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Kala Ubass Megathread, Part 1
- Thread starter cb56
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Thanks, Showdown! Yes, I see that. Where should I go to play one? Mahalo!
Jim, you can play the U bass at Easy Music Center at 1314 S. King St. in Honolulu, that's where i bought mine.
That is who I bought mine from. He was good to deal with.
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Thanks, Showdown! Yes, I see that. Where should I go to play one? Mahalo!
Try Coconut Grove music in Kailua. Real close to where you are, in downtown Kailua. I don't know if they have any in stock, but they are a Kala dealer.
http://www.coconutgrovemusic.com/
Dan's Guitars on Beretania and McCully in Honolulu is also a Kala dealer, and if he doesn't have any he does at least have some nice basses to play.
Good Guys on Kapahulu, near Waikiki.
Island Guitars in Ward Warehouse.
And as previously mentioned Easy Music Center on King Street.
Good point.
But for a compact bass to practice with, travel with, etc., this thing is amazing.
There is no reason for me to bring my huge Morgan Monroe acoustic bass to acoustic gigs any more beyond needing access to the 17th+ frets.
I have yet to see how it cuts through a band mix (I will tomorrow), but unless it absolutely sucks, I will be playing this thing for many years.
I had to pry it away from my sons (14 year old drummer and 12 year old guitarist) last night as they thought it was the coolest thing.
Seriously, this thing is frigging amazing.
I don't want to come across like a complete fanboy, this little bugger is the real deal. I will very rarely use it on gigs, but it is such a great little instrument.
I just rehearsed with it and my band was absolutely blown away with the tone I got out of the UBass. We played a couple easy songs by the Band, Journey, .38 Special and Pearl Jam, and the UBass sounded great in the mix!
Again, this is not a bass for those playing Jaco or for slapping, but it really sounds great.
P.S. It looks completely hysterical with a full rock band!
I just rehearsed with it and my band was absolutely blown away with the tone I got out of the UBass. We played a couple easy songs by the Band, Journey, .38 Special and Pearl Jam, and the UBass sounded great in the mix!
Again, this is not a bass for those playing Jaco or for slapping, but it really sounds great.
P.S. It looks completely hysterical with a full rock band!
I'm very much interested with this little toy... What about the feedbacking issues in louder volumes? Any experiences?
As with any amplified acoustic instrument, feedback can happen. The louder you turn it up, the more feedback you'll get. Don't stand too close to the speaker. Adjusting the tone controls can help a lot. I was playing through an "acoustic" amplifier, meant for an acoustic guitar or a keyboard when I got feedback. Turning down the treble solved the problem. If you're playing through a bass amp you are less likely to have feedback. You might try stuffing a towel in the sound hole if all else fails.
I noticed finger noise both fretting and plucking. Turning down the treble helps, but you also have to adjust your playing style. It's a different beast.
If anybody wants to try one, there are a couple at the store called "Guitar Emporium" in Louisville, KY.
Just thought I'd let everyone know.
Just thought I'd let everyone know.
edmidlifecrisis
Registered mediocre bass player
+1
I gigged a UBass tonight for one song and the output was about the same as my American Standard P.... actually a bit louder.
Outdoor gig in front of 300-400 people and it didn't feed back unless I walked directly at the amp (TC RH450 and a Sadowsky 410 cab) and even then, I had to be within a few feet.
I brought this UBass out for "Alive" by Pearl Jam and my sound guy almost $h!t his pants when he heard it. This guy was in Willie Nelson's band for a few years and has heard it all...... except this.
The UBass has it's place, but for fun... bring one out and watch people freak out.
I introed the song by saying that I hoped the crowd liked Don Ho.... and we were going to try a "new direction".... as soon as I hit that booming open A in the Pearl Jam song, I saw MANY jaws drop. This IMO is the coolest "new" bass thing since Leo invented the electric bass in 1950. The Ashbury didn't quite do it, but this does. It is really a great instrument. It might not be gigged much, but it is fun to play and a great practice bass.
Again, not being a fanboy, but this thing kills.
One thing I think anyone who has played one would agree is that the Ubass is definitely not a toy. It is a real instrument that plays great and sounds fantastic, somewhat limited due to its short scale, but also with some powerful inherent advantages. I've used mine on several gigs without any feedback problems that weren't easily overcome, and it gets a lot of attention and interest from the crowd.
