This is the Flight Aviator Galaxy BR CE baritone electro acoustic ukulele, an interesting model as it uses a solid poplar top. Flight excel at bringing out new models and keeping things fresh, and tempting me to fill my shelves with ever increasing number of Flight Ukulele boxes! And to be honest, it’s a lot of work to keep on top of them all - photographing and describing new models. But I couldn’t turn this one down as I knew it was sure to be… (wait for it)… really poplar.

The top, and its burl and dark sunburst earns the ‘Galaxy’ name, looking like a NASA image of deep space. (Although even if you travelled to the deepest recesses of the galaxy, you’re unlikely to find a worse joke than that ‘poplar/popular’ gag earlier). It really does look impressive, with brown and grey hues. The BR in the name stands for ‘brownburst’, although it’s more grey to me. Brownburst isn’t a word that really sounds as good as this Aviator ukulele looks! (It doesn’t really conjure up images of space… well unless you make a pun about Uranus). The back and sides are made from solid mango - keeping a place for mango, still the ‘wood of the moment’.

The Aviator Galaxy has a smooth low end, filling your ears with a rich chocolatey tone. It’s fitted with Aquila B-Black strings, which are quite punchy and ensure that deep goodness isn’t muddy, with some nice articulate trebles in the mix, and the sustain and zing from the wound D and G. It has a 38mm nut, which is common these days on baritone sized ukes, giving a little bit more room on the fingerboard. While the uke has a nice gloss finish, the back of the neck is smooth and satin-finished.

If that wasn’t enough, there’s also a passive pickup fitted, allowing you to make an impressively loud uke (given it has a slimline body), even louder if you’ve got an amp to hand.

At the bottom of the page you’ll find a selection of optional add ons. It’s best just to go with the bag it’s already supplied with, so ignore case and bag options. Then low G… well this has one (and a low D). It also has a jack socket that doubles as a strap button, so there’s one there. But you can add another (to do this, add two to your order so I know you need two places to hang your strap from!).