Kala UBass Megathread, Part 6

[little george]

I might be wrong, but I think somebody here explained that all those woods named exotic mahogany, quilted mapple, burley Maple, spalted mango, flaming cocobolo, exotic swamp ash, figured ash, etc, are allways laminated. They are very nice to the eye, but less strong, and not suitable for building solid wood acoustic instruments, so they allways are the top of a laminated wood.
Again I might be wrong, but I think zebra wood is the only one between these to be solid...

 

[imperialbari]

I might be wrong, but I think somebody here explained that all those woods named exotic mahogany, quilted mapple, burley Maple, spalted mango, flaming cocobolo, exotic swamp ash, figured ash, etc, are allways laminated. They are very nice to the eye, but less strong, and not suitable for building solid wood acoustic instruments, so they allways are the top of a laminated wood.
Again I might be wrong, but I think zebra wood is the only one between these to be solid...

Can't exclude somebody having written such posting. I wrote a similar one only telling about the loss of strength in spalted maple. Spalting is the result of fungi attacking wood of trees already being dead. The fungi partially break down the wood structure in patterns leading to attractive visuals.

Structures like birdseyes tell of slow and complicated growth. I wouldn't like working such wood with hand tools due to its hardness, but whether it is too brittle for solid soundboards is beyond me.

Klaus

 

[Gorn]

I'm fairly sure yours is exotic mahogany. They've always been about 400 new for both the old and new models, and the solid hog is generally about 550 new. I had a solid mahogany, spruce top and exotic mahogany and haven't really noticed any significant differences in either tone or how solid or strong thr instrument felt.

 

[little george]

Can't exclude somebody having written such posting. I wrote a similar one only telling about the loss of strength in spalted maple. Spalting is the result of fungi attacking wood of trees already being dead. The fungi partially break down the wood structure in patterns leading to attractive visuals.

Structures like birdseyes tell of slow and complicated growth. I wouldn't like working such wood with hand tools due to its hardness, but whether it is too brittle for solid soundboards is beyond me.

Klaus

I was right, saying I was wrong!
Anyway Klaus thanks for your explanations. I misunderstood your words, I thought your conclusion could be applied to most of the highly decorative woods, not only spalting ones. My fault sorry everybody

 

[imperialbari]

Laminating spalted maple as told is a matter of combining beautiful patterns with sufficient strength.

The first thing I learned about plywood too many decades ago was about its stability towards warping as compared to solid boards of similar thickness. Later on I realised it also was about making good use of wood not considered having a surface nice enough for houses or for furniture.

I have an Ovation (not Applause) tenor uke sold to me by a Hawaiian dealership as having a solid Koa top. I went stinking mad when a former employee of that store in another context revealed that they knew it was Koa laminated on top of Mahogany. However I had to realise that it still is a great uke with a balanced overtone pattern.

On their FaceBook wall Ovation told that they laminated Koa because of the high prices on that wood.

The Ortega RLizard bass uke has the same dimensions as the Kala UBass, but only comes with a laminated Dao top. I asked Ortega why the didn't come up with a solid top for a fairly costly model. Their answer was that Dao was too heavy to be used on its own.

That was a couple of reasons for laminating not related to strength.

My two UBasses are a solid Acacia fretted and a solid hog fretless. I play the Acacia most, but only because my fretless playing is not too good. The hog is louder if both are equipped with Thunderguts, but that may be related to variations between the two similar type pickups.

I had a strong bias against Mahogany because that was the signature furniture wood of my grandparents' generation. Dark and heavy homes.

Two factors are uprooting that bias. The said hog UBass and another freaking out of mine: Martin Backpackers. By definition their sound isn't the biggest, but my 4 specimens of 3 different types all are just so unbelievably alive.

Klaus

 

[Gorn]

I found a solid hog ubass on GC's used site for a decent price so I got it. I'm know its the older model sans preamp. It has an adjustable truss rod. What I find weird is it has tortoise shell binding. Is this normal? I had a solid hog once before and it didn't have the binding.

 

[Gorn]

Also, A+ for kala customer service. It was missing the little snap on cover for the back access hole, called kala, and they're sending me one for no charge. Good people over there.

 

[1stnamebassist]

I've been experimenting with my silver rumblers a bit trying to find the best way to eliminate the squeeking sound these strings tend to make. I tried finger ease which helped a bit then the squeak would come back pretty quick. I tried the powder billiards players use with some short term success also. So far the best for me has been plain old baby powder. Very messy though. May try gold bond next! Any other suggestions? I also find coaxing the note with soft part of my thumb works well, as well as finger style or thumb close to the end of the neck. I just got my fretless hog a couple months ago and it came with the tortoise shell binding. Very nice look to me anyway. And the truss rod is useful also I might add. I had some heavy buzzing on the second fret A string, but when I added a bit of relief, it got rid of the annoying buzzing. My intonation is really pretty good on my bass. I guess I was blessed with a good one right off the bat.

