Flea and Fake Flea - comparisons

UKISOCIETY

UKISOCIETY

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Edit: The thickness is the same. If the fake looks thicker, it's due to the angle of the photo.
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Your Flea pickup isn't a standard option, right? It's an add on?
 
Weight:


Flea (with pick-up): 457 grams / 16.10 oz
Fake Flea: 485 grams / 17.05 oz


My impressions: The fake Flea is an exact copy, down to the bridge and bracing under the body top. The fake is heavier perhaps due to a thicker top. The sound of the Flea is fuller and more resonant. The tuners on the fake Flea are cheap feeling and have some trouble holding tone without tightening.

Conclusion: The sound of the fake Flea is good enough to cause concern for the Flea makers. Although not as loud or full in sound, the fake has good intonation and is loud enough. If this design is patented, the Flea manufacturers should file a lawsuit.
 
Is the Schoenhut body deeper/thicker, or is that a trick of the light?

The soundcloud track was very interesting, the Flea sound waves being consistently bigger than the Schoenhut. The wave differences - what do those mean? Is it just a function of volume?
 
Freeda said:
Is the Schoenhut body deeper/thicker, or is that a trick of the light?
Click to expand...

They appear to be of equal thickness. It's difficult to measure accurately due to the rounded backs.

Freeda said:
The soundcloud track was very interesting, the Flea sound waves being consistently bigger than the Schoenhut. The wave differences - what do those mean? Is it just a function of volume?
Click to expand...
Yes, volume
 
Illegal? Dunno.
Despicable? Absolutely!
 
UKISOCIETY said:
Conclusion: The sound of the fake Flea is good enough to cause concern for the Flea makers. Although not as loud or full in sound, the fake has good intonation and is loud enough. If this design is patented, the Flea manufacturers should file a lawsuit.
Click to expand...

I have to disagree a bit. While the fake Flea may not sound as awful as people expected, the sound is still really mushy (for lack of a better word). The real Flea has nice separation in the notes, while the fake sounds muffled and squshed.

Perhaps that's better than a Dolphin but I don't know.

Certainly while the fake sounds better than I thought it would, it isn't a real comparison to Flea. And I still have to doubt that anybody considering a real Flea would choose this as a viable alternative any more than the Dolhin is considered a viable alternative to a Kamaka.
 
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They don't seem to be available anymore either on Amazon or ebay. so either all this publicity caused them to sell out or it scared the seller and he stopped selling them???
 
strumsilly said:
They don't seem to be available anymore either on Amazon or ebay. so either all this publicity caused them to sell out or it scared the seller and he stopped selling them???
Click to expand...

There are still some on eBay - not sure if the same seller or not.

Interesting side note - 1927 ad for Schoenhut "toy" ukuleles :)

I'm amazed at how close of a copy the Schoenhut is to an actual Flea. Sound quality aside - that just ain't right.
 
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