Harley Benton Kahuna-C Flower

I hadn't played a ukulele since I was a kid and loved it back then. I just had a milestone birthday and my family knew that I'd like another instrument so they gave me some money and asked me to choose something. I looked at concert ukuleles all over the internet but there was nothing else that came close to the spec of this one at that sort of price. It arrived today and right out of the box my first impressions are really good. The internation is almost spot on and the action very good indeed. No need to make any adjustments at all. It has a nice sustain and plays very well indeed. I already have a Harley Benton guitar that I'm very pleased with so I was expecting a half decent instrument, but on first impressions it has exceeded all my expectations. Don't be put off by the flower design, it's certainly something that a man can play and not look out of place with. If you are a guitarist that fancies a go at the ukulele or even if you're a complete beginner looking for a first instrument I would highly recommend you look no further than this one.

I really wanted to give all 5 starts for this ukulele. However it has one very big draw back - the nut is glued in!!! And not with some flimsy hot glue. Glued in with some serious stuff that I was not able to pry. I left it alone in order to not inflict some more serious damage. Had to use nut files to deepen the nut slots since they were ~0.75 mm too high for comfortable playing.

That kind of defeats the purpose of the cheap ukulele if you have to bring it to Luther for set up or invest in the crazy expensive nut files, since the cheap ones I used will not work! Check my review of "Harley Benton Nut File Set" (Item number: 558767). I have used those and only managed to file ~0.5 mm on all slots before files became smoother than oiled baby skin. Kudos to the hardness of GraphTech Nubone XB!

Everything else considering the price exceeded my expectations. Intonation is spot on and the fret work is more even then the Kala KA-ZCT-B that I have bought for 360 EUR. The tone is pleasant and the sustain is long enough.

If not the glued in nut, I would consider it to be an actual instrument.