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Educate me on these cheap bass ukes.

#21
Kala has a new set of strings that are just out. Saw their announcement on Facebook.

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

They're at the bottom of the page. The demo sounded pretty good. I've already asked about a set of steel flats for the U Bass. I'd order a set the day they went on sale.
 
#22
BAG said:
I've played bass in a Uke band and any acoustic UBass is not going to be heard unplugged at all if there is more than one uke playing (and playing quietly at that). It's even hard to hear my big bodied ABG unplugged when three or more ukes are playing together, especially when most uke players are musical novices to some extent and only know one strumming method (loud!!). I took to playing the electric with them and use a Roland Cube Street at small jams and take my amp to gigs or DI through the PA.
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I regularly play the ukulele bass with a group that is pretty good, and I always use an amplifier with that group. The players are confident and play pretty loudly. However, I also play with a group of less experienced players at a venue where amplification is forbidden. There are about 12-15 of them and my acoustic steel string bass can be heard if pushed hard. I'm guessing and will see soon if this is true, that the Shortbass One will be just loud enough. They don't play very loudly. Believe me I think the refusal to allow me to use an amp by management is one of the stupidest things imaginable. They have a PA that they use all the time. They won't let me plug into it, and they won't let me use my amp because no amps are allowed. Even though I keep pointing out that the PA is an amp so what is the difference?
 
#23
katysax said:
I regularly play the ukulele bass with a group that is pretty good, and I always use an amplifier with that group. The players are confident and play pretty loudly. However, I also play with a group of less experienced players at a venue where amplification is forbidden. There are about 12-15 of them and my acoustic steel string bass can be heard if pushed hard. I'm guessing and will see soon if this is true, that the Shortbass One will be just loud enough. They don't play very loudly. Believe me I think the refusal to allow me to use an amp by management is one of the stupidest things imaginable. They have a PA that they use all the time. They won't let me plug into it, and they won't let me use my amp because no amps are allowed. Even though I keep pointing out that the PA is an amp so what is the difference?
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Just DI your bass, then you can say (using their definition) that you aren't using an amp. My first foray into bass was with this group and I DI'd for nearly 12 months before buying my first bass amp.

On another note, the group I played with (initially on tenor uke playing some lead stuff) insisted that they wouldn't let anything other than a ukulele in the group. One decent multi-instrumentalist in the group who knew the sound needed some bass decided to buy a Ubass which at the time here was around $800. When he left they asked me to play bass. I told them that I couldn't afford a ubass. They agreed to me playing an ABG after I explained that the tuning is the same so for all intents and purposes any bass could be considered as a very big Ukulele bass. I then got the Jag and used it. No one said a word about it.

Sorry to the OP for this off topic......normal transmission will now continue.
 
#24
Don't mean to contradict katysax (we know each other, sorry Sherry), I have a Gold Tone GT MicroBass that's built very well and sounds really good, my go-to gig bass. I also have two Rondo Hadean solid body u-basses which I'm having modded. One I played for a short while, but the string balance was way off, so I removed the shim under the saddle which improved things a lot.

They all came with Thunderguts, which I really disliked, wouldn't even consider using baby powder. I changed them all to Road Toad Pahoehoe, which are smooth and in my opinion sound better than the Aquilas, I don't mind the long stretch period. I did just buy a set of the new Kala nylon core metal wound strings to try on my custom fretless u-bass as soon as a new preamp arrives and I get a new nut cut.

A couple of weeks ago I bought an Oscar Schmidt 'comfort' u-bass for $240 on eBay as a replacement for my custom fretless that had a few problems. I really liked the look of the flame maple, the cutaway and arm rest. When it arrived, the preamp crapped out almost immediately, so I decided to return it and just fix up the fretless. The vendor was very responsive, sent a return label and got the refund in a few days.
 
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#25
I have the solid body from Rondo, there's a few YouTube videos of it on my channel (157audio I believe). I wound up wrecking the stock pickup, don't ask, which was fine but the preamp is not very good. It now has the lr baggs electronics that are used in the California kala basses and it made a huge difference. I just recorded last week and the rondo bass made it onto 2 tracks. The homemade acoustic that I made from a 1/2 size guitar was on one track as well. I love playing the uke bass, very comfortable for me.

The bass I have from rondo is built pretty solidly. I think @katysax had one of the first run prototypes, which seem to have had some issues, but I could be wrong about that. I do want to get a 5 string California kala sometime in the near future, but the rondo is doing its job pretty well right now.
 
#26
mrufino1 said:
The bass I have from rondo is built pretty solidly. I think @katysax had one of the first run prototypes, which seem to have had some issues, but I could be wrong about that. I do want to get a 5 string California kala sometime in the near future, but the rondo is doing its job pretty well right now.
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Yes, mine was one of the early prototypes. The worst thing about it was the electronics. I did consider switching them out but decided to send them back. I would consider buying another and modding it. But what I had was really pretty bad so it left me with a bad impression even though I think the acoustic is really surprisingly good. Keep in mind that I already had a u-bass California when I got the Rondo. It was pure - "Its so cheap what the heck" curiosity that caused me to buy it, and I did think it might be good for putting a different pickup and preamp in. But I think it is fair to say that I probably had one of the worst ones because it was a prototype.
 
#27
DirkP said:
This has steel strings, but its size is 36" and they call it compact acoustic bass, my Uke bass is 30".
I don't think that there are steel strings as a replacement for "ordinary" UKE basses. Maybe the tension would be too high for the necks, but I'm just guessing.
Love the first video.






It's an OBU-22. In germany it is about 530,-.

