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Kala UBass Megathread, Part 7
- Thread starter olitoon
- Start date
@4:33
The US acoustic. Apparently the middle knob is the "tone chamber knob" for mid boost/cut. The bottom knob is bass boost/cut and I'm assuming the other is volume.
Yes, I received / read your email this morning. Many thanks & I'll be ordering soon.
They are heavier than what you would find in the standard electric bass set. I have an idea what they are but until they are official I would prefer to not say (the set I played was a prototype, but pretty much what is going to be released).
The La Bella family is on their way back to New York now, in a couple of days I should be able to get a better prediction.
Great stuff, thanks olitoon. Kudos for starting the links at the interesting time stamp.
Ohana showed a u-bass clone with thunderguts at the Nashville summer NAMM, my local music store has one I reviewed in megathread 6.
"The market seems a little saturated" for "gummy" bass strings, hence the move to wound metal strings. Wonder if they're Pyramids, or ?
Hallelujah, a real bass guitar adjustable bridge, magnetic pickups. Again, inquiring minds want to know whose strings are those?
........................................
2014 is going to be a good year.
The only limitation on short basses, uke basses, whatever, is finding decent strings. As a guy who started on an Ashbory back at the turn of the millenium, I'm over the moon.
With good string choices, I could buy a Cali u-bass neck from Kala and build anything I can dream up, and the whole uke and bass world is free to do the same.
Honestly, the market seems the complete opposite of saturated to me. There's Kala and Gold Tone. And there's only one video of the Gold Tone online.
By the way, I just got the GT and love it. Super fun instrument and it sounds like a monster plugged in.
By the way, I just got the GT and love it. Super fun instrument and it sounds like a monster plugged in.
About the labellas, I wonder if they're gonna come with washers like the pyramids. Cuz the ball ends can't just press against the underside of the bridge.
One of us should find plastic washers online and
Publish the link so that we are ready.
I'm wondering what's the best to use. Plastic? Metal? Rubber? I'm guessing sustain/attack or whatever could be affected by the material used.
Nylon washers are readily available at the hardware stores and home centers around here. I've used nylon nuts in the past.
Got an email from BSO:
Had to change my pre-order from black nylon to white.
Still a work in progress, obviously, no word on a ship date.
Loving Pyramid roundwounds in the meantime.
In the past month, after building my own Cali fretted 4, I cycled again from pahoeoes through rumblers and thunderguts to hear them all on the Mi-Si - Baggs pickup system.
Not until I progressed to the Pyramids did I feel like I heard the bass come alive with the mids and highs.
I prefer the higher tension, and being able to really dig in to a note.
I feel like I get more dynamic range, articulation, speed & sustain with metal strings.
The downside is the finger noise on those fat windings through a piezo pickup, which is why I've been wishing for tape wraps or flatwounds.
It's great to have more string options all the time.
Had to change my pre-order from black nylon to white.
Still a work in progress, obviously, no word on a ship date.
Loving Pyramid roundwounds in the meantime.
In the past month, after building my own Cali fretted 4, I cycled again from pahoeoes through rumblers and thunderguts to hear them all on the Mi-Si - Baggs pickup system.
Not until I progressed to the Pyramids did I feel like I heard the bass come alive with the mids and highs.
I prefer the higher tension, and being able to really dig in to a note.
I feel like I get more dynamic range, articulation, speed & sustain with metal strings.
The downside is the finger noise on those fat windings through a piezo pickup, which is why I've been wishing for tape wraps or flatwounds.
It's great to have more string options all the time.
Makes sense. Offering 4 different flatwounds in 3 different sizes for a small market was ambitious. Maybe the pre-order thing was just a poll
Is the finger noise comparable to the noise of roundwound guitar strings or much louder?
Hey Davewave, did you get all the components for the Cali from Kala or did you piece meal it? What was the overall cost and how long to put it together?
Piecemeal. See post #95 in this thread.
The only reason I saved a little money from the kit price was I deleted a few things I didn't want, and got the 20% holiday discount.
The assembly didn't take long.
What took time was filing 48 individual fret wire ends and sanding down the nut.
The Mi-Si circuit board had no hardware to secure the three pots, so I was delayed until I figured out Radio Shack phone jack parts fit them.
The raw wood needed a few days for finishing.
Had it been fretless, and I not cared about high string action or intonation, I would have been done.
I spent a lot more time modifying the bridge to make it playable, and crafting a bookmatched figured myrtle pickguard and headstock to make it pretty.
See my earlier posts.
Makes sense. Offering 4 different flatwounds in 3 different sizes for a small market was ambitious. Maybe the pre-order thing was just a poll
There were never any true flatwounds on offer.
Two types of roundwound, which are still up on BSO's site, and the nylon tape wrapped over the wound strings.
To me it is louder.
Have you never played a full scale electric bass with roundwound strings?
Because the windings are coarser than guitar strings, there's more noise to begin with, and my perception is that the piezo bridge transducer on u-bass is more susceptible to this than conventional magnetic pickups.
I roll off most of the treble on both bass and amp, which keeps it reasonable.
I translated the German reviews on this and apparently it's a lot bigger than the U-Bass, the scale is more like a half size guitar. This interests me as I was looking at getting a Gold Tone Microbass or Short Bass One. Anyone feel like taking one for the team?
From Thomann website and the German reviews:
Scale length is 534mm vs. 515mm on the U-Bass. The size of the instrument is comparable to a 1/2 classical guitar (10cm longer, bigger body than a U-Bass). It doesn't look as good as a Kala or Goldtone, but quality is good for the price. Several reviewers wrote about volume differences between the strings, which seems to be a similar bridge-pickup contact problem as with some Kala U-Basses. One solved it by making the slot for the bridge slightly wider with sandpaper. It has a truss rod which is not always well adjusted. The inbuilt tuner is just okay, an external is better, placement not ergonomic. Amplified sound is good, output not very hot, tone control very limited.
So don't expect Kala or Goldtone design and quality, but it seems to be worth the money.
