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Gold Tone MicroBass Talk

#281
HaphAsSard said:
Are you referring to the Pyramid set for the UBass, or another one (which I doubt, since it would already make two of 'em)?

For completeness's's sake, there's also the Fernandes Pie-Zo (a 25" bass AKA "Nomad" outside Japan) replacement string set available. Standard EABG tuning, gauges .125 (which ties in to mongo2's musings above) to .065, 30 bucks on the ewwbay, or direct, as mentioned here:

No affiliation, never even tried them since I don't own a subshorter myself.
Yet. :ninja:
Click to expand...

I was referring to the Pyramids. I pass no judgement on them tone wise, because I have never heard them. But, there are required price points for this stuff in order to actually get the masses interested, and I'm afraid they missed big time.

You raise a very good point citing the Fernandes Nomad. I'll say the same thing about Fernandes as I do about Fender with ownership of the Ashbory design: both companies are asleep at the wheel. This market segment has exploded, while both already had related designs in production. Both designs have good aspects, yet they are relegated to niche adoption because of the totally fugly, unconventional space cadet shapes.

- Take the Ashbory design, keep the interesting plastic fretboard, keep the very good electronics, change the body shape, increase the scale to about 22 inches - sell a ton quickly.

- Take the Nomad design, change the body shape, lower the price point by getting rid of the cheesy onboard speaker - sell a ton quickly.

Bam. :cool:
 
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#283
Oh, and another thing: :hiding:
it was mentioned somewhere in these threads but it bears repeating that the Pyramids are "metal strings" only as far as the wrap goes. They're silver plated copper wound on a nylon core, like classical guitar bass strings. In a way, they're the opposite of La Bella nylon tapes, construction-wise.
As far as price, they ask more or less what Thomastik Infeld charges for their Acousticores (which are similar, only phosphor bronze wound), or what Hannabach strings of the same type (for 30" and 34" contrabass guitars) go for.
(Granted, you can spend less if there's competition: phos-bronze on nylon bass strings are also made by La Bella and Pyramid, and Savarez contrabass guitar sets are priced lower than Hannabach's - I have the Savarez on my medium scale ABG.)

So the Fernandes is the only* "normal" string set currently available for sub-short scale basses; when the La Bellas hit the stores there will be another metal core set with a different flavour, and that's good news anyway you look at it.


*As mentioned here, another option is using the lower octave strings from a bajo sexto set, and those come phosphor bronze (D'Addario and others) but also steel (GHS) and nickel (Pyramid and SIT, which also makes a bronze set). OTOH the tension on those is probably in the ballpark of electric guitar strings, and many bassists would object to that.
[EDIT: I discuss another uber-floppy, hypo-metallic, guitar-derived option here on the general thread.]

Speaking of metal-on-metal strings, on these threads I also learnt of the replacement set for the BeaverCreek Traveller Bass: bronze-wound, IIRC, and available in Canada only, n'est-ce pas? But [Invalid or Expired Link Removed] may ship internationally.
 
#287
macmanlou said:
La Bella has roundwounds and black tapewounds in the works as well.

bassstringsonline is taking preorders for them:

Invalid Link Removed
Click to expand...
SLaPiNFuNK said:
Nps rounds, silver plated wounds, white and black nylons as well.
Click to expand...
Great news! The NPS are (relatively) easy on the wallet too.
OTOH the other types are more durable. Including the silver plated...at least in fart-free environments (hydrogen sulfide is bad on silver, or so I remember from school)... :hiding:

EDIT: gauges?
still TBA?
 
#288
HaphAsSard said:
[EDIT: I discuss another uber-floppy, hypo-metallic, guitar-derived option here on the general thread.]
Click to expand...

Thanks for the link. The "Double Bass Guitar" strings from here and Invalid Link Removed are maybe not the best solution for a 25" bass, but it's an interesting option. I'm not sure they are über-floppy. They have higher tension than the rubber strings and similar tension as standard classical strings.
 
#289
No problem, I believe in the beauty of having options (and of being annoyingly thorough :o).
Yeah, I was probably being too dramatic there. I guess sub short players don't smash strings when playing anyway, and those strings are designed to work at that tension after all.

The fact is, my experience is a little patchy with regard to these topics: I've played an Ashbory for a grand total of 30 seconds, and, while I do use Savarez silver nylons on my ABG, that one is 32".
I like them lots: still going strong after 10 months (of less than moderate playing, I must add), tension is nice and supple, feel is ok (lately I've been into flats full-time on my electrics so I need to adjust to roundwounds each time I touch them) - they do roll a little under the fingers but nothing unbearable in my book; tone is kinda growly (especially the low E) - they do the most realistic impression of Mike Inez's tone on "Rotten Apple".
A caveat: electronics on the bass have been bust for ages so I have no amplified experience on these strings. Acoustically they are a bit poor in fundamental, but the small body of the bass has a lot of influence on that.

EDIT: info on where to get the Savarez and action videos of the Magmas here. Sounds promising! I'd better hurry up and repair my old bastard and hear it amplified...
 
