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Is this BAS?

I

ichadwick

Dec 31, 2010
32
0
Collingwood, ON, Canada
#1
In the ukulele forums, we describe Ukulele Acquistion Syndrome - UAS - as the urge to collect ukuleles of all shapes, sizes and models. I have 10 or so around the house, and a few dozen others have passed through my hands in the fevered buy-sell-trade symptom that characterizes UAS.

I seem to have picked up a case of BAS, Bass Acquistion Syndrome. Probably caught it online here, reading through the bass-related threads.

I started wanting an EUB, but before I could get one I fell for an Epiphone Viola bass on sale at our local music store. Had to have it, so home it came. Then, even as I was struggling to remember those rusty skills I had a few decades ago, I found a YouTube video of some genius with flying fingers on a six-string bass. Had to get one of those, too.

Yesterday, a Kijiji sale presented me with an Ibanez 6-string. Longer scale, which somehow doesn't seem to matter on this bass with its aircraft-carrier-wide neck. What, they make eight-sting basses too? Gotta check those out...

And I still want that EUB.

My skills at bass playing are sorely lacking, but with a lot of practice I aspire to rise to mediocre. Doesn't matter, I suddenly want to play - and own - many other basses.

Am I contagious?
 
#6
Curious you should say that. I was looking at a Precsion bass this very afternoon. Well, that and a Rickenbacker, a Washburn, another Epiphone and something else. But no, I must resist... until an 8-string comes along. You know, one of those with the octave-apart strings... and I still want an EUB.

Now I need a better amp, too.

That and a lot more money than I have.
 
#14
Darko74 said:
You play uke? how about this? Kala U bass.
Click to expand...

Had one and sold it after very little play. Fun but not quite what I wanted. They have a solid body now, too, but it's a tad pricey ($1,200 I believe).

Found the fat, low-tension strings had a tendency to roll under my fingers, so I had to be very precise when placing them, which was a bit distracting. They weren't very good for sliding either (better, though than the Ashbory).

Also, the very short scale made it difficult to play the upper registers because even more precision was required, and the intonation didn't seem quite as crisp as I expected.

Nice sound, though. Surprisingly beefy for such a small instrument. But volume? None, unplugged. Barely audible even for the player unless amped. Although it has separate piezos for each string, there is no EQ to balance them, and I found the G boomier than the E.

Reviewed it on my ukulele site, BTW.

I reluctantly got a short-scale Epiphone as a replacement, and found I enjoyed it a lot more, enough that I then got an Ibanez six-string and am now hunting a piezo/electric combo model... only wish my talent was up to a fraction of my desires to own hardware.
 

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