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Kala UBass Megathread, Part 4

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#602
caeman said:
.....Pahoehoehoehoehoe....
Click to expand...

Hey, it could be worse.
They could have named them humuhumunukunukuapua'a strings. :eek:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reef_triggerfish

Pāhoehoe (/pəˈhoʊ.iːˈhoʊ.iː/; from Hawaiian [paːˈhoweˈhowe],[8] meaning "smooth, unbroken lava"), also spelled pahoehoe, is basaltic lava that has a smooth, billowy, undulating, or ropy surface.

http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=pahoehoe

375px-Ropy_pahoehoe.jpg




.....And that concludes today's Hawaiian lesson.
 
#605
Woooooo! My lefty is on its way from Jerry's Lefty Guitars in Sarasota! That's not really so postworthy, but what is is that he said he's getting in eight lefty Subs starting in a week!

Now where's that toenail clipper? : ) (actually I think I have some pullers in a box somewhere)
 
#610
Restrung my other Kala, the pocket ukulele. Took the opportunity try out a tuning in fourths. EADG would have been either way too loose or a bit on the tight side depending on the octave chosen, so I ended up with DGCF almost 3 octaves above the UBass. Playing scales and tunes plucking with RH index and middle fingers (thumb as bass style hand support) is a bit weird with that truly tiny instrument. Ergonomics are so different. And even if I played it via a Shadow pickup it didn’t have that room filling quality of the UBass. The string tensions not being as even as optimal didn’t better the result. Will try it a bit more, but strings have not been trimmed, so a return to reentrant tuning in E or F will likely happen soon.

Klaus
 
#612
^^^^
Marleaux "soprano" 30-40-60-80

Interesting, I think your assumption would be correct based on the gauges for Pyramid wounds strings.

G, 1.24 mm [.049 "]
D, 1.64 mm [.065 "]
A1, 2.22 mm [.087 "]
E1, 2.79 mm [.108 "]
 
#614
Ok, I logged some time on the SUB.

Loving it. It's a ton of fun to have discovered UBass tone and now suddenly have the controls on board.

SUBs have a master volume, bass, and treble control.

There's so much Power in the tone of this bass. Even with a tiny amp, I am shaking the walls when I crank up the bass on this.

It has very accurate intonation. Well, I haven't measured it on the highest frets yet, but up through the first 9 frets, it is extremely accurate.

Frets are all perfect. I usually feel the need to file fret ends, but, I'm not touching these. They are perfect.

I'm playing the Silver Rumblers on it. A couple of the nut slots could use to be just a tiny bit opened up, and I will whip out the file and do that tomorrow.

Eventually, I May adjust the string height. String height is a tad high, but on these basses, no matter what the string height, they all play like butter. Once I get over bass newness ;) , I may mess with the string height.

She's a beauty and a big keeper. Really love the way it sounds and feels.
 
#617
SBassman said:
There's so much Power in the tone of this bass. Even with a tiny amp, I am shaking the walls when I crank up the bass on this.
Click to expand...

Welcome to the sub club, Frank.

I'm interested in your take on the tone controls.
As I've said before, with no "center detent" position, I can't decide if there's a "flat" setting.

One might think that halfway up would be flat, with boost and cut relative to that starting point, but as you observed, turning up the bass halfway will start to bring the roof down.

These little monsters have so much bottom, and the "top" is totally different because of the pickup and strings, we're on new ground here.
 
#618
A younger family member, Mathias, grandson of my cousin, is musically very talented. Drums, bass, guitar, and keyboard. Even was asked to play marimba in a local recording. Did so with tremolos and all despite next to no experience on that instrument.

His dad consults me on diverse acquisition matters, and there the UBass came up, as Mathias has no bass himself. So far he has played right hand basses upside down, a trick he also can pull on guitar, if he hasn’t brought his own.

I tend to find the SUB a bit more robust looking than the acoustic UBass, but do I read the Kala site right in only finding one lefthand model, the acoustic spruce top?

A couple of questions on the SUB also:

Why are the Cherryburst and Sunburst variants $100 more expensive than the monochrome models? With the black one I might understand that the colour could cover a lesser quality of wood, but knots would be quite visible on the red variant.

Are the SUB models marketed in Europe?

Klaus
 
#619
imperialbari said:
A younger family member, Mathias, grandson of my cousin, is musically very talented. Drums, bass, guitar, and keyboard. Even was asked to play marimba in a local recording. Did so with tremolos and all despite next to no experience on that instrument.

His dad consults me on diverse acquisition matters, and there the UBass came up, as Mathias has no bass himself. So far he has played right hand basses upside down, a trick he also can pull on guitar, if he hasn’t brought his own.

I tend to find the SUB a bit more robust looking than the acoustic UBass, but do I read the Kala site right in only finding one lefthand model, the acoustic spruce top?

A couple of questions on the SUB also:

Why are the Cherryburst and Sunburst variants $100 more expensive than the monochrome models? With the black one I might understand that the colour could cover a lesser quality of wood, but knots would be quite visible on the red variant.

Are the SUB models marketed in Europe?

Klaus
Click to expand...

I'm guessing, but I would imagine the price difference doesn't have to do with the ability of using lesser quality wood but rather the labor in doing a burst.
 
#620
Good find on the Marleaux, Klaus.

I claim we are not hijacking this thread, because the point is can the strings work on a Kala bass to make it play an octave up.

Before the road toad and pahoehoe strings, I thought this approach might be the best for a super short scale bass, use an octave pedal.

Edit: A search of the forum reveals these are old news, I'm a dinosaur. $2500 is out of my league.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuSRLEkuwdw
Invalid Link Removed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvHe3nivSBI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJRVGcRxNIs
 
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