I like this psychedelic design. I will look for one in yellow. If I find it, I'll buy it. Just because it's cool. The flappy strings are not a problem. I just change them. Thank you so much for the review. Seeing you on sundays has become a very nice tradition ❤️
In fact, the luthier, Eric Devine . . . and he does build divine ukuleles . . . demonstrates that a smaller soundhole can be more conducive to lower frequencies. I saw an interview with him where he progressively covers some of the soundhole and plays some chords. One can perceive the changes in timbre as he does so.
Frequency change perhaps - i'm talking about people who think that bigger ones make the uke louder (or that side sound ports make them louder). If anything this one creates LESS soundboard ..
@@GotAUkulele agreed, many guitar players enlarged the sound holes on their Martin D-28s because the celebrated player, Tony Rice did so. And then they regretted it.
I thought the same thing. I just recently acquired a magic fluke solid koa top with all the bells and whistles. I also bought a magic fluke solid adriannock spruce mandolin with all the bells and whistles. If I was the magic fluke company I would be upset
My boyfriend, who knows as much ukulele as i play around him, and occasionally catches me watching you reviews, said, "Ugh, this sounds so harsh". And i agree. What a disaster. Agreed on the looks coming way to close to the Flea, too. What is the purpose of this?
Might do, but as i say in my review - don't think it would be fair. It's not a 35 quid uke then, and the people it's aimed at are really not going to do that on day one.
Nah, don't bother doing that, Baz. It would almost condone bumblebee for taking "heavy inspiration" from the MFC. Leave it sounding awful and unplayable, it's what it deserves. It's a pity, kind of reflects poorly on Flight in a way. And I like Flight as a company. 🤔
Thanks for a great review, love how you call “a spade a spade”, or in this case “a paddle a paddle”. Which is impartiality at its best. Am seeing more companies lazily copying designs that others have spent years in development and not just limited to instruments, which annoys the living daylights out of me. Intellectual property rights seem to have gone out the window. As well as good professional manners. I often wonder about the Pineapple shape and how that is shared. However, Flight need not have done this, they make some real nice instruments and have a good reputation for quality. Next will be a Uke with a funny shaped sound hole that has the look of a well known food material from Hawaii 🤔. To be fair it sounded a £25 Uke and if you have to change the strings and it doesn’t improve, you can always take it kayaking. Have a great week.
I’ve always wondered why there has only been one flat bottom uke on the market (until now). You’d think just about every one of the big makers would have at least one in their lineup.
I think the materials and head make it look plenty different from the Flea. Besides, a dreadnought is a dreadnought after all, these days. Even for electrics I'd hate to let Fender have a monopoly on a comfortable shape and convenient layout. Knock-offs never bother me because without them I figure we wouldn't have affordable first party options like Squire, and if you still can't justify the price of a Squire you have Indio. I wouldn't say the Hive is doing a good job at keeping bigger companies humble, but good knock-offs do.
When I saw the macro photos, I wondered if Magic Fluke had a new model... While I did not put on my headphones for this one, it seemed to have a flabulous lofi sound quality. I will admit I like the shape of the headstock.
I'm sure replacing the rubber-band strings would make a huge difference and probably not cost a bundle. And if you play with, e.g., a felt pick, the humongous sound hole will help you retrieve it from inside.
It would make it the same cost as a Flight Travel. And it’s aimed at kids / schools / beginners - I really don’t think a string change is going to be first thing on the agenda. In this case, I don’t want to try to make a silk purse out of the sows ear..
I don’t have a problem with copying designs. Look at all the Strat and other design copies in the guitar world. It might make it possible for a kid who loves the flea design to get that style at a starter price. I change the strings on most of my ukes so string quality is not a problem for me or I would guess, little kids just trying to learn chords. Also, the flabby, soft action might make it easier to form chords in weaker hands. Over all, I’ve heard a lot worse from a starter uke. That said, I get your point. But I think the good out weights the bad and it’s not really in competition, quality or price wise, with the Fluke/ Flea. I like it for what it is.
Had a few people raise the Fender comparison - but for me it's about scale. Fender are a huge multinational corporation. Magic Fluke is a very small family business run by a husband and wife - the husband did the designing. All copying is lazy at best, but not a fan of it happening to small business.
I bought one of these hoping it would be good for my classroom, since I have a couple flights that the kids love and I thought this might be similar. I immediately hated the strings and changed them to clear fluorocarbons, which helped but caused a buzz in the c string which then needed fixing. Even with the thinner, high tension strings I found it sounds much better in d. Which then makes it useless for my music classroom. Right now I’ve been playing with it at home since I don’t have a d instrument, but it wasn’t what I bought it for and I think it quite likely I will end up passing it on.