This guy is a bit critical about it and steel strings in general:
Ohana OBU-22 Uke Bass | uBass Appreciation Society

Agree with him a bit although my knowledge is limited to 2 days of owning one:) What makes these little toys so unique and lets them sound more like an upright bass are the STICKY strings.
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sounds thin and non-bassy to me. i don't use powder on my u-bass - i just took time to get used to the strings. they're not good for everything, but overall they're pretty good.
 
#28
Goteky45 said:
are there steel strings for these?
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HaphAsSard said:
The main problem with steel-core strings used on bass ukes is actually intonation: bridges are placed with ultra-flexible strings in mind and they should be moved back some if the instrument were retrofitted with metal-cores (the Ohana is probably an exception). Also, apart from the new-ish Pyramid black nylon tapewounds, you really have to go the custom route to source such strings.
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Scotty DelMar said:
Goteky45, Scroll down to Pyramids and Kala metal wound strings. [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Thet are not steel core however.
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fjadams said:
Kala has a new set of strings that are just out. Saw their announcement on Facebook.

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

They're at the bottom of the page. The demo sounded pretty good. I've already asked about a set of steel flats for the U Bass. I'd order a set the day they went on sale.
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To clarify/summarise:
-the older offering from Pyramid is a set of silver-plated copper -wound on nylon silk core strings (phew), like classical guitar "bass" (as in, not the plain nylon trebles) strings - they intonate fine and have their fans and detractors;
-Kala has a new set of strings available of the same type as the above;
-Pyramid also has another set out (since a year or so) with sort of the opposite construction, i.e. steel core, steel wound, black nylon tapewound - can be got from England (Stringsdirect.co.uk) or directly from Germany. TBer @JES has tried and is now getting rid of them.
 
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#30
Thanks for all the information folks. I've been well educated! :)

I noticed some comments about the earlier electronics packages in the rondo instruments. Are the current electronics packages better?
 
#32
KohanMike said:
Rondo has the solid body white on sale for $99. I wonder if they're going to release a new model? I'm tempted and mod it, but holding myself back.

Link Removed
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You want to confuse us even more with strings???
The page says: "The installed Aquila Nylgut strings absorb less moisture to assure tuning stability and provide increased accuracy of fret-intonation"

What the hell are "Nylgut strings"???
I'm pretty sure just a few days ago, the pages mentioned "Aquilla Thundergut" strings. Now it's "Nylgut" on all the basses.

@Eilif

I'm still impressed with the sound of the preamp on mine keeping the price in mind.
 
#35
Eilif said:
Thanks for the info folks. I'll look up the rondo thread.

As for the sticky strings, have you folks tried baby powder? As far as I know these are similar to strings on the the old Guild/Dearmond Ashbory basses and they always recommended using it.
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I have an Oscar Schmidt and love it. As far as the sticky strings I use a small bag designed for billiard players. It has a silicone based powder and a lot less mess than baby powder. Very inexpensive on Amazon.
 
#37
Thanks for the advice folks. I'd forgotten about this thread. I've actually ordered the confusingly titled 23" scale Hadean solid body bass uke and it should be here today. Link Removed
The 23" scale (same as the goldtone I fell in love with) and included hardshell case was impossible to pass up and if I someday get the hollowbody fretless Gold Tone, this fretted solidbody won't be redundant.

As for strings. We'll see how they work. I'm used to sometimes using a bit of forehead/nose grease to slick my fingers when playing regular electric, so I'm not worried, though I'm not averse to trying baby powder or Pahoehoe strings.
 
#38
Eilif said:
Thanks for the advice folks. I'd forgotten about this thread. I've actually ordered the confusingly titled 23" scale Hadean solid body bass uke and it should be here today. Link Removed
The 23" scale (same as the goldtone I fell in love with) and included hardshell case was impossible to pass up and if I someday get the hollowbody fretless Gold Tone, this fretted solidbody won't be redundant.

As for strings. We'll see how they work. I'm used to sometimes using a bit of forehead/nose grease to slick my fingers when playing regular electric, so I'm not worried, though I'm not averse to trying baby powder or Pahoehoe strings.
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Really confusing and you confused me even more - it's 22-33 and you wrote: 23"!!!
But still confusing... If this is meant, than why not 23-33???
  • Overall length: 33"
  • Scale length: 23"

Blablabla...
I'm curious what your impressions might be, keep us posted!!!
 
#39
DirkP said:
Really confusing and you confused me even more - it's 22-33 and you wrote: 23"!!!
But still confusing... If this is meant, than why not 23-33???

    • Overall length: 33"

    • Scale length: 23"
Blablabla...
I'm curious what your impressions might be, keep us posted!!!
Click to expand...

The confusion is not my fault I assure you.

I specified 23" scale so folks would know what the scale length was which is probably the most notable feature compared to the other Rondo and Kala bass ukes which are all between 20" and 21". The link text is not from me. It's automated from the website and is the item name that Rondo has given it. For some reason they chose to call it the...
"Hadean Bass Uke UKBE-22 33" Blue w/Case"
...which of course is silly since the overall length is not really a big deal, so there's no reason to use 33" in the title. Further, the scale length is 23", so 22 is misleading.

I'll post a NBD when it arrives, though it looks like it might come while I'm out today so maybe not 'til tomorrow.
 
#40
Thanks for this thread and all the info.
A buddy dropped off a U Bass over the weekend and I love the tone but not the scale length.
What I want to do is buy a Rondo for the piezo and pre-amp to install on a longer scale bass.
I do think the polyurethane strings are part of the magic but can't find them is a longer scale length.
Do they exist?

I think it's funny that the Chinese U Bass is being copied by the Chinese Rondo.
 

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