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Kala UBass Megathread, Part 7

#401
davewave said:
Bass Strings Online emailed yesterday- he received stock of Labella 21" and 23" copper white tapewounds. :thumbsup:

Stay tuned. :cautious:
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The white tapewounds are supposed to ship soon as well. I decided to try them on my fretless GoldTone microbass first, since the Thunderguts are my least favorite. I'm going to hold off putting them on the U-Bass for now.
 
#405
I really love the sound that is coming out of these basses. It seems to me that the STRINGS make the difference, not the scale of the bass. Why wouldn't you get this warm, jazz sound out of a 34" scale bass using longer polyurethane strings? I see on the Kala site that "exotic woods" and pickup placement contribute to the sound, but I've gotta believe its the strings! Any thoughts? Does a manufacturer even make polyurethane strings to fit a 34" bass?
 
#406
Bass1965 said:
I see on the Kala site that "exotic woods" and pickup placement contribute to the sound, but I've gotta believe its the strings! Any thoughts?
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Piezo pickup.

Bass1965 said:
Does a manufacturer even make polyurethane strings to fit a 34" bass?
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No, but there is an old video of Aquila Thunderguts experimentally strung on a long-scale acoustic bass.
Currently, the longest scale they make is 26.4" Thunder Reds for the European "Short Bass 14."
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For poly vs wound string comparison, this just in:
 
#410
Those Thundereds for the Shortbass would fit my Goldtone. I may have to try them sometime. If they don't work out I'll just stick with Paehoehoes. First and still the best, at least for me at this point. I put them back on my Ubass today. Just couldn't get any love for the Pyramids. Gave them a couple weeks but I missed the thump!
 
#411
Gorn said:
Don't all ABG's have some kind of under-the-saddle pickup?
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You're right, of course.
I was awkwardly trying to make the point that the pickup is an x factor as well as strings, and they may not all be created equal.

For me, the term "acoustic bass guitar" is kind of a joke.
They all have pickups because they can only be played effectively, anywhere but solo in your bedroom, when plugged in, whether strung with wound or chemical strings.

Having tried every string available for U-Bass, I feel I can dial in a warm, deep tone using any of them with good eq in the signal path.
So my string preferences are less about the raw, un-processed sound, and more about feel, intonation accuracy and tuning stability, especially since I play fretted.
 
#412
True. I just remember how good the pahoahoes felt on the microbass I briefly had and that was only a few inches longer than the ubass. The tension from pahoehoes strung on a 32" or 34" scale acoustic would be delightful.
 
#413
Gorn said:
True. I just remember how good the pahoahoes felt on the microbass I briefly had and that was only a few inches longer than the ubass. The tension from pahoehoes strung on a 32" or 34" scale acoustic would be delightful.
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You just gave me an idea. The pahoehoe strings for my Mbass stretched so much that I wonder if there would be any problem using them on the 28.6" scale of an Ibanez Mikro bass I have. I'd have to change the tuners and work in a piezo bridge.
 
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#416
No shops that I know of carry uke basses. Most people including musicians seem to have not heard of them. It's kind of a buy and try deal. S****water is a good place to deal with. I bought a Sub from them and didn't like it so I just shipped it back no questions ask. Lost about 12 dollars in the deal though.
 
#417
Back in HK now, where there are U-basses in the shops to try. Even my non-bass-playing musician Hong-Konger friends have heard of the U-bass; and a few of these non-bassists have purchased one for themselves or plan to. A bassist-friend lent me his sprucetop fretless, which is part of the cause of my GAS-attack; I definitely want a fretless, prefer to get a solid body for ease of transport and damage resistance (hopefully more so than the hollow-bodies). Never had a 5-string, so would like to try it before I buy it.

Taipei certainly seemed devoid of anything to do with U-bass; I'll keep the Megathread posted on any developments in that respect as I usually get to Taipei a few times per year.
 
#419
Getting back to the discussion about putting poehoes on longer scale instruments, I have posted on here about 12 months ago showing my classical guitar (25 or 26 scale) strung with a 5 string set of poehoes. It works fine. In a few weeks I'll be re-working it to test out a new headstock/tuner idea and experimenting with piezo placement. Yes it does sound quite fine.
 
#420
LaBella white tape wounds vs Pyramid black tape wounds.
Hopefully you can hear the difference, the LaBellas seem brighter, with more twangy overtones.

On my fretted U-Bass, both types are a failure due to intonation problems.
My bass has a custom nut and low action for Pyramid silk core round wound strings.
The intonation is accurate with them.

The steel core construction of both brands appears to change the way the strings "speak" as they come across the saddle pickup, making them play horribly sharp, +50 cents at the 12th fret.

So no good on a fretted, but maybe ok on fretless.
I'm moving them next to my fretted Cali solidbody that I modified with a moveable bridge to see if I can get them to play in tune.
More to come...




 

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