NUD: Flight A10 FM Faded Blue Tenor

Three months after I preordered it, my Flight A10 FM faded blue anniversary tenor has arrived.

There was a thread a few months back about Flight making a special line of ukes in connection with its 10th anniversary. I was intrigued by the solid maple options, and ultimately sold on them by the SUS demos. The only downside was that they were not yet being sold in the US. The main Flight website said Uke Republic would be the first to get them so I reached out to Mike about a day or so before he actual put up the presale listings. I went with a low G to help balance out my collection.

I will do a review and comparison to some of my other tenors after I have had a chance to play it a few weeks, but for now here are some quick photos. The ripple is very nice and the fade is mostly even. Any odd looking spots are likely reflections as it was tricky to photo.

Beautiful, very unusual. Didn't Baz review one like this? Anyway, Congrats!

Nickie said:

Beautiful, very unusual. Didn't Baz review one like this? Anyway, Congrats!

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Thanks. Yep, Baz reviewed the quilted maple version that's solid blue and gave it fairly high scores.

I don't particularly care for the dyed color look on ukes, but this one is really striking and beautiful. I really like the fade on the curly Maple.

Looking forward to hearing a sample. Congrats on your latest.

Very nice, congrats! I started that thread discussing these Flight Anniversary models because I like Flight as a company so much. Glad to see someone here getting one of these beauties. I have to say, I vastly prefer the looks of this one to the all blue model. I think that one was way too uniform in its colour, whereas as yours is much more striking and interesting.

I like the looks, but it's a lot of money for the sound quality I've heard in the demo videos. Honestly, I was expecting it to be around $400 or $500. I'd love to hear your take on how it sounds.

Kenn2018 said:

I don't particularly care for the dyed color look on ukes, but this one is really striking and beautiful. I really like the fade on the curly Maple.

Looking forward to hearing a sample. Congrats on your latest.

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Dohle said:

Very nice, congrats! I started that thread discussing these Flight Anniversary models because I like Flight as a company so much. Glad to see someone here getting one of these beauties. I have to say, I vastly prefer the looks of this one to the all blue model. I think that one was way too uniform in its colour, whereas as yours is much more striking and interesting.

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Thanks! I've seen dyed wood done well and dyed wood done poorly. The dye job here isn't perfect, but is pretty well done, and the fade effect helps the wood grain shine while still adding some nice color.

Unfortunately, the sound samples will have to wait. After closer inspection, one corner of the bridge was not properly glued to the body and there's a gap where it has separated. I've reached out to Uke Republic to see what can be done, but until then, I've loosened the strings to take tension off the bridge and am not going to play it until the issue is fixed. It's really frustrating, given the wait and how nice it sounded for the 15-30 minutes I was able to play with it.

Cadia said:

I like the looks, but it's a lot of money for the sound quality I've heard in the demo videos. Honestly, I was expecting it to be around $400 or $500. I'd love to hear your take on how it sounds.

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It's probably not the sound quality that would bring my expected price down, but rather the build quality. I don't have many in the $400-$500 range to compare, but even playing it briefly it sounded better than my Ohana TK-270. As I mentioned in a different reply, however, there are already some issues with the uke that will necessitate repair. I have a few other complaints based in part on what you would expect to get for the price, but I'm going to hold off until I've gotten the bridge fixed and have played it enough to review it.

Sorry to hear about the bridge issue. What a bummer. It is a very pretty uke though! When they were first announced I wanted to jump and get either the one you got or the all blue one. I took a few days and talked myself down and out of it, mostly because it was maple and not a wood I wanted. I did however get the Flight Pathfinder electric uke that is the blue fade similar to yours. It's gorgeous in person and so far I'm really digging it! I hope you get yours fixed and back to rockin soon so you can enjoy it!