Harley Benton Kahuna CLU36T

I was looking at Thomann's catalogue, (as you do), and I saw this one in there. It's a Harley Benton so Thomann's house brand but I've not seen anything quite like it anywhere else and it ticked a number of boxes for things I was on the lookout for. First it has ƒ holes, (and we all know I'm a sucker for ƒ holes), second its a resonator, (and I'm a sucker for Resonators too), but more than that its a Tenor Resonator and all of my other resonators are Concerts. Its a wood bodied resonator and all my other resonators are metal or resin. finally its Spalt Maple and I think that usually a pretty finish, (though I'm not sure how well that will work with a Resonator but its different from the usual mahogany?) As it is my birthday I thought I would buy myself a present so its on the way! Happy Birthday to me

Happy birthday to me indeed, it's lovely. It's VERY light for a resonator, especially after the Paxphil and quite small for a Tenor with a 42cm scale length, but it does have a very chunky neck and feels very solidly and nicely made. It's quite quiet for a resonator too, I think some of the spruce tops could match it for volume and quite trebly with a lot of top and not much base. It's certainly more non resonator Ukulele sounding that my other resonators. I'm thinking if I just heard it without knowing its a resonator Uke I would think it a spruce top? No just had another go and it's less harsh that a spruce top tone - I'm really liking this and I wasn't sure how much I would. It also looks very pretty too its Spalt Maple veneer on top back and sides, and whilst the spalting doesn't add a lot to the top it is very pretty on the back and even more so on the sides where there is a particularly dramatic piece of spalting.