@@gustau4764 Not on a shorter scale. Less vibrating string. Fat strings are flabby on sopranos - it’s why sopranino strings need strings like cheese wire.
Update: I put the same strings on 2 other school instruments and they caused a buzz on both that had never been there, so I realised it was likely the strings. After changing the c string to a different brand, the buzz is gone and it sounds a lot better, and actually works in c tuning. So I unfairly judged it.
I initially thought it was a sopranino Flea. … MFC equips all their ukes with D’Addario/Aquila Nyltechs, which I find boomy on Fleas and Flukes (but not as boomy as the Super Nylguts). Like you, I use Worth Clears on mine. I actually kept the Nyltechs on my Firefly, because banjoleles are supposed to be loud and obnoxious!
You are not the only one to think it was a Magic Fluke - which considering how lousy it sounds should be alarm bells for Magic Fluke in terms of the association it brings.
Glad someone feels my pain about coped designs, when flight brought out a copy of the aNnueNue UT10 I felt the way you feel and I know it been going on for year and years, but I for one will not buy a ukulele if I believe it’s a copy from another maker
Excellent review, pointing out the pros and cons of these ukuleles. Too many negatives with the Bumblebee Hive Soprano and it's elastic strings, prefer the more traditional blue Flight Travel. Much better quality.
I recognised this on micro Monday because I'd been looking on the SUS for a wooden soprano ukulele for about £50 and they didn't have one. The Hive was all they had below £50. I want to buy a soprano for a friend's birthday and she is a very green person, so I feel plastic would be wrong for her. My point is that neither Matt at World of Ukes, or SUS stock wooden beginners instruments. Is it because there is not sufficient margin in them to do a proper set up? That's understandable, but it does mean people will start looking at the big box sellers. I thought it would be something you would be interested in looking into. All the best.🤗
That's exactly the reason - not enough of them about that need anything less than a LOT of work before they can be sensibly sold - totally hammers the margin - they'd be doing nothing all day but setting up cheap instruments that then don't make them any money. Doesn't make any business sense. Things like the Enya Nova and Flight Travel are pretty fuss free on setup though I find - so they tend to carry those.
The Flight Ultra sopranos have also come into the picture too. I am fond of my Flight Tus sopranos (standard annd long neck-thanks Baz) and hope to get an Ultra to play with should they ever come to Canada. Always intrigued with Fleas but at 5x the cost here over the Tus and maybe Ultras it’s hard to stomach that cost difference over what I suspect is a marginal difference in sound. A “copy” of the Flea is not at all appealing though.
The Ultras are leagues above this too. The Flea cost comes down to them being hand made by a family business in the USA and not on a cheap line in China. USA power / food. / fuel / wages / tax cost.
I am so confused. I thought the Fleas were no longer available or was it the Magic Fluke? I don't know why I thought one of them wasn't available any longer. I do not understand the thought process behind this ukulele. Would it not be better for the company to say, "Hey, here's our homage to the Flea."? And if they're going to do that, wouldn't it be better to actually make a ukulele that sounds good? As a potential buyer, I would see this and say, "uuu! is that a Flea or Fluke?!" Then realize that it wasn't either. Plus it doesn't even sound good. I don't really care what the ukulele looks like, I care what it sounds like. It can have a cartoon pigeon for its logo and some wackadoo colors. As long as it's made well, plays well, and sounds good, I'm proud to play it. 🙃
By the time you've bought a gig bag and new strings... The bridges on both the flight and the hive appear to be the same? Not sure how I feel about the pastiche - it could be argued that they are different markets. However, if someone sees a hive, isn't impressed, then they may avoid the fluke/flea? Thank you as always for a great review.
@2:30 not every parent can afford the much higher cost of the fluke for their kids. so my guess is that this is very much trying to be a budget version for flea admirerers. *shrug* the string gauges are a large mistake though. yikes
w\ that humongous soundhöle and the plastic bowl body … have some water in it and it could be used as a super cool ashtray fröm outer space 🪐 … hell of a design for any🚬 smoking uke aficionado 😀
Thanks - I was looking forward to seeing this reviewed, as I was really curious about this, and liked the funky headstock. Now I don’t have to be curious about it any more, though you have made me really want to try out a Flea. It’s really noticeably considerably worse than the Travel Flight Bumblebee as you say. One question - I’m sure I’ve seen a variation of the Bumblebee Hive with a small square sound hole. Have you come across that anywhere? Though now it’s a really idle question as I’m not inclined to seek it out after this review.
When I saw it I thought it was a Magic Fluke. (Which by the are made just a few hours from my home. Disappointed at the poor copy. Thanks for the honest review. Enjoy your week!
