Kala UBass Megathread, Part 5

[speedster]

I've got this one Product #11-2014-0 and this one Product #11-2016-6 and between the two of them I can do a full weekend Thursday eve thru Sunday morning of jamming late night, warm up before sets and running through set lists.... then get home and charge them back up for the next.... that is with a GK MB150 amp ....

Hope that helps

 

[speedster]

Oh BTW you have to wait for CTC to put them on sale to get them for 129 - 149 bucks.... it happens quarterly.

cheers

 

[speedster]

there's a link to the little battery box running the GK on an island in the middle of a river at a Bluegrass Festival in Northern Ontario, no power on the island.

 

[little george]

I have an early fretted spruce-top acoustic that I bought used. Pahoehoe strings. I'm getting a buzz when I play between the 7th and 12th frets. Seems to slowly be getting worse. There is visible relief in the neck.

Can the bridge be shimmed higher without affecting the pickup? Or am I looking at neck surgery?

I think you could easily add a little plastic strip under the bridge, similar to the ones that are already there. That would raise the action and hopefully kill the buzz...

 

[jburtonca]

I've got this one Product #11-2014-0 and this one Product #11-2016-6 and between the two of them I can do a full weekend Thursday eve thru Sunday morning of jamming late night, warm up before sets and running through set lists.... then get home and charge them back up for the next.... that is with a GK MB150 amp ....

Hope that helps

Thanks for the reply. My main amp is a Genz-Benz Streamliner 900, which according to the back panel info, is rated at 650W. To power it I would need the Eliminator 1000A/700W Power Box
Product #11-2028-8. I suppose I could use my 250W rated Acoustic Image Contra, but I really love the Streamliner with my Acme Low B-2. Still, it's an option

Jeff

 

[Temcat]

I have an early fretted spruce-top acoustic that I bought used. Pahoehoe strings. I'm getting a buzz when I play between the 7th and 12th frets. Seems to slowly be getting worse. There is visible relief in the neck.

Can the bridge be shimmed higher without affecting the pickup? Or am I looking at neck surgery?

You might want to check that, but I heard that high-fret buzz can be caused by too much relief in the neck. In fact, I'm now carefully experimenting with truss rod adjustment in my Kala mahogany fretless, and I have a slight buzz on A string at the 10th "fret". When I increase relief, the buzzing gets worse (extending to D) - and so does the overall tone, which I cannot explain. When I decrease relief, I get less buzz. I've not yet finished experimenting - looks like I still have some headroom for neck straightening, and who knows, maybe I will be able to get rid of the buzz altogether. Or I can live with it.

 

[scotch]

U-Bass preamp/di's... Fishman Platinum Pro Bass vs. Radial PZ-Pre

I've been super-happy with the Fishman with the U-Bass, but I 've recently started doubling on upright bass & the Fishman just sounded 'ok' with my upright. It has an obvious baked-in eq that kinda muffles/reduces some of the resonances of the upright. It doesn't sound bad, just not as much potential. The Fishman almost masks some of my intonation and technique mistakes.

Both have similar feature sets, with the Radial having more switching/routing capabilities & the Fishman having more power options (phantom, battery or adapter - the Radial is adapter only).

Both have 10meg input impedance (switchable on the Radial) and similar output strength. The Radial has a very convenient "mute" button whereas the Fishman you have to turn the volume down on it all the way if you want to unplug/switch your instrument. The Fishman has better overall eq options with an infinitely adjustable HPF (the Radial has only 2 settings, the most useful bass setting is 80hz) and more bands - but- the Radial's notch filter is better at locating feedback.

I'll leave out all the fine-detail comparisons to say that after spending a couple of hours - I prefer the Fishman with the U-Bass (but only a little) and prefer the Radial with the upright by a more significant margin. The Radial exhibits a more 'honest' transparent sound which I like to capture the uprights idiosyncrasies, but the "baked-in" eq of the Fishman just really seems perfect for the subsonic boom of the U-Bass. I suppose I'm using the instruments for different vibes, of course!

The little Fishman BII belt pack sounds great with both but doesn't have the amount of features being so small. It's indispensable to me for how well it works as a simple acoustic bass buffer, so it goes wherever either instrument goes!

The Aggie TH350 through SL112 is to die for with either acoustic bass, btw!

I've also been using an Empress ParaEQ which also works really well with both despite it's less optimal impedance rating. I'll save that guy for the studio though!

 

[smperry]

Closed and continued here: http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f8/kala-ubass-megathread-part-6-a-964655/