Kala KA-SSEBY-B-CE Baritone Ukulele, Striped Ebony Reviews

I had a great experience buying my Kala baritone ukulele from Dennis even though it was just a few days before Christmas. He expedited it and it was great to work with Sweetwater and him really enjoying their ukulele baritone thank you.

This Kala Baritone Ukelele is great. It sounds good either acoustically or connected to an amp. Baritone ukes are easy to learn, easy to play, and put out a mellow and relaxing sound. Sweetwater is an awesome place to buy from. I bought this at the store and am impressed with their inventory each time I visit there. Beautiful fully stocked music store with very knowledgeable sales and technical people.

I purchased a subject Bari from a store in Hawaii 3 months ago. Right out of the box played excellently. Just had to have another for different tuning gCEA. Found one at Sweetwater, bought it waiting for delivery. It sure is swell to buy an instrument and not have to set/up. I own several stinged "boxes". The Kala KA-SSEBY-B-CE Baritone Ukulele, Striped Ebony is the first one not needing any set/up attention. Wonderful "box". Thanks Kala, thanks Sweetwater, thanks Orion. !!!

I just want you to know what a great instrument you sold me last year.
My KASSEBYBCE Baritone Uke is a fabulous instrument. The tonal quality is miles better than any of my other instruments and the pickup is great for plugging in.

I must admit, I was skeptical about buying another instrument online sight unseen as I did once from another retailer. You have restored my confidence that I could get what I wanted in the quality I like for such a good price.
I will always trust Sweetwater & CJ Antol to provide me with great products at a fair price.

I really like this uke. The acoustic sound is loud, full, and warm. Plugged it, it sounds "distant", however. If you want to record, I would use a mic as well as direct in. Or throw on some overdrive or something.

I do NOT like the fact that the electronics take two CR2032 batteries. Why not a 9-volt? I accidentally left it plugged in overnight and now the batteries are dead.

Overall, this is excellent acoustic instrument. Plugging in is fun for live playing but for recording you'll want a mic.

Bought this intending to tune to B flat and play as a Super Tenor. Played it as baritone first then tuned up to B flat. No buzzing of strings but needs a different set possibly half size classical strings. Figured this was a roll of the dice but am happy with it.

Great look and feel ! The action is very similar to me other Kala Bari. The natural sound is warm but not as amplified naturally like my other Kala which is of the same price group . All my Kalas are pre-amped with built in tuners which work and sound great ! The only drawback is that they use the nickel batteries instead of the nine volt batteries . This specification almost stopped me from purchasing this bari but the looks of this one captured me . The finish is beautiful and choices of wood are great ! I will play this one at my next gig and see how it does ! So far when plugged it , it sounds great

A reviewer wrote about his dissatisfaction because of a buzz. I had the same issue with the U-Bass. After returning the first one I resigned myself to tolerating the same buzz on the replacement Sweetwater sent. I am very pleased with Sweetwater's customer service and I am sharing my experience hoping it will help.
I eventually determined the source of the buzz: the electronic gizmo box (volume/tuning/ etc) on the side. Forgive my lack of electronic knowledge! I made a gasket out of thin felt and placed it under the electronic unit. Buzz gone!

I purchased this instrument on 10/02/2019. I had always heard that Kala was a fine instrument so I thought I would try one. Big mistake. From day one, right out of the box the Low D string would buzz when played open and when fretted on the first three frets. From the 4th fret up it was okay. I at first thought it was the strings that came on it, and since I am not a fan of Quilla strings, I replaced them with my favorite D'Addarion Flurocarbon strings but with no effect on the Kala.

I then raised the nut 0.040" but still with no improvement. Then I remembered that this instrument has a truss rod which none of my other Ukes have. After adjusting the truss rod quite a bit, I have finally got the instrument playing without buzzing but it still needs more fine tuning. I'm going to bring the nut back down to it's original height and then see what happens. This should all have been done before this instrument left the factory. Not good for Kala's quality control

But I also have an Oscar Schmidt 0U53 for which I paid $195 and a Cheap Chinese Carmel for which I paid $95 and both of these instruments are far superior to this Kala in both craftmanship and play ability. I wouldn't trade 4 of thes Kala's for one of either the Oscar Schmidt or the Carmel and I paid a total of $... for the Kala. Money wasted!!!

Bottom LINE: I would definitely NOT recommend this instrument to a friend or even an enemy. If your planning on buying a Baritone UKe, and the Baritone is my favorite size uke, then buy an Oscar Schmidt. You'll get way more for you money.