@@GotAUkulele Thank you so so much for replying I thought it was a long shot to comment, I couldn't reach on any other platform as I dont use social media
To be sure they did rip off the flea. But al the double bouts are the same so I'm on the fence. It's a nice entry for a lot of people and doesn't sound like a potato
@@GotAUkulele there are two, one has got a concert skala, it costs 50 euros at Thomanns, the other one soprano normal skala ,44 euros, both blue, which is yours?
I agree that the soundhole is oversized and the strings loose, but I have no issue with the shape being derivative -which it is-, just like I do not mind all double-bout ukuleles looking like each other. Also, magic Flukes cost 10 times more and don't do sopranos.
😂all they had to do is make it a little different like a sound whole design. It sounds like a cheap plastic ukulele to me unlike the Flea! It can’t compare to the flight! Flight wins big! Thanks Baz for another fun review!…DOC
A simple way to increase Hive uke strings tension: just re-wind the strings to the opposite direction, having the string go beneath the string post will increase the string angle
The Bumblebee would work for me. I prefer the less strident sound which would work better in the mix for my particular needs. Like the shape too. The market will always squash small firms, it's the nature of the beast. Thanks for your review.
I like the design although agree soundhole too big. I did own a flea and saw the resemblance right away. First of all I thought oh wow I like the shape as its almost the same as the flea. Then I wondered how they could sell what is essentially the same materials used to make a flea for hundreds of pounds less!! Angry at the profit made by magic fluke but agree its not the same calibre of instrument.... but does it allow for the huge price difference? Hmm 😮🤔 and lastly aquila strings are horrible in my opinion no matter what, every time I buy an Instrument that has aquila strings I change them. (D'Addario or worths) If I owned magic fluke I'd be pissed off of course haha
@GotAUkulele yes under those circumstances the profit margin will reduce profits massively. I'm actually thinking of getting another, a fluke this time, if I can find one second hand ✋️ 🤔 👀
There seems to be a lot of copying going on in the ukulele universe.. That though is really taking it too far. When someone makes a product as individual and quirky as the flea and let’s face it they only make 2 shapes of ukulele in total. This should not be allowed to happen. The fact that they’ve done it so poorly is immaterial.l
I don't knock them for copying the fluke that's just the way the musical instrument world works but that sound hold placement and size effectively cuts the resonating area of the sound in half
Sorry - really disagree - i'd agree if they'd mimicked kala or Ohana, but not a small, family business that literally only make three designs.. Everyone knows the Magic Fluke look - it's theirs. It's not a corporate brand, it's a family thing designed on paper by Dale Webb.. I consider that very different.
Hey, I totally agree... It makes no sence for flight... Have you seen the new Ziegenspeck E-Uke? ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Zdayevi0nt0.html Would like to see this looker in a review 😇 Regards, Alex
I don't believe they WERE replicas - as I recall, Enya don't sell well in parts of Europe so they licensed the design to Cascha - were even made in same factory
@@jasonallen7930 I 'think' that was the case. Not all Cascha are Enya models, but i think another one was. This Bumblebee though - i've spoken direct to Magic Fluke - no connection whatsoever!
@@GotAUkulele good.tonknow cheers baz.. also I decided to ordernthe Noah super tenor mat asked how I heard about him and told him it was from your review he said thanks
Personally I don't feel annoyed that is a similar design to another uke. There have been copies of Strats and Teles around forever. I myself played many cheap copies. Eventually got a Fender, coz I wanted a "real" one, and super glad I did. Anyway, to my mind, cheap copies may motivate the makers of the original to improve or maintain the standard.
Sorry - I think that's a lazy argument of defence. They are not mimicking big corporates here, they are mimicking a very small family business with literally three shapes total that they make. Designed and built from the ground up by one family in a small workshop. I see no similarity between using that design and using that of a global conglomerate like Fender.
@@GotAUkulele Fair enough. I had no idea it was a family business but even so, still doesn't annoy me. It's a copy, everyone knows it's a copy. The important point I was trying to make with the comparison to Fender was that in the end, I bought a Fender. Maybe as result of a beginner buying this Bumblebee they then buy a Flea or Fluke. But I don't really know why you're annoyed, so maybe this is irrelevant.
Totally biased review you cannot talk about a flea and a cheap Ike in the same video. I bought a flea it fell apart before I could play it. As far as copying the shape every guitar and ukulele shape is copied in some way. Calm down and do a proper review.
Are you unwell Alan? And when you feel better, direct me to where I used the word 'copying'... Then also reflect on the fact that the main comparison here was between the Hive and the Flight Travel.. (Oh, and in over 15 years playing uke, never heard of an issue with a Flea - but they are a small family business who would put things right.. assuming it actually happened of course..)