#290
HaphAsSard said:
Great news! The NPS are (relatively) easy on the wallet too.
OTOH the other types are more durable. Including the silver plated...at least in fart-free environments (hydrogen sulfide is bad on silver, or so I remember from school)... :hiding:

EDIT: gauges?
still TBA?
Click to expand...

They are all within $10 of each other, all seem very reasonable to me.

I havent played any of the rounds, just the white nylons, and the gauges are heavier than what you would find on a normal electric bass for example. I will leave it at that just because they haven't said what the official sets are going to be (played a prototype set).
 
#291
HaphAsSard said:
As mentioned here, another option is using the lower octave strings from a bajo sexto set, and those come phosphor bronze (D'Addario and others) but also steel (GHS) and nickel (Pyramid and SIT, which also makes a bronze set). OTOH the tension on those is probably in the ballpark of electric guitar strings, and many bassists would object to that.
Click to expand...

The tension is higher than Aquila or Pahoehoe strings. But the intonation will be off by quite a bit (especially on the E) unless the bridge is moved back.
 
#292
Here's the Gold Tone solid body Micro bass with La Bella white tapewounds. Mike at the Gold Tone booth at NAMM said this is a prototype but it's most likely not going to change, or at least not much. Availability is roughly June or July of this year.

It has a strap button on the body, as you can see in the photo. It played great and sounded really good, but definitely more like a bass guitar than a bass with Pahoehoe or Aquila strings. The tighter strings allow for lower action, smooth slides, etc., so there's some give and take. If you want more thump, you may need foam under the bridge.

I believe the controls are volume/volume/tone with a 3-position switch that selects just the magnetic pickup, both, or just piezo. If this is wrong, maybe someone can correct me.

I don't recall if this is 21- or 23-inch scale.

GoldToneSolidmedium_zps29e1c0c7.jpg
 
#293
This is the 25-inch scale Gold Tone Micro bass. I really like this scale. The 21-inch scale is a little tight for me as I move up the neck to the higher notes. 23 inches feels pretty good, but I think 25 inches may be my preference. This is right about at guitar scale, but they've kept the body at a comfortable size. Plus, I love it that all of their basses have a cutaway.

GoldTone25_medium_zps2e18e375.jpg
 
#295
olitoon said:
Cool! Do you know if there will be a fretless, too?
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I don't know for sure, but it seems like they offer everything in fretted and freless, so I would assume a fretless will be available.

I knew there would be a thousand questions I should have asked, but when you're there in the loud chaos of the show it's easy to forget. Plus, everyone is there to do business. It's not really like a trip to the biggest music store ever, even though it kind of feels like that.
 
#296
howardcano said:
The tension is higher than Aquila or Pahoehoe strings. But the intonation will be off by quite a bit (especially on the E) unless the bridge is moved back.
Click to expand...
Well, there you go. I hadn't thought about that. So it'd be an option for electric instruments (w/adjustable bridge saddles) mainly, and only appropriate for the general sub-short scale talk thread.

To quickly complete the excursus on metal strings, a US customer might put together a custom set of La Bella electric guitar singles (they go up to .120):
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Or even try their version of the nylon contrabass thing (up to only .080 though):
Invalid Link Removed

Same thing can be done in Europe with Pyramid (might wanna brush up your German first):
http://pyramid-saiten.de/de/custom-shop/custom-shop.php

(And I guess at least one of you has already considered/tried lobbying our very own Circle K.)

That'd be all, at long last. Back to your regularly scheduled Goldtone, over & out.
 
#299
bluebird28 said:
Well mcontour, how do you like the GT Solid body MicroBass? Could you tell us where do you plug in the cable? Are there batteries, are there electronics, how does it sound and how does it feel, is it comfortable and what does it weigh? It looks sweet. I also forgot to ask what is the overall length of the instrument top of head stock to bottom of body?Thank you for posting.
Click to expand...

Hey There.

I got a chance to play it a few times before taking off on travel. It plays quite nicely and with good tone in my opinion. There is a wide range of variation depending on where you pluck the strings. It takes a while to control the left hand to not over reach beyond the frets. I had the same issue with a Kala Ubass I owned too.

I plugged the GT straight into my Ampeg amp but I had to bump up the pre-amp gain a bit to get a level close to my G&L bass (in passive mode). I also tried it with an external Fishman preamp.

The cable output is in the "fender telecaster" position. It is recessed just a bit and does not stick out.

There is indeed a 9V battery and circuit board behind the rear cover.

I can take the body length measurement when I return home.

I played the acoustic version in the local music shop and I really liked it. It had very good acoustic output unplugged. The solid body...not so much..

Actually, having now played both, I prefer the acoustic model and I'm thinking of selling the solid body prototype to fund that purchase. If anyone here wants to take this prototype off my hands, I'd part with it for what I paid + shipping. I would not be able to ship until Saturday, Feb 1st as I am away on business for the week.

Cheers.
 
#300
HaphAsSard said:
To quickly complete the excursus on metal strings, a US customer might put together a custom set of La Bella electric guitar singles (they go up to .120):
Click to expand...

La Bella will custom make strings in any length by request. Especially when you talk to the right dealer ;) They make up to a .150 round wound. You can choose the ball end size etc.
 

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