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Kala UBass Megathread, Part 2
- Thread starter smperry
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GBassNorth said:
...interesting. I too turn off the tweeter and on most rigs end up with the treble at 9:00 or lower. My problem is that unnatural high mid finger noise area. On the ubass that is what makes it sound plucky, like a toy. There are a lot of ubass videos on YouTube with that pluckiness accentuated. The GK combo is one of the most surprising amps I have found. I will experiment with more mid settings and see what happens. Maybe I'll put up a demo vid soon.
I think we're both shooting at the same general target. Get rid of the "pluck" or "woosh" finger noise without loosing the entire top end of the bass. Attempt to keep it in the overall tonal sound of a DB and then kick in a pedal if needed for overdrive or fuzz or whatever when certian songs call for it. I'm still experimenting with my GK MB210 to see what settings give the best results. I'll post the actual control settings later today after I play around with it a bit more.
My Ashdown 210 combo could nail the DB sound but to do so I had to turn the treb off (no tweeter defeat), the high mids nearly off, the low mids nearly at max and the bass nearly off then add a little compression. The problem was with all the tone stacks nearly off you had to crank the volume and gain way way up. In a coffee shop setting it was ok but did not work in a bar setting.
I also have a digitec multi effect pedal that I use for messing around and was able to get some very interesting sounds out of that with the GK. This bass does very well with fuzz or overdrive pedals.
My first day home with the Ubass I plugged it into my Ampeg SVT-VR Berg610 rig and not having any clue how hot the pickup was on this little monster (after all it's just a tiny little acoustic uke - so I thought) I gave the E string a nice little tug and darn near blew all the windows out of the house. The wife didn't take kindly to my rearrangement of her fine china in the kitchen above the studio so I was informed if I ever used that amp with that bass again I risk loosing it and my life. Hence the search for a small combo and how I've landed on the GK solution.
The piezo 'quack'... Have you tried running the Kala into an amp or pre-amp designed for acoustic bass/instruments? I run into the 'High' impedance input on my AI Clarus and it takes the 'quack' out... (I know that Tim's WW head is something like the holy grail of upright amps, but is the input High impedance?) I still EQ out some highs and mids, but the attack on the pluck is way more natural. In other instances, I use a Fishman Platinum Pre, which also has an excellent input buffer and really tames 'The Duck'!
-robert
Thought about going the fishman or tonebone route but figured I try to EQ as much of the issue out as possible first to see if the preamp is really needed.
Looks like Fishman makes 3 preamps - one for bass, one for guitar and one for acoustic. I assume the one to use for the Ubass is the acoustic - is that correct? It runs a little over $100. The tonebone route is much more expensive at about $300 but has a lot of neat features and options.
My problem is that I'm finding the tone controls on the GK MB210 combo amp to be very flexible and getting me very close to what I want. Is there a really basic cheap piezo preamp that compensates for the "quack" and still lets me leverage the GK tone shaping options?
Looks like Fishman makes 3 preamps - one for bass, one for guitar and one for acoustic. I assume the one to use for the Ubass is the acoustic - is that correct? It runs a little over $100. The tonebone route is much more expensive at about $300 but has a lot of neat features and options.
My problem is that I'm finding the tone controls on the GK MB210 combo amp to be very flexible and getting me very close to what I want. Is there a really basic cheap piezo preamp that compensates for the "quack" and still lets me leverage the GK tone shaping options?
G, yes. You can target a lower cost acoustic preamp of the lower cost range, like the Fishman BII or Behringer ADI21, then run that output into you GK's normal input.
I am going to flip my BII, because I need the DI and Mids feature of the ADI21 more. 95% of my playing is direct through a PA.
I am going to flip my BII, because I need the DI and Mids feature of the ADI21 more. 95% of my playing is direct through a PA.
Robert - which Fishman are you referring to? If it's the bass version with the compressor, I'd love to hear more about how it's doing with the UBass?
Ok - played around with all the controls on the GK MB210 combo amp and here's what gave me the best DB like sound with the least amout of "quack" and still a solid top end and good volume balance across all strings:
Passive input, Gain at 9:00, Contour off, Treb off, Hi mid off, Low mid 3:00, Bass 9:00, boost 9:00, master vol at 11:00, limiter off, horn off.
Also plugged into my Fender Acoustic Guitar amp (which I assume is designed to play nice with piezo pickups) to see if it really made any difference with the Ubass pickup. Nope, not really any difference at all, couldn't get any better tone out of it than I could the GK (in fact not as good as the GK).
Also pulled out the Digitech multi effect pedal and put it in place of the VT pedal feeding the GK and was able to further reduce the quack and ended up with a very nice round warm bass tone. So I guess I'll just run it that way for now and see how I like it with that set up after a few gigs. The Digitech is able to eliminate nearly all of the finger noise associated with the piezo as best I can tell and does offer a lot of other interesting fuzz and distortion tones to boot.
