Scout Acoustic-Electic U•BASS®

This is my first U-Bass and I love it. I had previously tested out a cheaper $99 U-bass, and the sound quality was not good. I then tried a $400 U-bass and it sounded amazing. I wanted something in between.... And this Kala Scout is it. It sounds great. I think the value is really good, as I expect to be playing this for years. For being so small, it really is a legit bass. The thick rubber strings are totally different than anything else in the Ukulele family. I actually find it really easy to play. If you don't know, you WILL need a bass amp/speaker with a U-bass. The low notes do not carry far. When my wife plays her Ukulele, you can not hear the Scout without amplification. When playing alone, the acoustic sound is fine for practicing. 100% recommend for a first U-bass.

Been playing upright & Fender Jazz bass for years. Scout U-bass handy, light and a low-medium quality bass with unexpectedly one of the better playing necks. Original plastic strings tone was thin-weak acoustic, electric generally better but no cigar. Original Kala plastic strings are not for me (I'm picky) like playing wet noodles. :-( Replaced original noodle strings with Kala Metal Round Wound U-BASS Strings (KA-BASS-4). Wound metal strings made all the difference. Acoustically bass was better still weak -- but shines as an electric. Took (metal strung) bass to rehearsal, amplified did well. Other musicians tried it out, some did not want to give it back. :-) May have sold 2 more Scouts for for Kala. Upside: Great customer service from Ashton. Surprisingly good neck, OK price, light & small, handy carry bag Fits in my Mini-Cooper. Downside: Plastic strings, battery life short, poor to medium quality construction. needs a deeper cutaway. Update:-1 After writing review the 1/4" F-jack on bass went bad. Vendor will not ship replacement parts! To their credit vendor did PDQ ship entire replacement bass - Exchanged good 1/4 F-jack & shipped replacement unit back. Update-2: 1/4 jack was not the problem - This time went directly to Kala - good move. Kala consumer support is top flight. Within 2-3 working days problem diagnosed & PDQ shipped correct replacement parts. Customer support that actually supports the customer. (what a concept) .

This is a really fun solid little instrument! It takes some getting used to those huge strings but even my 13 year old was playing scales after a couple minutes. It’s pretty easy to get fret buzz on the E string so you have to adjust technique a little. I don’t have a bass amp but plugged it into an old fender twin reverb and it sounded great! Acoustic it sounds good but not fantastic. Plugged in it really does sound like a bigger bass. The strings are much easier on your fingers and really nice for getting my kids playing. Built in tuner is a nice convenience although you really have to turn those tuners a lot to see a difference.

I joined a ukulele group in our retirement center. While I had a top quality tenor to play, the group was missing a bass player. Having played standup bass in a blue grass group for many years, I jumped at the opportunity to add some bass to the group. They love it and so do I. I feed it into a top quality amp and get excellent results. This instrument does everything I could ask of it. The built in tuner is good. The instrument deserves a nice hard case for better protection and I am looking for one now. My main problem is that I am so hooked on playing this little bass, I never open the case of my beautiful tenor I bought in Hawaii for many times the cost of this bass!

Very good product. Easy to use and looks great!

Deducted one star because the frets were so sharp at the edges it was unplayable until I took it to the local music store for some fret finishing. And now it's wonderful, sound carries well enough without an amp to be heard with two ukulele players, but with a small bass amp it's superb. Very very happy.

I knew it would be good but when I opened it up it was much better than I thought it would be. After not having a bass for almost a decade this was a perfect gateway back to bass!! I have since bought a Squire Jazz Bass as well as a practice amp and I can’t get enough of playing bass again!

This is the first ubass I’ve ever used and I’m enjoying the instrument. It’s a lot of fun to try to translate guitar skills to a ukulele. This Kala ubass had poorly finished frets. They are sharp, despite a hand written “30 point QC check” Playing it for a few hours has cut up my fingers a bit. I’ll need to work out how to file them down to allow me to playir return the instrument. If I had picked it up in a store, there’s no way I would have purchased it and it’s disappointing to end I with a repair job right off the bat.