 

[slaerts]

I've found that I've naturally altered my plucking technique and cleaned up the way the fingers on my left hand move over the fretboard and this has made significant improvement over the squeak. It is more obvious when electric bassists and double bassists have their first goes on it, lots if finger and string noise from the same settings.

 

[ChristophMuench]

Anyway I have found that plucking technique is very important.

On youtube I rather often see guys leaving their right hand in a fixed position and just reaching further or less far with the fingers for plucking the different strings.

I think this is inappropriate; even with a bass as small as this (which tempts one to move very little and to think "hey, that's nice, finally a bass that doesn't need so much bodily involvement") it's crucial to always have the whole arm in motion and always adjust hand and finger position for each string and for optimal sound production.

On my fretless hog I found that, for instance, I have to pluck the G string further left to produce a full round tone, and I have to move the hand further down so that the trajectory of the finger tip is more parallel to the top of the instrument body, not mainly towards it (like it would be if I wouldn't move the hand down).

Avoid the temptation to rest the hand on top of the instrument body and find sweet spots and optimal plucking trajectories, then it will be fine.

 

[slaerts]

Keeping my exotic hog for now. I was testing out my new barefaced cab and had my regular scale bass out and was testing it out both with and without the sansamp paradriver to see how it sounds. Grabbed the u-bass and thought "hey why not?"

The string noise is harder to control. I know a few of us have noticed that the u-bass can sound a bit on the p-bass side of things, well the sansamp takes that rounds on a p tone and brings it out even more. Great for that kinda tone. I could certainly play with it but it removes that double bass/acoustic bass quality.

Still liking my fishman platinum pro-eq di for bass and my l.r baggs for this instrument but the sansamp works too.

 

[slaerts]

 

[Gorn]

Is there any news on the red shortbass strings for the ubass?

 

[Temcat]

Hi everybody!

My UBass hums noticeably, and I guess this must be a problem with the bass itself (not impedance mismatch or smth like that, because it does it with 10-MOhm Fishman BII). The hum not as loud as in a video someone posted earlier (http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f8/kala-ubass-megathread-part-6-a-964655/index11.html#post14183287), but still annoying. When I touch the jack on the bass, the hum almost disappears.

Has anybody had the same problem? Was it possible to resolve it? What did it take? Returning the bass is not an option.

 

[letseatpaste]

Hey all, I just joined the Kala U-bass club! After a used deal fell through, I found a nice deal on a new solid mahogany model and just took delivery today. I was kinda hoping it was the slightly older model without preamp, but in some ways it'll be pretty nice to have it.



After reading through most of the mega threads over the last few weeks, I was disappointed to see the strings already wrapping over themselves right out of the case. It has a tag saying it was inspected and set up in the USA, you'd think they would be keenly aware of issues that caused a lot of warrant claims.



Regardless, it's a beautiful little instrument and I can't wait to restring it and tune it up. I've been playing with a country/bluegrass group so this should be a blast.

 

[HeavyDuty]

Is there any news on the red shortbass strings for the ubass?

I sent Mimmo an email weeks ago, but no response.

 

[imperialbari]

Overlaying wraps could have come from tune-ups in the store. Not ideal, of course, but understandable.

Klaus

 

[letseatpaste]

Overlaying wraps could have come from tune-ups in the store. Not ideal, of course, but understandable.

Klaus

Yeah, I thought about that right after I posted, thanks for pointing that out.

 

[1stnamebassist]

About string plucking, I find using the fleshy part of the thumb helps, and finger style if I kinda coax the note sort of like how an upright player plays a walking bass line it eliminates a lot of string noise. Less noise also the farther away from the bridge I pluck. But in all honesty with the music i'm playing in a band setting you would not likely hear any noises or squeaks anyway. If I were playing with just one other instrument it may become a bit of an issue, but right now thats not my situation.

 

[ChristophMuench]

About string plucking, I find using the fleshy part of the thumb helps, and finger style if I kinda coax the note sort of like how an upright player plays a walking bass line it eliminates a lot of string noise. Less noise also the farther away from the bridge I pluck. But in all honesty with the music i'm playing in a band setting you would not likely hear any noises or squeaks anyway. If I were playing with just one other instrument it may become a bit of an issue, but right now thats not my situation.

Well, many amateurs think "Bah, when playing in a band this can't be heard anyway, so why bother too much?"

That is a big trap.

No real professional would ever think that way - he always strives to let the instrument sound as good as possible first (and to let this good sound become an automatic habit), then apply that sound in a band situation and use electronics only to make that good sound louder and fuller.

And that is one of the important factors why he is a pro and not an amateur.

When I began playing bass in 2011, I asked Tim Watson how he gets his good sound that can be heard on the YouTube videos. He replied that he has this amplifier and that pedal and so on (and equipment IS crucial with this bass, no doubt), but he added that one has to learn to get the best acoustic sound FIRST. (And not play with crappy sound and try to correct that with electronic tricks or hide behind loud drummers and twanging guitars.) That was very valuable advice!