Gold Tone MicroBass Talk

[1stnamebassist]

I got my Gold Tone 25" Microbass yesterday afternoon and I have put in about two hours of playing. So far the number one unanticipated benefit is lounging on the couch and playing bass comfortably and not getting fussed at by the wife and kids like I do on the double bass because "It's too Loud" from other parts of the house. They still fuss in the same room but that's par for the course. The biggest downside is if you plunk hard you will get substantial fingerboard rattle on the low strings, which will hopefully decrease as the strings get stretched tighter and thinner. Not a deal-breaker by any means and actually might help my technique by lightening my touch. The tone is good but there's not much natural volume. It will probably be okay for one-on-one practice/jamming with one other acoustic stringed instrument at a time, but any more than that and it will probably get drowned out. The EQ and volume are handy and functional. I like the fact that when you turn on the built in tuner it mutes the output. I have to say the strings have stretched like crazy and I have to retune after every 15 minutes or so of playing or every time it sits for an hour or two. It sounds great plugged into my old Fender BXR Sixty but I will be getting a Roland Micro-cube for portability since it's smaller, lighter and battery powered. Portability is the number one reason I got it, after all. I'm not sure if I will leave the Thunderguts on for my upcoming band camp the first week of January or switch to the Pahoehoes. I have to say I hope eventually someone will go to a 34 inch, i.e. Fender Precision, scale with the acoustic body and the crazy polyurethane/rubbery strings but with that length it could be too much for this type string. I think that would give it more unplugged volume and it seems like it would feel more natural for a bass, but I'm kind of "Old School".

I would recommend that you hold off on the Paehoehoe strings until you come back from the band camp. They take quite a while to stretch and settle in. If the fretboard rattle doesn't go away, a simple twist of the truss rod or a bit of shim under the bridge should do the trick. Have fun and good luck!

 

[tnic61]

I got my Gold Tone 25" Microbass yesterday afternoon and I have put in about two hours of playing. So far the number one unanticipated benefit is lounging on the couch and playing bass comfortably and not getting fussed at by the wife and kids like I do on the double bass because "It's too Loud" from other parts of the house. They still fuss in the same room but that's par for the course. The biggest downside is if you plunk hard you will get substantial fingerboard rattle on the low strings, which will hopefully decrease as the strings get stretched tighter and thinner. Not a deal-breaker by any means and actually might help my technique by lightening my touch. The tone is good but there's not much natural volume. It will probably be okay for one-on-one practice/jamming with one other acoustic stringed instrument at a time, but any more than that and it will probably get drowned out. The EQ and volume are handy and functional. I like the fact that when you turn on the built in tuner it mutes the output. I have to say the strings have stretched like crazy and I have to retune after every 15 minutes or so of playing or every time it sits for an hour or two. It sounds great plugged into my old Fender BXR Sixty but I will be getting a Roland Micro-cube for portability since it's smaller, lighter and battery powered. Portability is the number one reason I got it, after all. I'm not sure if I will leave the Thunderguts on for my upcoming band camp the first week of January or switch to the Pahoehoes. I have to say I hope eventually someone will go to a 34 inch, i.e. Fender Precision, scale with the acoustic body and the crazy polyurethane/rubbery strings but with that length it could be too much for this type string. I think that would give it more unplugged volume and it seems like it would feel more natural for a bass, but I'm kind of "Old School".

Let us know how it works out with the micro cube amp. I am interested in using something like that in a similar situation.

 

[MuthaFunk]

Let us know how it works out with the micro cube amp. I am interested in using something like that in a similar situation.

I use a Phil Jones Double Four with a Lenmar laptop battery supply with my UBass solid body 5 string. The sound is really great with plenty of low end to hear the miracle of these new basses. It runs for 6+ hrs on a charge with the volume cranked and even longer if the master is dialed back a bit.

 

[Doug Lindsay]

I would recommend that you hold off on the Paehoehoe strings until you come back from the band camp. They take quite a while to stretch and settle in. If the fretboard rattle doesn't go away, a simple twist of the truss rod or a bit of shim under the bridge should do the trick. Have fun and good luck!

No kidding. Every time I pick up the Micro Bass, at least once a day, I am still tightening up the Thunderguts. I don't mean just little tweaks but great big knob twists usually several times so I am definitely waiting until after band camp before I put on the Paehoehoes. It's less out of tune than the first few days and sometimes some of the strings are in tune but when I stretch and tighten the ones that aren't the originally in tune ones go flat. I also unwound the strings from the posts over the weekend and clipped off at least an inch from each one, as recommended by the owner's manual, because they were getting to be double wrapped on the post. Everybody would be waiting for me to tune all day if I changed to what are supposed to be even stretchier Paehoehoes a week before camp.

 

[KohanMike]

I have to do the same ongoing tuning for the yellow Pahoehoe strings. I'm going to cut off more as well.

I use a Crate Limo 50w battery amp that I got for my guitars over 15 years ago. It's the good USA model, not the mediocre Chinese one, sounds great. I actually replaced the 7 amp hour battery a few years ago with a 12 amp hour, which lasts about 8 hours of continuous use.

 

[KohanMike]

The wide slot chrome Hot Shot tuners arrived today, but before I put them on my custom u-bass, I'm going to look for flatwound short short strings and see how well they work with the original tuners. I may very well put on the new tuners, skip the Weedwacker strings and go for a set of 21" black Pahoehoe.

 

[coolwind57]

My GT25 arrived today. And yes, I've got 10-minutes on it so far and I've already double-wrapped my E string. So far, however, I am thrilled!