I got a classical guitar strap, the kind that goes around your neck and clips to the sound hole, that's perfectly adequate in my opinion. If it's good enough for both Andres Segovia and Willie Nelson, it's good enough for me and my Kala. It also looks really cool when you leave it on and go to the bar for a drink while you're on break, like the sax players do.
My wife ordered me one yesterday.. Mahogany fretted. I'm stoked to play it as soon as it arrives!
This was my post from the other kala thread, and was made about a month ago when I took a chance and gigged one of these for three hours (I had played one of the prototypes of another brand about a year before, so I basically did this on a chance!). Keep in mind that they had us in a corner, very close to our amps...and that caused the feedback I experienced. I am sure had I been at least 5 feet away, it would have not been a problem:
"I had the chance to use one of these last night for a gig. It was just me and the Ukelele player from my regular band that they hired for an outdoor event. He borrowed this one from a friend, so this was my chance to use one of these things in the real world, during a real gig. Quite an experiment!
My first impressions from this uke bass:
I was able to get a near-indentical sound from that I get off my other bass, which is a king double bass strung with weedwackers. The Uke bass is a major feedback monster, so it's good that we were playing low. In between our sets, they had a polynesian show going on, and I was holding the uke with the sound still up, but me muffling it with my hand. The sound from the polynesian drums was somehow going through the uke, and causing it to feedback.
It took a few moments to get used to the extreme short scale. It's comparible in scale to that of a violin or mandolin. This model was lined, fretless. I did not find it all that hard to intonate properly, though beyond the 12 fret line, it was not so good.
I tried the bass with different settings, using an SWR workingman 10 (yeah, the "borg" cube!) and it was not the best sound. But, I then tried it with the line 6 basspod set to "sub dub" setting, and thereafter was able to mimic the sound of my King doublebass.
I got the best, meatiest sound by playing all downstrokes with my thumb, and during the Uke player's solos (when he was not singing) was able to get more punchy walking bass sounds by playing fingerstyle, the regular way.
Because I was using the "sub Dub" setting on the line 6, there was no problem with fingernoise whatsoever, and since a clear and high tone was not what I was going for, this posed no problem.
Closing my eyes, what I was hearing was a very fat sound. Almost exactly like an upright with guts or whackers that is being played amplified.
The thing worked, is all I can say. This was not a toy or a novelty, and pretty much sounded more upright bass-like then any ABG I have ever played, except an earthwood. If the tone you are going is similar to a Guitarrone (mexican mariachi ABG) then this thing nails it. This uke bass sounded more authentic then an Asbory bass in mimicing the short decay and punchiness of an upright bass."
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"I had the chance to use one of these last night for a gig. It was just me and the Ukelele player from my regular band that they hired for an outdoor event. He borrowed this one from a friend, so this was my chance to use one of these things in the real world, during a real gig. Quite an experiment!
My first impressions from this uke bass:
I was able to get a near-indentical sound from that I get off my other bass, which is a king double bass strung with weedwackers. The Uke bass is a major feedback monster, so it's good that we were playing low. In between our sets, they had a polynesian show going on, and I was holding the uke with the sound still up, but me muffling it with my hand. The sound from the polynesian drums was somehow going through the uke, and causing it to feedback.
It took a few moments to get used to the extreme short scale. It's comparible in scale to that of a violin or mandolin. This model was lined, fretless. I did not find it all that hard to intonate properly, though beyond the 12 fret line, it was not so good.
I tried the bass with different settings, using an SWR workingman 10 (yeah, the "borg" cube!) and it was not the best sound. But, I then tried it with the line 6 basspod set to "sub dub" setting, and thereafter was able to mimic the sound of my King doublebass.
I got the best, meatiest sound by playing all downstrokes with my thumb, and during the Uke player's solos (when he was not singing) was able to get more punchy walking bass sounds by playing fingerstyle, the regular way.
Because I was using the "sub Dub" setting on the line 6, there was no problem with fingernoise whatsoever, and since a clear and high tone was not what I was going for, this posed no problem.
Closing my eyes, what I was hearing was a very fat sound. Almost exactly like an upright with guts or whackers that is being played amplified.
The thing worked, is all I can say. This was not a toy or a novelty, and pretty much sounded more upright bass-like then any ABG I have ever played, except an earthwood. If the tone you are going is similar to a Guitarrone (mexican mariachi ABG) then this thing nails it. This uke bass sounded more authentic then an Asbory bass in mimicing the short decay and punchiness of an upright bass."
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