I bought my son a Samick for his first bass when he was about 5 or 6; he is 20 now. It sounded good, and other than being a bit hard to get well in tune, it was, and still is a killer little bass.
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Kala-U
- Thread starter Dr. Cheese
- Start date
I bought my son a Samick for his first bass when he was about 5 or 6; he is 20 now. It sounded good, and other than being a bit hard to get well in tune, it was, and still is a killer little bass.
Are you kidding, the Kala u-basses are made in China like most of the others. Only their most expensive models are made in the US, $1200 and up.
You beat me to it. The American solidbodies aren't built extremely well either. I love mine but it's rough around the edges. If I had paid $1200 I'd be upset. But it's serving its purpose well for me now.
I play several of my basses acoustically quite often, including the Samick. Used to get into some weird conversations about that here on TB way back when.
As much as I'd like to like acoustic basses, they typically aren't very loud unplugged so the point where you'd need amplification isn't much different than a well built electric bass IMO IMO.
The strings are the same roundwounds that Kala is selling I believe, roundwound on a nylon filament core. They look to be made by labelle. Good feel to the strings. I still don't like rounds, and I love the sound of pahoehoe strings, but the rounds do make it more versatile for cover and wedding band work. I hope that flatwounds on a nylon core will show up someday.
When I saw pictures they looked pretty similar to the kala strings. I could be wrong, but I didn't get the impression they were rubber core, it says synthetic core. Anyway, the kala rounds are good strings, I've been gigging them since February now.
I'm all for anything in the realm of uke type bass development, whatever it looks like.
Of course acoustic basses need to be amplified, I don't know why people would think because it's acoustic it wouldn't need an amp. I always use an amp when playing along with anyone else, but I use mine unplugged all the time when practicing.
Maybe the name gives people that impression?
I don't know why people wouldn't expect an acoustic bass guitar to not need an amp. Acoustic guitars don't automatically need amps to be heard above a conversation. Nor double (acoustic/upright) basses. Unfortunately the physics of acoustic bass guitars typically don't allow them to be very loud... but thinking that people shouldn't expect them to work better than they do strikes me as odd.
Again, if I'm playing alone, ABG or EB work fine for me unplugged. If not they both need to be plugged in. If you want what an ABG brings to the table, cool. If you just want something with a small form factor there are also other choices.
Maybe the name gives people that impression?
I don't know why people wouldn't expect an acoustic bass guitar to not need an amp. Acoustic guitars don't automatically need amps to be heard above a conversation. Nor double (acoustic/upright) basses. Unfortunately the physics of acoustic bass guitars typically don't allow them to be very loud... but thinking that people shouldn't expect them to work better than they do strikes me as odd.
Again, if I'm playing alone, ABG or EB work fine for me unplugged. If not they both need to be plugged in. If you want what an ABG brings to the table, cool. If you just want something with a small form factor there are also other choices.
I agree with you about other options are available. I actually like the U-bass sound a lot, and would be happy to have one. I think have located a Samick Corsair for sale locally, and I will check it out too because I just may like it, and it is cheaper.
I don't dislike the Kalas, I just found for me I found the Samick more usable. I do most of my gig shedding on it. And the low price definitely doesn't hurt.
Not that I'm stuck on fretted basses with roundwounds.
From my NBD thread the Protec is a 1/2 acoustic bag. I'm checking with them now on availability... it's not listed on their website. Nice little bag and the easiest bass load-in ever for me.
Thanks @Brad Johnson ! Good to know that it's a 1/2 size bag. I see a few 1/2 bags out there for $20. Do you need the extra width of the acoustic bag or do you think a 1/2 electric guitar gig bag might work?
For anyone looking for a ubass alternative, the corsair is great. I am on my third kala and 2nd GT microbass. My rebranded corsair from smallguitars.com is built to a much higher level of quality at a cheaper price than any ubass I've seen including the kala California which is an absurd price for basses that have such poor QC issues.
It looks like they only have pink mb-1s in stock, and at a little bit higher price than normal, but still can't best this little instrument. 1/2 size Bass Guitars: SmallGuitars.com - half size mini bass guitars
Ive been gigging small uke Basses exclusively for about 4 years now. I started with a kala 21", moved to a fretted 23" GT for the past few years and just did my first gig with a Rob Allen mouse tonight. A beautiful instrument that really combines the best parts of a uke bass with the best parts of a more traditional electric bass. The effective reach of the mouse is really short for a 30" scale. It feels just a tiny bit longer than the 23" GT Microbass. The special strings give it a similar tone to pahoehoes but with a more nuanced character.
The thickness of the Samick is like a regular electric so you don't need to have acoustic depth... BUT that extra internal space could come in handy for sheet music or other stuff. My Protec has a big pocket that should hold many of the small class D amps.
Greg Bennet designed Samicks apparently have a cult following, and the price was more than I wanted to pay (nevermind the fact that nobody was selling theirs). I bought a "Stedman Pro" off ebay for the first attempt at getting my son a small bass. Before I discovered the u-bass. It's a fun little critter in its own right, but way way way too heavy for him. It's about the size what my 5-string roundwound ubass will end up being though.
I bought an MB-1 from SmallGuitars.com, a pink one on sale for $150, and I immediately had it painted surf green by Pat Wilkins (he did a great job). I just played it yesterday at rehearsal, think it's a very nice bass all the way around.
The original (Pahoehoe) ones are a black and smooth. Aquila Thunderguts are higher tensioned and feel sticky. Aquila Rumblers are more or less a combination of the Pahoehoes and Thunderguts and have the best traits of Pahoehoes/Thunderguts.
Kala and Pyramid both make roundwounds that can best be described as giant wound classical strings. The KALAs are about half the price, by the way.
I have one and bought it from Sweetwater last August for $899. They have quit making the production ones for now. They may still make them as custom jobs, which may explain that price. They do make a SUBass version in a five string, but the scale is the 21" scale instead of the Cali's 23 " scale in fretted only.