 

[Doug Lindsay]

I took mine over to a banjo playing friend's house yesterday and it was great especially considering his small living room. He was amazed. The convenience and size were the main reasons I got it but the tone through my little Roland amp was great. I am setting my double bass up in the large hotel conference room for bluegrass band camp Saturday, but I will have the Gold Tone in my hotel room to work on songs with my unplugged bandmates.

 

[Doug Lindsay]

Let us know how it works out with the micro cube amp. I am interested in using something like that in a similar situation.

The Roland Micro Cube worked great with the GT 25. It's hard to believe that it's got such low wattage. I doubt I will ever be in an acoustic jam where I would have to turn it up to full gain and volume on amp and similar on guitar. The G string was not as loud as others but I noticed the same thing on my Fender BXR Sixty amp so I don't think it's the amp.

 

[tnic61]

The Roland Micro Cube worked great with the GT 25. It's hard to believe that it's got such low wattage. I doubt I will ever be in an acoustic jam where I would have to turn it up to full gain and volume on amp and similar on guitar. The G string was not as loud as others but I noticed the same thing on my Fender BXR Sixty amp so I don't think it's the amp.

I had the same problem with my Dean EAB Fretless. The pickup is a small wire under the bridge and was not pulled all the way across under the G-string. I corrected that and it was fine.

 

[Doug Lindsay]

I had the same problem with my Dean EAB Fretless. The pickup is a small wire under the bridge and was not pulled all the way across under the G-string. I corrected that and it was fine.

Thanks I will try that when I change strings.

 

[coolwind57]

Doug, had your string tension stabilized yet? I'm coming up on a week of ownership of my 25" fretless and I am starting to get "machine head tendonitis" from constant tuning. Like you said, at times, correcting one string puts others out of tune. This has got to get better. Give me some good news, man.

 

[Gorn]

Doug, had your string tension stabilized yet? I'm coming up on a week of ownership of my 25" fretless and I am starting to get "machine head tendonitis" from constant tuning. Like you said, at times, correcting one string puts others out of tune. This has got to get better. Give me some good news, man.

How far are they going flat?

 

[Doug Lindsay]

Doug, had your string tension stabilized yet? I'm coming up on a week of ownership of my 25" fretless and I am starting to get "machine head tendonitis" from constant tuning. Like you said, at times, correcting one string puts others out of tune. This has got to get better. Give me some good news, man.

Yes it has slowed down. Just my casual observation but it seems like it got worse the week after I cut the string ends and re-strung it. It has slowed down and now it doesn't stretch as far. Still stretching but less so not as frustrating. I will say I am glad I shortened the strings as much as possible and I am going to cut the Pahoehoes as short as possible when I change strings. Starting to consider pre-streching with weights or something just to cut down on the frustration.

How far are they going flat?

They were going about a half step flat. Now 1/4 or less usually. The bad part is when you tighten the A often the D or E will go flatter again, or similar. Part of the frustration is it's not like any other stringed instrument we are talking major spins while pulling the string out of the nut as recommended. Like I said it's slowing down. Maybe they should come with higher ratio tuners.

 

[cultrvultr]

Has anybody shaved down the nut on their GT? The nut on my GT 23" is really high. Its so high the low G note on the E string can't be played in tune. Also keeping the action too high. going to go after it with a rat tail file in the next few weeks but wanted to see if anyone else had this problem or another solution.

 

[Doug Lindsay]

Has anybody shaved down the nut on their GT? The nut on my GT 23" is really high. Its so high the low G note on the E string can't be played in tune. Also keeping the action too high. going to go after it with a rat tail file in the next few weeks but wanted to see if anyone else had this problem or another solution.

This is not an issue on the fretless.

 

[cultrvultr]

Yeah, then all the notes can be out of tune!

 

[JdoubleH]

I used my fretless GT New Years Eve on a couple songs to great affect. It was at a medium sized club through my Shuttlemax 9.2 into a fEARful 15/6/1 with PA support. It's a tough room for bass with high ceilings, hard floors and lots of glass. The band is an energetic and loud 5 piece cover band with a fantastic lead singer. I dialed out the ringy frequencies at soundcheck in the tube channel on the pre and had zero issues with feedback. I used the FET channel for my primary electric bass on everything else. I used the GT on Unchained Melody, At Last and of course, Auld Lang Syne at midnight. Funny thing is, I could hear myself better on the GT than the electric. Several folks commented on how they couldn't get over how much it sounded like an upright. I think I'm going to be using it much more often!

Oh and on the stretching string thing- yeah, I think all my strings are double wrapped at this point. I'll need to trim all of them. As for continued stretching, I'm usually maybe a quarter step flat each day after about two weeks. I just crank a turn or two, lift the string out of the nut slot (to allow it to even the tension on both sides of the nut) crank a little more until its reading sharp, then stretch the string back a little by tugging a little out from the fret board. With the fretless, intonation isn't a big deal if you don't play a lot of opens Sometimes, I think that little tuner and the ellusive green light is a curse and I'd rather just tune by matching pitch. Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever used a tuner to tune my cello... It would probably kill me, as it just has friction pegs and no fine-tuners on the tail piece (death by OCD).

 

[Doug Lindsay]

Several folks commented on how they couldn't get over how much it sounded like an upright. I think I'm going to be using it much more often!

The tone is definitely the coolest thing and the biggest surprise about it!

 

[bluebird28]

JdoubleH, I don't know if you know this but it is not a good idea to double wrap the tuners. It has been discussed on the Kala site, something about breaking the headstock??? if my memory serves me right.