Kala UBass Megathread, Part 5

[steve_rolfeca]

Originally Posted by imperialbari

And how is the feel of the fingerboard (allegedly made of plastic - never have been near a synthetic fingerboard)?

Are the fretting lines realistic, or are they better ignored when attempting playing in tune?

There are markings up to the 24th fret two octaves above the open strings. Are the strings at all responsive in that range?

Klaus

IME, with the strings so thick and close together, you don't really feel the fingerboard. Also, the strings don't just like, they demand, a light touch.

The fret lines were pretty close on my DeArmond Ashbory.

I used the same range I use on my conventional bass guitars, so up to around the 17th fret or so...

[3234718]

My new set of pahoehoehoehoe's just reached stability after a brief stint with SR's (15 bucks if anyone wants them). I noticed some buzzing on the G string. Not a lot, but enough to annoy me. I stole a fluffy pink hair tie from my girl and put it just past the nut (ala Victor), and the buzzing is gone. Works pretty well as a string retainer. Just thought I'd share.

[TimWatson]

This is primarily directed at scotch

The whole deal with this HPF-Pre, well, don't knock it til you tried it. It does not affect the tone Pre se, of a sustained bass notes. That moment when we pull our finger across the string, our skin grabs and releases the string several times, maybe dozens, like a very short bow on an upright (I'll get to the upright in a moment). I have done extensive playing with all series of the F-Deck and I can break down what it does.

With the U-bass and electrics, 2 main things. First, especially In all passive basses, that attack I was talking about is a mechanical phenomenon on the instrument with the strings being pulled and released, and with our amp and speaker reproducing (or trying to) all that. There are high (click, scratch) artifacts and low (think thuds) ones that are produced. The low ones could be desirable to a point, but it is stuff that generally robs the rest of our tone of clarity. The filter, even set at its lowest point, cleans that up for us and let's a great full range tone through. Remember the roll-off STARTS at 35 Hz. Roughly low D. It slopes down from there into invisible low frequencies, but when our amps see those and try to put them through our speakers, they jump around and move air that interferes with our audible, desirable bass frequencies. Our low B is what, ~30 Hz? That point would only be 3-5 db cut. No one I have heard of has notices a difference or like that range is missing its beef. I find it clearer and tighter for the above reasons. And since furthermore our speaker tend to drop off around 55 Hz, that filter range is already 10-15 db low on output, and it compensates by accentuating upper harmonics, and it becomes a mushy mess from a speaker mechanical standpoint. So without it, it is possible we are using up a lot of wattage so we can push muddy stuff out of our rigs. That recent country song about just wanting' to roll the windows and drive.. It is in Bb, and the bass plays low Bb (28ish Hz) the whole time, and all I hear is the second harmonic (F, ~86 Hz). It is louder than the fundamental!

The second thing is that some rooms have standing waves that multiply and muddy things up. Turning up the filter can compensate and lessen the actual reverb of the bass (that is produced by upper harmonics of very low frequencies) without taking away any of the fundamental oomph of your tone.

With the upright, it is the same, just with a physical sound board and longer scale, the low low part of the attack lasts a little longer (thump thump :-) ) and at loud volumes the HPF-Pre is better than a compressor. The U-Bass's strings mimic this slower attack.

It's only a hundred bucks or less it's at least worth a shot. I personally prefer series 2 on my piezo equipped instruments. Series 3 is excellent for loud volumes and electric. But no one would noticed without a direct comparison.

[scotch]

Oh, I understand entirely, Tim! And I appreciate it. Im no stranger to hpf's and how they help out. Just having some fun back there! :-)

I've been very happy with the Fishman units (even though they certainly are colored a bit). I'm using them in a variety of scenarios too- ranging from single amp in a room to church pa's to clubs to hockey arenas. So far, so good!

I'd still try an f-deck (Im an open minded type), but not 'needing' any fixes so far.

[TimWatson]

Good place to be, Justin. I am always lookin for a new toy. But no other front end buffer or HPF does what this does nearly as well. Even ones that are identical on paper.

[BassManPatsFan]

Hey guys, sorry for the basic question...I've looked through this thread and on Kala's site, but I can't find any information about neck support in the U Basses. Do the 'hog and acacia hollow body basses have truss rods?

[imperialbari]

Current models have.

Appears that some stores still have old stock non-trussrod on their shelves.

Klaus

[HeavyDuty]

I keep hoping that Kala will release a five string acoustic with the longer scale off the solidbody.

[TimWatson]

Originally Posted by HeavyDuty

I keep hoping that Kala will release a five string acoustic with the longer scale off the solidbody.

Hmmm. Might be neck dive city :-)

[caeman]

The neck dive would be easy to fix. Attach an Fdeck HPF-Pre Series 2 to the butt end of said 5-string acoustic. That will balance it.

[pauliebass]

So... The websight had the 2013 models up. Looks like a new pickup and the acoustics have onboard elecs now with tuner. I could return mine and wait for a newer model, but I think the electronics will be a miss step. No way the tuner will be as good as my Peterson and other outboard eq's will be better. We'll see.

[pauliebass]

Some of the color options like black and burst seem to be gone too. In the description of the spruce and exotic, they elude to punchier mids on these models. I think that is exactly what I heard when A/Bing the spruce and hog. Those mids translated to a slightly louder acoustic voice to me.

[3234718]

So the regular acoustics in various woods are gonna have the onboard tuner and EQ, and then the Rumber is made of an unknown wood, with the tuner and EQ, SR's, and is apparently cheaper. Odd.

Also, has anyone considered widening the nutslots on an acoustic and going BEAD?

[pauliebass]

That's how it looks to me on the web page.

[pauliebass]

I mainly want to know if the pickup is actually improved or just black instead of white.

[caeman]

Interesting.

[fuzzy beard]

I hope I will still be able to get the old stlye ubass. I have another month or so before I order mine.

[fuzzy beard]

Called Kala and they said the passive ubasses will be fazed out. But I did learn that they have not been using shadow pickups these past few years. They were in the original ubasses but not in any since 2011. Will the new active pre they have gone back to shadow. The guy said shadow was much more reliable! Guess they had problems with the last company. So now I am torn!

[CaballoViejo]

It's not really possible to say from the catalogue pics whether or not the pickup is different, as it's not the pickup you can see but just the plastic saddle.

However it does seem possible to say that Kala are STILL vacillating between angled and straight-across saddle alignment!

[caeman]

U-Bass into HPF-Pre 3 into Behringer ADI21. On the ADI21, I cut the mids a few notches, then plucked the D string again and again while turning the mids frequency knob on the ADI21 to find the spot where the quack was reduced the most. Voila! A two pedal solution for playing clean has been achieved!

The ADI21 has a speaker sim on the DI, so that will help tame some of the higher end stuff, with EQing to taste. Nice and easy.