Flight Navigator EQ-A Tenor Ukulele - REVIEW

A ukulele i've been keen to take a look at since I first saw one late last year. This is the new Flight Navigator Tenor.

And it's case of Flight once again adding another ukulele design to their range. I suppose there is only so much you can do with a ukulele whilst still keeping it a uke, so I fully understand playing around with finishes, colours and detailing. It's about buyer choice I guess and whilst 'you might not like the look of that one, you might like the look of this one'.. Clever move even if the core uke is not ground-breakingly new.

SUMMARY VIDEO REVIEW

And when it comes to the looks I will state very early on that I absolutely adore the styling here. I'm a big fan of tobacco sunburst on instruments and my most precious acoustic guitar, a Gibson carries one of it's own. OK, that's subjective bias and you may not like sunbursts, but I do. In fact before even playing the thing I will tell you that I think this is one of the nicest looking Flights i've come across. OK i'll stop gushing on that point as there are a lot of other departments we need to consider. Back to the core build. This is an all solid wood tenor ukulele (also available in baritone) with solid flamed maple for the top and solid Indian rosewood for the back and sides. And that's a nice pairing with brightness from the maple and some rosewood to darken the sound off. I will say this about the colouring - a look online at other examples shows that these will naturally vary quite a bit with some showing more burst than others. I really like this one with the darker top shoulders though and just enough burst on the lower end. Oh and the flaming in the maple is sublime too!

The bridge is the pin style we usually see from Flight with no other trim. It's made from rosewood and in good condition. The pins on these are topped with coloured inserts like some other Flight ukes, but I am pleased they went with pearly white toppers rather than a bright colour. Sitting in that is a bone compensated saddle with string spacing of 42mm.

The body is all finished in gloss which is very nicely done and it also sports the scalloped cutaway on the top shoulder finished in darker gloss and a comfort edge on the lower bout. Elsewhere on the body you will spy a jack socket because these come with the Flight Double pickup system as standard. I've moaned enough about pickups in ukes, but again I can live with these as the controls are discretely tucked in the sound hole rather than in an ugly side box. Still, i'd prefer to buy one without.

Inside is pretty tidy with notched linings and thin braces. Like some other Flight ukes this has the top braces drilled through to remove mass but maintain rigidity, Kanile'a style. The bridge pins do look like they were knocked in by a hammer though!

The neck is similar to that seen on several other Flight ukes and is made from mahogany with a black skunk stripe running right through the middle. Pleasingly this is finished in satin and not gloss. It tapers to reasonably rounded profile and a roomy 38mm nut with 30mm string spacing

Topping that is more rosewood for the fingerboard. Sadly on this example whilst it is even in colour it's in need of a scrub and a clean from the QC department.. It's fitted with 19 frets joined at the 14th and like several other Flight ukes are semi hemi dressed on the ends so extremely comfortable. Position dots are in the form of inlaid wooden triangles at the 5th, 7th, 10th, 12th and 15th and you also get white dots on the side. Nice neck, shame the wood is scruffy.

Beyond the bone nut is the usual Flight open frame headstock. Its faced in more of the flamed maple which really works well and ties the design together.

The tuners are the same sort of black open gears used by Flight on other ukuleles and work well as well as looking nice.

Completing the package are a set of Worth Brown strings as standard and the now famous Flight red padded bag. And these come in at £469. It's a serious mid level price but is actually a touch cheaper than their hugely popular Fireball tenor or a 4SB. Saying that, it's quite a bit more than something like the Carabao  or the Peter Moss tenor so as per my comments on the Sammy Turton model, I am in two minds on the price. I'd also still like them to offer a cheaper model with no pickup as an option.

So much to like here so far. This arrived set up well (bar the fingerboard) so no complaints there. It's a hefty thing compared to some other tenors coming in at 735g, I presume partly due to the pickup and partly due to the use of rosewood, but it balances ok.

Thankfully the core sound points don't disappoint as this has great volume and good sustain. It's a lively instrument that doesn't take huge effort to project.

Tone wise I assumed the maple would be bright and it certainly is. I assume the rosewood is toning it down a little as are the strings, but it's still extremely zingy in sound. That's not to my taste on tenors as I prefer a woody darker tone, but that's purely subjective and I know many people love this sound. When strummed it's extremely jangly and fizzy in character with lots of self harmonisation going on and great clarity. It's a bit too much for me, but as I say.. personal view.

Fingerpicking for me is where this really shines as it has a bell like chime to the notes which are super clear and bright. It's also a delight to play this way on the roomy neck. Through a strum in the mix though and the jangle gets a bit too much for me, but it's beautifully delicate on picked notes. Still, all in all it's a very competent sounding instrument and my points are all subjective. It sounds great.

All in all, this isn't groundbreaking in terms of uke development, but as I say, there is only so much you can do with a core uke. I so like the Flight approach in offering lots of style options to their buyers so there is something for everyone. And as a big fan of sunburst instruments this ticks all the right boxes for me on that side. Thankfully it's also very well made and is a competent sounding uke that will fly off the shelves I think. And deservedly so. 

Highly recommended.

https://flightmusic.com/

UKULELE SPECS ROUNDUP

Model: Flight EQ-A Navigator

Scale: Tenor

Body: Solid flamed maple top, solid Indian rosewood back and sides

Bridge: Rosewood pin style

Saddle: Bone, compensated

Spacing at saddle: 42mm

Finish: Gloss

Neck: Mahogany

Fingerboard: Rosewood

Frets: 19, 14 to body

Nut: Bone

Nut width: 38mm, 30mm G to A
Tuners: Side mounted open gears

Strings: Worth Brown

Extras: Double brand pickup, gig bag

Weight: 735g

Country of origin: China

Price: £469

UKULELE PROS

Killer looks

Sound build
Nicely applied gloss

Great volume

Good sustain

Excellent clarity of tone

UKULELE CONS

Scruffy fingerboard on this example

Would like a non pickup option

UKULELE SCORES

Looks - 10 out of 10

Fit and finish - 9 out of 10
Sound - 9 out of 10 
Value for money - 9 out of 10

OVERALL UKULELE SCORE - 9.3 out of 10

UKULELE VIDEO REVIEW

© Barry Maz

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