With the right pedal this bass can go from a real Heavy Metal Doom Machine to the perfect bluegrass picker. Here's two youtube vids for your enjoyment:
Bluegrass picker - KALA U BASS for Bluegrass - YouTube
Metal Monster - forward to about 3:40 on the vid - Invalid Link Removed
Passive input, Gain at 9:00, Contour off, Treb off, Hi mid off, Low mid 3:00, Bass 9:00, boost 9:00, master vol at 11:00, limiter off, horn off.
Also plugged into my Fender Acoustic Guitar amp (which I assume is designed to play nice with piezo pickups) to see if it really made any difference with the Ubass pickup. Nope, not really any difference at all, couldn't get any better tone out of it than I could the GK (in fact not as good as the GK).
Also pulled out the Digitech multi effect pedal and put it in place of the VT pedal feeding the GK and was able to further reduce the quack and ended up with a very nice round warm bass tone. So I guess I'll just run it that way for now and see how I like it with that set up after a few gigs. The Digitech is able to eliminate nearly all of the finger noise associated with the piezo as best I can tell and does offer a lot of other interesting fuzz and distortion tones to boot.
With the right pedal this bass can go from a real Heavy Metal Doom Machine to the perfect bluegrass picker. Here's two youtube vids for your enjoyment:
Bluegrass picker - KALA U BASS for Bluegrass - YouTube
Metal Monster - forward to about 3:40 on the vid - Invalid Link Removed
Yep, that works if sweat is the problem. Fortunately my hands are relatively dry and the strings are clean so I'm down to playing style and amp adjustments at this point. I've made about all the amp adjustmens I can and got to about 90% of where I'd like to be, I've noticed if I play using my thumb vs my fingers I do get less noise but unfortunately I'm not very good at thumb style playing, so practice I shall. It does give a more realistic DB sound, and that's a good thing.
I like the tone from the 2 piezo preamps I have. With the hollow uke I look for more thump on the attack. The preamps kinda tame that attack and make it smoother, like the solid bodies. The GK sounds good straight in. My cabs all can sound good. I have brought the woods and the uke to stores to try cabs. I think it is just not a great combo without other tone shaping gear. It is easier to get a great sound from the solid fretless through the woods. Walter told me all his amps have 1 meg ohm inputs and was adamant that they should never need any preamp for acoustic instruments.
I wanted to offer up more observations I have been making on the Thunderguts.
First - nothing has changed as far as what I'll use. It's Thunderguts exclusively going forward. Pound for pound, I find these strings far superior to the stocks.
Now, one thing to watch out for: friction at the nut.
I'm not telling everyone to go take a file to the nut, but, for whatever it is worth, the strings looked too tight for the nut for me, so I did file them a little more space carefully. Even after doing that, I Do think the strings stick in the nut slot a little bit. I can see this while tuning.
What I have been doing to alleviate this is: while tuning, I occasionally gently pull the string out of the slot and then let it back in.
Whatever that is worth.
First - nothing has changed as far as what I'll use. It's Thunderguts exclusively going forward. Pound for pound, I find these strings far superior to the stocks.
Now, one thing to watch out for: friction at the nut.
I'm not telling everyone to go take a file to the nut, but, for whatever it is worth, the strings looked too tight for the nut for me, so I did file them a little more space carefully. Even after doing that, I Do think the strings stick in the nut slot a little bit. I can see this while tuning.
What I have been doing to alleviate this is: while tuning, I occasionally gently pull the string out of the slot and then let it back in.
Whatever that is worth.
For sure. I'm going to go further and get a tube of the powered graphite from a home or auto store.
You know, I'm thinking that's what might have led to my shear-off problem on the E string (binding at the nut). Good thinking there.
scotch
It's not rocket science!
- Nov 12, 2006
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SBassman said:
My experience is the same. VERY happy with the Thunderguts. Honestly, they basically soumdcheck the same as the stock strings, but are higher tension and the tuning stability is WAY better.
The do stick in the nut a little more. I need to ream out my nut slots a little as well. Not sure if graphite would work- both surfaces are soft compared to steel strings and bone nut! I think an occasional lift at the nut is probably necessary.
I, too, am sticking with the TGs. They just play easier than the stock strings, and give me just enough top end. I find they tune up just fine. Even my Snark clip-on tuner tracks the adjustments I'm making while tuning up.
Has anyone considered putting any passive tone controls in their acoustic U-bass? I really, really like having instant volume control on hand, especially when I'm far away from my amp. I'm thinking a thumbwheel pot inside the sound hole would be perfect:
Invalid Link Removed
Does anyone think a passive tone control would be useful on the U-bass? Could these controls even be wired in with the current piezo system?
I've found this to be necessary with the stock strings, too.
My Aquilas should arrive tomorrow.
I don't have a tone control on the upright. So I just think along those lines with the hollow. If I need more control, like in my Latin group, I use the fretless 5 solid. I guess I generally only use the hollow in quieter situations where otherwise I'd have the upright. The preamp takes care of tone. I don't know if I'd want to bother with the innards of the instrument.
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