22 Dec 2009

Another new toy! Eleuke SC100 PHP

My new BARGAIN uke arrived this week - a Eleuke for £65!!

These are my initial views on how it arrived, looks etc - not really played it yet.

This is the SC100PHP model - I think its rosewood - basically a dark wood all over, fingerboard included. Its billed as a Soprano, but I have no idea why, as it is virtually the same scale length as my Mainland Concert. 20 silver frets.

Its branded Harley Benton, which is the Thomann company brand name, but it is clearly a Eleuke - came in Eleuke box, and Eleuke warranty card.

Finish is pretty much flawless, not a mark. One tuner needed a bit of a tighten (they are silver geared (open geared) with thankfully small buttons so it doesnt look like Mickey Mouse) Couple of fret ends need a very slight sanding but nothing too bad. Dark, kind of a matt gloss finish if you know what I mean (very smooth, but not mirror finish)

It has a wood nut and wood saddle (may think about changing the latter), and volume and tone pots on the face. On the base, standard guitar jack, plus two mini jacks, one for headphones, one for MP3 input. The guitar jack doubles as strap button, and there is another strap button on the back at the base of the neck.

It looks to my eyes to be a single piece of wood, which is impressive.

Came with MP3 player lead, and headphones - headphones are biggest piece of junk I have ever seen!

Also comes complete with rather nice rugged padded gig bag.

The uke arrived strung with some really nasty black, soft, low tension glossy strings. ugh. Terrible tuning, no sustain, and intonation WAY off on the G string. Wasnt even prepared to give them a chance, so on with Aquilas, and the thing now feels tight, and the intonation issue on G has gone away.

Its a solid little thing, and feels great and nicely balanced. Heavier than my wood ukes, but not much.

Had a very quick play on headphones - bit hissy and terribly thin sounding, - need an amp test to be sure (EDIT - since amp tested - just thing the pickup in this is pretty cheap sounding). Like the tone control which has a very wide range of settings.

Anyway, based on looks and finish alone, I am kind of impressed - and for only £65 it seems a bit of a bargain I suppose - just wish it sounded good plugged in.

The MP3 feature is very cool - plug in your ipod, and plug in headphones, and you can listen to yourself playing over the top of your mp3s!

So long as you know what you are getting I suppose it's worth a recommendation - but I do wish they could use a better pickup...