I practice unamplified all the time at home. The music is on a tablet along with the rehearsal recordings that play on the louder side, works perfectly well.
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Hyy thanks, that is good to know. I am really diging the reds but maybe I will give the pahoehoes a try some day.
New member of the forum and my first post. Have recently purchased a GT MicroBass 23 and am thoroughly enjoying it. Impressed with the overall workmanship – everything just as it should be. (I did, however, find that it benefited from a light rubdown with 1500 grit sandpaper.) My question has to do with the strings. The stock strings were somewhat “dented” when I received the instrument - I attribute this to considerable in-store playing before I bought it (Elderly Instruments) but otherwise I’ve had no problems with them. I’ve not experienced any of the sticky/tacky issues others have noted and am pleased with them. I am curious as to the typical lifespan of these strings and what factors will necessitate a change? What should I be looking for here? Thanks!
Not only did I find the stock Aquila Thunderguts rough, but they also dented after just a couple of weeks. I like sliding on the strings, but the Thunderguts for me were problematic for that. The Road Toad Pahoehoes are smooth and have stayed that way for many weeks. From what I read, both kind of strings last a very long time.
Just stayed up late and put Pahoehoes on my 23". I bought the long scale strings from Road Toad. They were not easy to put on. The hole for the D string in the saddle was not big enough and had to be enlarged. Everything else fit, but the bushings on the Road Toad strings meant taking off all the Thunderguts so I could stick my entire hand in the soundhole to thread the string through.
Actually getting the strings onto the pegs took me hours. I used a capo as a third hand. The strings come shorter than the pegs, so you need to stretch them a whole bunch until they are long enough to do the wrap shown in this video from Kala
The strings stretch so much! I imagine I will have to do this a few more times over the next few weeks. Hopefully they will be ready a gig in 2 weeks. So far they seem like they will be a nice improvement over the Aquilas. The denting issue on the Aquilas got so bad that it was messing up my notes and I couldn't play certain notes cleanly where the strings were really dented. It was bad enough that the rest of the band even noticed. Not acceptable. Gold Tone makes a big deal in their warranty about not using other types of strings, but their stock strings are too low quality.
Actually getting the strings onto the pegs took me hours. I used a capo as a third hand. The strings come shorter than the pegs, so you need to stretch them a whole bunch until they are long enough to do the wrap shown in this video from Kala
The strings stretch so much! I imagine I will have to do this a few more times over the next few weeks. Hopefully they will be ready a gig in 2 weeks. So far they seem like they will be a nice improvement over the Aquilas. The denting issue on the Aquilas got so bad that it was messing up my notes and I couldn't play certain notes cleanly where the strings were really dented. It was bad enough that the rest of the band even noticed. Not acceptable. Gold Tone makes a big deal in their warranty about not using other types of strings, but their stock strings are too low quality.
I had the same problem with the d strong but rather than enlarging the hole, I whittled the end of the string to a point so it would fit. I have a fairly deep scar on my thumb as a result. Making the hole bigger may have been the better option.
I should have mentioned that I had to drill out the holes in the bridge, and that it will take a lot of stretching to get the strings on the tuner spools. In fact, they've wrapped so much the last couple of weeks, that I'm going to have to re-do them very soon to cut off the excess, and I used the 21" versions.
I'm looking for a recommendation for a compression pedal to use with my 25" MB. I like the way the low end sounds but it's just not coming through the PA the way I want it to. Anyone have one they like?
Alternatively, should I get one of the Sansamp offerings from Tech21? I've been eyeing the programmable as I could have presets for three different instruments.
Or should I just get off my butt and install the Pahoehoes that have been sitting in my drawer for the past month? Will they improve my low end enough to not bother with pedals?
Alternatively, should I get one of the Sansamp offerings from Tech21? I've been eyeing the programmable as I could have presets for three different instruments.
Or should I just get off my butt and install the Pahoehoes that have been sitting in my drawer for the past month? Will they improve my low end enough to not bother with pedals?
I don't use compression with mine. I strung it with Paehoehoes and been quite happy with them. IMHO I think it depends on the sound system your running wether you need compression. Mine sounds great through my Carvin MB 15 but I haven't tried it with other amps yet. Have you considered trying a ZoomM60B? Has several compressions options you can try. I found mine used in exc shape for 50$.
