New Uke Day: Grape Soprano Flea With Pickup

jmw

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In my quest to have the most "practical" collection of ukes, I had to add a Flea with a pickup as my "I feel comfortable taking this anywhere and if I ever perform, I can plug this one in" uke. :)

And it had to be purple. With purple Aurora strings.

If I didn't already own a KoAloha, I would say this Flea is loud. And while it has more volume than other sopranos, the KoAloha is louder. That aside, it has a very "traditional" but full uke sound to my ears, and the slightly-larger-than-soprano plastic fingerboard is very comfortable.

I only have one issue with it, and I'm not sure if it's the purple strings or not, but the C string buzzes when I strum it alone (especially when tuning). It doesn't happen often during regular strumming, but it is consistent when I pluck. I've isolated the buzz to the nut, and right now I have a piece of electrical tape over the C string at the nut, which seems to be working. I'm pretty sure this is me and not the Magic Fluke Company, but any other suggestions are welcome! I'm also considering loosening the string, making sure there is no dust or other obstructions in the nut slot, and then tightening it back up again. Unfortunately, I changed the strings almost immediately, so I couldn't say if the buzz was there at the start or not.

But otherwise - hooray! A new purple uke for me!

UPDATE: it was me and not the Flea! I wound the purple strings too many times around the peg, which caused the buzz. Once I fixed that, the buzzing went away.



P.S. Apologies in advance for the sideways photos, which are a result of iPhone + laziness.

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A purple flea with a pick-up and purple strings---that makes it a Pflea (the P is silent). Coooool. Congrats!
 
Aloha JMW,
Congrats on your new fluke...try putting a piece of paper under the string in the groove of the nut...or two... Good Luck and Happy Strummings..
 
Oh, what kind of pickup is it? I think a Flea/Fluke with plastic fretboard and the b-band pickup with the built-in tuner is pretty much the perfect travel-anywhere-uke. You can beat off attackers with it, you don't have to pack the tuner, and the gig bag will seem like a normal backback. All with perfect intonation and loudness in an array of designs to match your mood. What more could you want?

Yes, I've been suffering Flea-lust for a while. Those aurora strings though... good call! :D
 
That is so completely awesome! Now you need to buy purple jewel circle stickers for your fretboard markers.

Nix
 
awwww, I thought you had a flea that looked like a grape, the purple is very cool though, my wife has purple windscreen wipers on her camper van, I'm sure she'd love your uke, I'm hiding this thread from her so I don't have to buy her one lol.

Now you just have to play purple rain and you'll be perfectly purple.

great uke.
 
I'm from Baltimore and the colors of our football team (he Ravens) are purple and black so I LOVE it! I would almost bet money that the buzz is from the new strings not sitting tight in the nut slot. I've found a tiny piece of paper wedged under the string helps with that. I was given a Brüko flat black (thanks again Peter if you read this) that had a pretty bad C string buzz and that has helped a lot. Now I am tempted to get some purple strings for my black ukulele to make it look even cooler lol.
 
Oh, what kind of pickup is it? I think a Flea/Fluke with plastic fretboard and the b-band pickup with the built-in tuner is pretty much the perfect travel-anywhere-uke. You can beat off attackers with it, you don't have to pack the tuner, and the gig bag will seem like a normal backback. All with perfect intonation and loudness in an array of designs to match your mood. What more could you want?

Yes, I've been suffering Flea-lust for a while. Those aurora strings though... good call! :D

It's a passive pickup - I don't normally play amplified but I wanted something just in case.

But it sounds like you know exactly the type of Flea you want! ;)
 
It's a passive pickup - I don't normally play amplified but I wanted something just in case.

But it sounds like you know exactly the type of Flea you want! ;)

I only started caring about the pickup when I got the Mobile Cube, discovered that it's two speakers can be plugged into an audio source and that with an RCA-mini cable, it'll do stereo sound. We're addicted to our Soothing Rain tracks at night, so we gotta pack this amp no matter what. So... if you take an amp, then may as well take a uke that can plug into it.

It's backwards thinking, but works. And if the pickup happens to have a tuner then... one less thing.

I had a Hibiscus flea (and a koa one that I stupidly sold), but had to let it go because I couldn't get over the fact that it was a team's colors that everyone in the family is raised from birth to hate with a seething passion.

Seriously it's nice to see the Fluke and Flea love again. There's not one thing they do wrong.
 



I only have one issue with it, and I'm not sure if it's the purple strings or not, but the C string buzzes when I strum it alone (especially when tuning). It doesn't happen often during regular strumming, but it is consistent when I pluck. I've isolated the buzz to the nut, and right now I have a piece of electrical tape over the C string at the nut, which seems to be working. I'm pretty sure this is me and not the Magic Fluke Company, but any other suggestions are welcome! I'm also considering loosening the string, making sure there is no dust or other obstructions in the nut slot, and then tightening it back up again. Unfortunately, I changed the strings almost immediately, so I couldn't say if the buzz was there at the start or not.

View attachment 39393View attachment 39394

Nice! Purple and gold were my high school's colors. This is giving me ideas.. Regarding your string buzzing issue, another current post on string windings got me thinking about that issue. When I looked at your Flea pics, I noticed that your C string is wound out to the end of the peg, which flares out. The string may be sitting too high, which would not give you the proper downward break angle on the nut. I would try re-winding the C string to make sure its sitting low and tight on the peg.
 
Very cool, purple is my favorite color to wear. Love it!
Congrats!
 
Regarding your string buzzing issue, another current post on string windings got me thinking about that issue. When I looked at your Flea pics, I noticed that your C string is wound out to the end of the peg, which flares out. The string may be sitting too high, which would not give you the proper downward break angle on the nut. I would try re-winding the C string to make sure its sitting low and tight on the peg.

This was exactly the problem! I just fixed it, and I'm going to update my original post just so everyone is clear that it was NOT the Flea that was the problem!
 
That is so completely awesome! Now you need to buy purple jewel circle stickers for your fretboard markers.

Nix

Thanks for the inspiration! And why stop there? I'm actually now wondering where I can get purple tuning pegs! Google is no help!
 
Seriously it's nice to see the Fluke and Flea love again. There's not one thing they do wrong.

I started to think about getting one around the time people started debating about the fake Schoenhut versions. Then we went to NYC Ukefest, met the Beloffs and played every model on their table (all of which were seconds and still sounded great), and I was pretty much sold. It's a solid instrument, but it is also a fun instrument.
 
Purple is the color of royalty---this is the Queen Flea! You are so lucky!

Enjoy all the things you'll learn with this fun uke.
 
This was exactly the problem! I just fixed it, and I'm going to update my original post just so everyone is clear that it was NOT the Flea that was the problem!

A tenor Fluke was the first uke I strung. It looks it too. My brother-in-law has it, and mentioned as I looked at the headstock in horror, "You strung it wrong but it still plays great." That thing looked a nightmare! :)
 
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