Flight Carabao LITE-M Solid Mango Top Electro Acoustic Tenor Ukulele w/Gigbag (SUS EXCLUSIVE) #5825

The Southern Ukulele Store are delighted to offer these exclusive Flight carabao lite-M electro acoustic tenor ukuleles. Working with Flight has been such a joyous experience, with literally hundreds of consistent and inspiring ukuleles arriving and finding new homes that we wanted to do it again with a model that is more accessible to everyone.

The Flight carabao lite-M bridges the gap between our popular carabao series and a higher end uke such as the Fireball with the same tonewood combination... Truly, the carabao series by now are perhaps even bigger than Southern Ukulele Store itself but this new variation gives players a darker sounding and more visually stunning path to travel.

This is our 10th SUS exclusive ukulele and over the years we have always tried to find the thing players are asking for but unable to find. This time, the most important thing was creating a solid top, electro acoustic ukulele with a pickup, wide nut and a gigbag for around £200. I feel with this model like not only have we done that but we have actually produced a uke that massively punches above its weight in the same way as our last carabao all solid wood model.

The spruce top offers volume and punch, this model offers a smoother sound whilst staying true to our stores long association with mango as a premium tonewood. We first dabbled with them for the Kanile'a Manako Series, later with the Big Island Uli/Poni range, then the carabao and now this.

The carabao lite-m has a solid mango top and laminated mango back and sides. The mango top gives this uke all of the sustain and clarity it needs - soft wood tops are perfect for a fingerstyle player or a strummer who likes to be able to play with dynamics and mango has more of a complex nature and tends to colour the sound of brighter notes whilst smoothing off the harshness.

The laminate mango used is unstained and differs wildly from one uke to the next. This ukulele is not built to be over the top and colourful like its popular sister uke - the Iris. Instead, this is a uke for those players that don't want something that looks ultra modern and quirky but do still want the higher quality instrument that Flight do so well at this price compared to many others.

The video below showcases the spruce model (launched 5 months before this model) but a new video with the mango video will be available imminently.

The model is named after the carabao mango - a Philippine style mango known for its sweetness, after going back and forth on several prototypes of this model I was happy that this ukulele still had the sweeter character to it that we are known for with our custom ukes at SUS. We love how the mango can differ wildly from some ukes to the next with some ukes remaining on the plainer side with an almost mahogany like appearance and then some are whacky and unmissable from a distance. We kept this model as a satin finish as we find it tends to sound better on more affordable ukuleles than a thicker high gloss finish and it ages in a more unique way as it get played in. 

The ukulele has a wider 38mm nut width and a nice wide 30mm string spacing, a slotted headstock (with a discreet SUS logo on the back) and an Indian rosewood fingerboard and tie-on bridge. It has some cool and quirky offset pearloid side marker dots so you know where you are playing on the fingerboard when you glance down mid song. The trim is subtle with front and back cream binding (a selfish choice because I love the look of mango and cream binding together) and a simple ivoroid rosette.

The most unique thing about this ukulele is the matching dark wood pickguard which is made of a wafer thin slice of ebony. It comes detached from the instrument so you can choose whether or not to use it. We have included a picture of each uke with the pickup laid on top so you can see what you think... If you want us to fit it, let us know when placing your order.

The pickup is one of our favourite pickups - this double system has a hidden soundhole mounted volume and tone control connected to an undersaddle piezo. This has long been one of the best things about Flight Ukuleles at this price. You don't have to use the pickup but if you wanted to; its ready and waiting to go.

The carabao lite and lite-m both come in a simple blue padded gigbag. It's a real triumph and we are so proud of this limited run of ukuleles that Flight have produced for us.

Specification:
Solid mango top
Laminated mango back and sides
38mm nut width (30mm string spacing at nut)
17'' tenor scale length
Slotted headstock
Open Gear Prowell tuners
Offset side markers
Fluorocarbon strings (high G)
Indian rosewood fingerboard and bridge
Bone nut and saddle
Mango pickguard
Double C1U pickup
Front and back cream binding
Ivoroid rosette
Padded gigbag included