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Kala Ubass Megathread, Part 1

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#261
cb56 said:
Welcome to the club. You are #19
#1 cb56
#2 Tijuana bass
#3 Showdown
#4 Tommy Hagen
#5 MingusBass
#6 CaballoViejo
#7 bassfiddlerman
#8 fourstringbliss
#9 Neon Scribe
#10 Baird6869
#11 mrspiffy
#12 AJ Brown
#13 ducati08
#14 adhus
#15 bad_andy
#16 DeanT
#17 mwesth
#18 bassguy675
#19 jsb22257
#20 This # is available
#21 MX21
Click to expand...

I'll take number 20, please. I'm gonna order one of these things.
 
#262
#1 cb56
#2 Tijuana bass
#3 Showdown
#4 Tommy Hagen
#5 MingusBass
#6 CaballoViejo
#7 bassfiddlerman
#8 fourstringbliss
#9 Neon Scribe
#10 Baird6869
#11 mrspiffy
#12 AJ Brown
#13 ducati08
#14 adhus
#15 bad_andy
#16 DeanT
#17 mwesth
#18 bassguy675
#19 jsb22257
#20 Jack Clark
#21 MX21
#22 Downunderwonder
 
#264
Woot, what a hoot! I checked my mailbox on the way to work and lo, one fretless miniature bass guitar is mine. I drive taxis for my main income. I put it between my legs under the steering wheel and brought it out between fares.

Preliminary finding is fretless is not for the fainthearted. It will need concentration on intonation for a long time before fingers and ears do it on autopilot. Funnily enough it seems easier for me in the higher register, maybe the old violin reflexes are operating up there.

In case anyone missed it in other reviews, without an amp the thing is useless for any performance.
 
#265
Man, I plugged it in and the clicking I get off putting down a finger to pluck is really annoying. I see a few posted about it earlier in the thread but no real answer. Touching down on the string anywhere from the bridge to the fingerboard makes the same click/pop.
 
#266
Downunderwonder said:
Preliminary finding is fretless is not for the fainthearted. It will need concentration on intonation for a long time before fingers and ears do it on autopilot.
Click to expand...

Aha! Well, your preliminary finding is certainly consistent with the recommendation of Bob Gullihur, himself a double bassist, who advises in favor of the fretted and against the fretless.

I'd like to get back to you in a few more weeks to see what you think after you've been playing it awhile. Okay?

Same for you other guys with fretless U-bases, okay?
 
#267
Downunderwonder said:
Man, I plugged it in and the clicking I get off putting down a finger to pluck is really annoying. I see a few posted about it earlier in the thread but no real answer. Touching down on the string anywhere from the bridge to the fingerboard makes the same click/pop.
Click to expand...

Wow, I did not notice anything like that during the few minutes I played around with a fretted U-bass in a KC-area music shop. I had it plugged directly into a combo (don't remember which) without a preamp. Now I don't know whether that click/pop was not there, or it was and I just missed it. Is it the kind of sound that you might miss if you weren't really listening for it?

Morten and Ben, are you guys getting any click/pop like this while you're gigging with your U-basses?
 
#268
I haven't been gigging with my uBass yet, but I have observed no clicking at rehersals, playing through a Eden Nemesis. No clicking from the Cube RX.. It depends on how you pluck though.
I just bought a TC Electronic BG500/210 yesterday, going to check it out with the uBass and Epi Viola tonight (-:
 
#270
Check it out. I got my lefty today:

img0706jj.jpg
 
#271
I don't have the problem, but I can see where it could be a problem dependng on EQ and right hand technique peculiarities.

Jack Clark said:
Wow, I did not notice anything like that during the few minutes I played around with a fretted U-bass in a KC-area music shop. I had it plugged directly into a combo (don't remember which) without a preamp. Now I don't know whether that click/pop was not there, or it was and I just missed it. Is it the kind of sound that you might miss if you weren't really listening for it?

Morten and Ben, are you guys getting any click/pop like this while you're gigging with your U-basses?
Click to expand...
 
#272
If someone can tell me how they pluck and get no click I'm all ears. I get a clack just placing my finger on the string preparing to pluck or right finger muting.

If you go to the youtube vids it's there but it doesn't stick it's head up like it does when you're sitting in front of an amp.
 
#273
Tested the FL Ubass on my new TC BG500 last night at rehearsals. WOW! With just a little tweaking I got a "close-to-upright" sound, and my EPI Viola has never sounded better!
If I pluck yhe Ubass hard near the neck, I can get the clicking sound. Turning down the tweeter on the amp solved it..
 
#275
Nope. I get a click with touchdown of a plucking finger, not from the actual pluck, then another if I mute with plucking finger.

It's distracting when plugged into my practice amp. I gigged it briefly thru PA direct last night and it wasn't noticeable.
 
#277
I don't know - I don't practice through an amp and haven't heard anything objectionable when playing it with people. I did run it through an amp just to get my bearings with it before taking it out. I noticed that light tapping on the strings with my right hand between the sound hole and bridge was really loud and percussive, but its an undersaddle piezo so I didn't think twice about it. I just play it and it sounds great. The only adjustment I've had to make consciously is to keep my RH technique on the lighter side. No big adjustment since I've had a bass with TI flats on it for several years.

Downunderwonder said:
If someone can tell me how they pluck and get no click I'm all ears. I get a clack just placing my finger on the string preparing to pluck or right finger muting.

If you go to the youtube vids it's there but it doesn't stick it's head up like it does when you're sitting in front of an amp.
Click to expand...
 
#278
For 4 to 500 bucks you'd think you'd have a basic preamp built in eh? The price of being an early adopter methinks. I went to another open mic tonight and took my Sansamp RBI preamp but left the power converter at home, doh.

Boxed on without and mixer was pretty well maxed +20dB to get a signal to keep up with the semi-accoustic gats.

Click was very evident when in a "hush hush" dynamic, no problem at regular volume.
 
#279
Downunderwonder said:
For 4 to 500 bucks you'd think you'd have a basic preamp built in eh? The price of being an early adopter methinks. I went to another open mic tonight and took my Sansamp RBI preamp but left the power converter at home, doh.

Boxed on without and mixer was pretty well maxed +20dB to get a signal to keep up with the semi-accoustic gats.

Click was very evident when in a "hush hush" dynamic, no problem at regular volume.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what your issue is with click. But I've had mine for about 8 month, and I haven't experienced the type of problems you are describing. Here is my two cents and some other observations based on some of my experiences with the Ubass - not necissarily all directed at you.

1. It doesn't need a preamp IMO. Piezos usually have impedance matching issues with amps, but this one runs fine into my amplifiers. Plus with it being an acoustic instrument with poly strings, to a certain extend the tone is pretty well defined - that is I don't really see this as any type of instrument that is suppose "cut-through" the mix as a lot of people say around here. I would think that running a ubass into straight into a mixer would not sound great if that's what you meant in your post. Bass guitars can be run straight into a PA head too, but most people would prefer a preamp in between the two for bass specific shaping.

2. The click - I have never noticed this on mine. That's not to say there isn't one there, but there isn't any unwanted effects that I notice on mine when amplified. Obviously the closer to the neck you play, the more controlled your touch has to be given the low tension and bouncyness (prob not a word) of the strings. I've also found that your fretting hand also has to have a much lighter touch as compared to playing a bass guitar on these. When I first started playing mine, I had a bunch of thwack and such on the frets because I hadn't yet adjusted my heavy handed playing from upright and BG to this little thing yet.

Relax, play softly with both hands, and let the amplifier do the work for you. I've found that if you fight this thing with force, much like an upright bass it will not repsond favorably.
 
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