When it comes to portable pickers, a ukulele can make a great travel companion. Wanderers looking for a tough traveler with more bottom end might be interested in the carbon-fiber baritone and bass ukes from Utah's Klos Guitars.
Klos Guitars is something of a Kickstarter veteran, launching its first carbon-fiber adventure guitar on the crowdfunding platform back in May 2015. We caught up with Adam and Ian Klosowiak a couple of years later for a Fishman-packing travel acoustic guitar followed by hybrid tonewood/carbon models in 2021. Now the team has launched a baritone uke and a bas uke – in gorgeous carbon of course.
The baritone's four stings are tuned the same as the bottom four in E standard on a guitar. It benefits from a one-piece construction for "superior strength and durability" and of course carbon fiber is not prone to temperature or humidity changes, while being resistant to scratches and scuffs.
The body rocks a composite foam-core top with Klos negative bracing, there's a cutaway for access to the upper six frets of the 20-fret composite ebony fingerboard with a 20.5-inch scale length and 16-inch radius. A Graphtech Nubone XB nut and saddle are included, Klos has selected nickel-copper alloy for the frets, and the bridge is fashioned from the same material as the fretboard.
The bass uke shares much with the baritone, but its neck has a 20.81-inch scale length and 19 frets, and uses premium Labella steel strings instead of D'Addario Nyletech. Where the baritone model can be optioned with a Klos pre-amp for electro-acoustic playing, this is not available for the bass.
Kickstarter pledges for the baritone uke currently start at US$979, with the pre-amp and pickup option adding $140 to that figure. The bass version comes in at $1,119. If all goes to plan with the 12th Kickstarter from Klos, shipping is estimated to start from January 2024. The video below has more.
Source: Klos Guitars