, paduuk binding, cutaway with preamp for $379 that I compared side by side to Kamaka and Ko'aloha $1000+ ukes and I didn't discern a 3x difference in them. That Kala is my go to uke for gigs.

Unless your're a pro that gigs and records all the time, I think the Hadeans work very well.

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Thanks! Can you clarify one more thing ...... you (I think) recommend the Road Toad strings, but the Hadeans don't come with them, correct? Is switching to those strings a beginner-level skill project?

tm3 said:

Thanks! Can you clarify one more thing ...... you (I think) recommend the Road Toad strings, but the Hadeans don't come with them, correct? Is switching to those strings a beginner-level skill project?

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The Road Toad are on the difficult side to install, they need to be stretched a lot, so securing down the uke is necessary, and you have to give the string a twist to secure them onto the tuner post when you start. Then cut off the excess, but they will take a few weeks to stretch even more and they will double wrap the post, when it will be necessary to take them off the post and rewrap them and cut off more excess.

I much prefer the smoothness of the Road Toad over the Aquila Thunder, but sometimes the cream color Aquila look better, like with the Kala Journeyman. I've been living with the stickiness of Aquila partly to avoid the tedious task of installing Road Toads, although just yesterday I read on another forum that Kala recommends using Windex with a paper towel on the Aquila to make them smoother, which I'm going to try.

kohanmike said:

The Road Toad are on the difficult side to install, they need to be stretched a lot, so securing down the uke is necessary, and you have to give the string a twist to secure them onto the tuner post when you start. Then cut off the excess, but they will take a few weeks to stretch even more and they will double wrap the post, when it will be necessary to take them off the post and rewrap them and cut off more excess.

I much prefer the smoothness of the Road Toad over the Aquila Thunder, but sometimes the cream color Aquila look better, like with the Kala Journeyman. I've been living with the stickiness of Aquila partly to avoid the tedious task of installing Road Toads, although just yesterday I read on another forum that Kala recommends using Windex with a paper towel on the Aquila to make them smoother, which I'm going to try.

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Good info -- thank you!