I bought theschnitt's solid body micro. It's beautifully made. Simple. Rock solid. Heavier than I thought but in a good way. I've never played a solid body petrochemically strung bass. It works.
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Nice! I had a Sub briefly and while I liked how it played and it sounded incredible, the intonation was so bad I sent it back. Yours is a very nice looking little bass!
Yah intonation on this one isn't awful, but it's not great. Pretty much just on the G and D. I'm considering trying out the stock thunderguts for just those two. Should intonate a little better and my hatred of thunderguts only really applies to the fatter E and A.
That bridge can be adjusted for intonation. Its not as precise as one with individual saddles, but it works pretty well.
I need to get a better tuner but I'll mess with it when I do.
I played it at a little jam last night. Sounded great. I wish it was full scale, but I like it.
I play light gauge strings on my "real" bass so I have a light touch, but I forgot how gentle you need to be with pahoehoes. But they feel so good, especially on this slightly longer than ubass scale.
Update: Silver Rumblers seem to be working pretty well on the GT 23". Having been through a few strings, it seems that in general the Polyurethane strings are more likely to have strange intonation issues than a regular metal string. I've had weird issues with both the Pahoehoes and the GT stock thundergut strings where the string is fine played open but any fretted note will be severely out of tune.
Silver Rumblers seem to be a really nice fit with this bass. They have bad reviews here on TB, but I am liking them a lot. They are almost exactly a combination of the best of the Pahohoes and the Thunderguts. Good medium tension. Not as sticky as the Thunderguts. With a decent thickness and a balanced tone somewhere in between the other types of strings. They stretch some, but not nearly as much as the pahohoes. I can see why Kala has made them the new default string for their basses. Overall, a really good option for this GT bass. I'm eager to start playing this bass instead of spending all my time trying to make it playable.
One other quick note. During a string change using a string winder, the screw that keeps the tuning gear in place flew out. I've never had that happen before in 20 years of bass playing. Its a tiny thing and I lost it as it flew out under tension. I was able to find a replacement at the hardware store, but something to watch out for.
Silver Rumblers seem to be a really nice fit with this bass. They have bad reviews here on TB, but I am liking them a lot. They are almost exactly a combination of the best of the Pahohoes and the Thunderguts. Good medium tension. Not as sticky as the Thunderguts. With a decent thickness and a balanced tone somewhere in between the other types of strings. They stretch some, but not nearly as much as the pahohoes. I can see why Kala has made them the new default string for their basses. Overall, a really good option for this GT bass. I'm eager to start playing this bass instead of spending all my time trying to make it playable.
One other quick note. During a string change using a string winder, the screw that keeps the tuning gear in place flew out. I've never had that happen before in 20 years of bass playing. Its a tiny thing and I lost it as it flew out under tension. I was able to find a replacement at the hardware store, but something to watch out for.
I think they're only default on the rumbler, unless they started putting them on other basses.
I decided to try a set of Aquill 91U Red Thunder for the UBass on my Goldtone Micro Bass. I have had them on there for about a week, and I gotta say I really like them. They have great tone, better acoustic volume, sustain, they sit in the mix better and better feel on the right hand too, easier to play fast tight notes.They where made for a 21" bass but I had no trouble installing the on my 23" micro. They have a bit more tension than the thunderguts I had on there. I was able to remove one of the shims under the bridge, lowering the action a bit. The D string felt kind of sticky and hard to slide on. But I found rubbing just a tiny bit of oil on my finger tips completely clears that up and all the strings slide effortlessly. Anyhow, I don't know if this will interest anyone else but I am really loving them, great tone, sustain and feel on the fingers. They haven't fully settled yet but are fairly usable. They go just a bit flat after 10 minuets of playing. I will report back with updates after have had them on there for a while.
Good to hear you managed to get the shortscale thunder reds on there. I am wondering, did you need to stretch the strings a lot to get them in the tuner?
Also, what about the nut, arnt the slots too wide cut for these strings, i know the thunder reds are a bit thinner.
I bought theschnitt's solid body micro. It's beautifully made. Simple. Rock solid. Heavier than I thought but in a good way. I've never played a solid body petrochemically strung bass. It works.
lets us know if you fix the intonation. Seems well designed to have such a movable bridge to accommodate for different strings brands.
Nope, the strings are long enough to reach the tuners without stretching them. The E and D strings I cut to length and threaded threw the holes in the tuners, no stretching involved. They have several raps around the post but are fairly stable so that might work long term. The A and G stretch allot more so I tied knots in them several inches back and stretched the knots threw the slot on the tuning post.
I haven't messed with the nut. Some of the slots are a bit wide but I am not getting any string rattle or anything. Unless it starts giving me problems I probably wont mess with it.
I'm looking at getting a Micro Bass to play some jazz bass lines. I'm trying to get something akin to an upright sound in a smaller, bass guitar type of package. Gold Tone has a 25 inch scale and a 23 inch scale now, both in fretless models. Does anyone have a sound comparison between the 25 and the 23? Does one intonate a bit better than the other? Gold Tone is marketing strings as "23 inch scale", do those also work for the 25?
I sold my 23" just the other day. I've been changing out or adding a preamp to my ukuleles a for a while now, and with a Dremel, I find it fairly easy. I bought the Joyo from the Chinese "Amazon" type web site AliExpress.com, at the time it was the only preamp that that had the features I wanted, oriented to view as your playing and larger tuner window, but it is really big and also had a hard time tuning the E string. Then I got a deal on another GT MicroBase and going back through AliExpress, found a slightly smaller Joyo preamp, took a chance and it has no problem tuning any of the strings.
I dont have a sound sample for you. However both basses amplified should be able to produce the same the same volume, if thats a concern. Acoustically i think the 25.5" should be slightly louder, but nothing significantly
However the 25" scale model will be easier to play intonated on. On smaller scales, slight error in pressing down will result in larger out of inonation notes. If you are used to playing large scale instruments like bass scale and/or guitar scale lenght, then the 25 is definitively for you.
I believe they use the 23" strings for the 25" model aswell. It will have a slight better tension(higher). But since they are polymer not as radical as you would expect from metal strings.
(FYI, i have the Microbass 25 FL. And have owned thomann ubass and Aquila shortbass one)
(PS, I use the microbass for a jazz combo aswell. Work very well!)
I don't find it any more difficult to intonate on my 23" Micro Bass than I do on any other fretless bass. Actually I find it a bit easier because I don't have to stretch to reach notes. The notes are much closer to where my fingers naturally are. I would get which ever you think will be more comfortable for you, I don't think will be a lot of difference between the two. And I have 21" strings on mine, no problems so far. so I would think 23" would work on the 25".
I got rid of the white Thundeguts on my two GT 23" MicroBasses relatively fast, didn't like them at all, replaced with Pahoehoe yellow on one, and black on the other, really like them a lot (sold the first GT, kept the one with black). I bought the longer sets, but didn't need to, the shorter will stretch plenty. I'm also planning on trying Thunder Reds on my custom 21" u-bass, hopefully they will be better than the white Thunderguts.
There was very little difference in tone that I could here, but I didn't play the Aquilas all that long, I hated the rough/stickiness of them. I much prefer the smooth finish of the Pahoehoe, and they sound very good to me.
I found that the Pahoehoes allow a wider range of tones because you can use the treble slider in positions other than all the way down without getting a lot of string noise.