Hey all - I'm putting my solid body ME-Bass up for sale later today. It's got a set of stable Pahoehoes on it and will ship with the original 'guts, case candy, gig bag, and wrenches, will ask for $440. Super fun bass but the project I got it for has ended and I need to invest in some other gear. Shoot me a message if you might be interested.
update on my GT 23" saga. I put Pahoehoes on, but the Pah D and G are so much thinner that they weren't matching the volume and tone of the E and A. The E and A are great but I decided to switch the D and G back to the Aquila stock strings. It looked great with the black and white contrast between the two brands, but the Aquila D string seemed to have died while going on and off. It would play in tune open but any fretted note was terribly out of tune. In comparison, the G string seemed fine so I figured it must be a bad string? In any event, I have a bunch of rehearsals and gigs coming up so I can't let anything settle in for more than a few days before it has to be ready to play for 3-4 hours at a time.
Right now I have E-A-D Pahoehoe's with a single Aquila G. It looks a little weird and the Pahoehoe D is actually thinner than the G which feels pretty strange. I'm on the lookout for a single Aquila D but as far as I can tell there are no bass uke single strings available anywhere. In that case might try a complete set of the Aquila Reds or Silver Rumblers.
Right now I have E-A-D Pahoehoe's with a single Aquila G. It looks a little weird and the Pahoehoe D is actually thinner than the G which feels pretty strange. I'm on the lookout for a single Aquila D but as far as I can tell there are no bass uke single strings available anywhere. In that case might try a complete set of the Aquila Reds or Silver Rumblers.
I also put the longer scale Pahoehoes on my 23" MBass and noticed the string thickness difference compared to the Pahoehoes on my Kala UBass.
I'm thinking of either trying the D and G strings for a set of the shorter scale Pahohoes or calling about a custom set with thicker D and G strings for the MBass.
Last edited:
Did you order the strings from Kala or from Roadtoad? You can order longer sets from Roadtoad which is what I did and they worked great on mine. Also when your talking about lower volume from different strings do you mean plugged or unplugged? If some strings are lower volume when plugged in it could very well be the piezo bridge. I had that problem with my E string when I put them on, but I just pushed and prodded on the bridge and voila the volume came up. Sometimes adding or removing shims under the saddle can help. Hope you resolve the problem. I would hate to think new strings would be the issue. Also the silver rumblers don't seem to get a lot of love on the Kala forums, and personally I couldn't stand them! But to each his own! Good luck!
The shims under my saddle were a little off when I changed the strings to Pahoehoe so I just made sure they were positioned and it now sounds really good both amped and not.
Prompted by theschnitt's listing, I have a 23" fretted MicroBass for sale. It's only about 7 months old and in very good condition, but has a little dent on the top edge (which I just did taking these photos, damn). I changed the strings to Road Toad Pahoehoe yellows, swapped out the original preamp for a Joyo with a nice large tuner, 4 band EQ, 1/4" and XLR connectors, but the tuner has a hard time with the E string at times. Because of that and the dent, I'm selling it for $225 plus shipping. It includes the original gig bag, allen wrench, 9v lithium battery and a strap. (I bought it for $375, plus $27 for the preamp, $24 for the strings and $20 for the strap).
Last edited:
Let me know how that works out. Would love thicker D and G for both the GT and my kala. They feel so mismatched and I think they get even thinner as they stretch out. I can't even use the G on my kala because it is so wimpy compared to all the other strings that the notes just disappear
I did a long four hour gig with my mismatched set of strings. It wasn't great but worked fine. I have some silver rumblers coming next and after that some of the Orange Worth strings.
I was talking with a guitarist today about how a modern acoustic guitar represents hundreds of years of development. We are just at the start of uke basses and so we are feeling the pain of being pioneers.
That's strange! I wonder if they changed the diameter of the strings lately. Last set I bought was a longer set from Roadtoad about a year ago and they worked fine on my Microbass. I still have the original set on my Kala which I guess is about 3 yrs old now and they are still going strong. The Paehoehoe I don't recall getting thinner over time but I may not be remembering right. The thunderguts and probably the rumblers will thin out a bit. I'm wondering if you pickup isn't working properly. Many have had issues with uneven volume because of that very issue.
Thanks, I'll have to look into it. The lower g volume is consistent on both my kala and GT and a Thundergut G fixed the problem on the GT so it seems like a string issue but I'll check out the piezo to make sure it is seated properly
There's a low tension hoehoe set. I once used a low tension d as a g string. It was slightly thicker than the stock g and worked well on a ubass I had.
Good luck with your sale, Kohanmike. How difficult was it to swap out your original preamp and how did you choose the Joyo model?
