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Kala UBass Megathread, Part 7

#981
The kala strings are less than half the price of the pyramids, so although still somewhat expensive aren't priced like they're made from rare material carried by the Gods down from Olympus....

You may not have to do anything though, I found that I had to lower the bridge from where it was with the rubber strings.
 
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#982
I never did get to play the Pyramids, I broke them as soon as I put them on. I'm not having any overt problems with the Kala strings, buzzing only happens when I don't use good technique, especially switching from fretted to fretless. When I first tested them, I thought the string noise would be a deterrent, but when I went to rehearsal, it was fine.
 
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#986
The roundwounds are in and installed. They're good, and obviously very different sounding. I had them on my hadean and they were good there too, but the 5 string set is made for the longer scale. The B is very focused, although on the open b I do hear a little haze, I still have to tweak the string retainer. The only thing that doesn't work too well is that I can't get the bridge low enough now. So, either I shim the neck, get a new saddle and have it sanded lower so I can swap them if I need to put pahoehoes back on, or try to get the fender style bridge working.

I do notice that the intonation up the e string is not good, the notes, even at the second and third fret, are all slightly flat. Not sure if it's the string, the action, the nut, or something else. I think the ladies are more forgiving because I could play a 10th with a g and b (3rd fret e strung, 4th fret g string) with them but now it sounds really out. Intonation up above the 12th fret in other strings is still slightly sharp, an adjustable bridge design is going to be a must down the line.

I'm going to try to do a video of them in the next day or two, but can't do it tonight.
 
#987
Apparently Kala no longer makes the US made solid body California Ubass. I guess after this season I'll get the stupid electronics swapped out. 80 hours? more like 8. Nothing like having to say "wait I've got to charge my bass". Plus KALA refused to solder the cable to the board, instead, creating a poorly grounded plug. I had one person fix the hum but he was only able to reduce it 90 percent.
 
#988
SassyHardwrench said:
Apparently Kala no longer makes the US made solid body California Ubass. I guess after this season I'll get the stupid electronics swapped out. 80 hours? more like 8. Nothing like having to say "wait I've got to charge my bass". Plus KALA refused to solder the cable to the board, instead, creating a poorly grounded plug. I had one person fix the hum but he was only able to reduce it 90 percent.
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Hmm, interesting. So you still have the old preamp with the capacitor. I think they always said 8 hours, not 80. That sucks that it didn't work well for you. The lr baggs electronics are really good though, so if you decided to swap them it takes about 5 minutes and only requires a screwdriver and a wrench. If I can do it in 5 minutes, then everyone else could do it in 2!

But I guess they weren't selling. I love mine, although the more I use it the more I see some interesting things in the design (i won't call them flaws, but they're interesting). I replaced my bridge with a fender style bridge this week, and now the higher notes are in tune, but the notes on the E string, as I mentioned in my other post, are still flat. I don't know if it's a setup thing or what.
 
#989
mrufino1 said:
Hmm, interesting. So you still have the old preamp with the capacitor. I think they always said 8 hours, not 80. That sucks that it didn't work well for you. The lr baggs electronics are really good though, so if you decided to swap them it takes about 5 minutes and only requires a screwdriver and a wrench. If I can do it in 5 minutes, then everyone else could do it in 2!

But I guess they weren't selling. I love mine, although the more I use it the more I see some interesting things in the design (i won't call them flaws, but they're interesting). I replaced my bridge with a fender style bridge this week, and now the higher notes are in tune, but the notes on the E string, as I mentioned in my other post, are still flat. I don't know if it's a setup thing or what.
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I got the utube video for the swap out. Maybe I'll just do it myself. Thank you. The bass is a keeper. I was interested in the longer scale 5 string Now I may get a gold tone.
 

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#990
Wow, that steampunk pick guard looks amazing! I may need to do something like that with all of the holes I've drilled in my bass...

They have the california 5 string bodies and necks (fretless only for 5) on their site, maybe it's time to stock up...
 
#991
mrufino1 said:
Wow, that steampunk pick guard looks amazing! I may need to do something like that with all of the holes I've drilled in my bass...

They have the california 5 string bodies and necks (fretless only for 5) on their site, maybe it's time to stock up...
Click to expand...
I may go with a Gold Tone solid body 4 string. Some of the gears work. The rest were airbrushed by my friend. The original design was going to be a parrot.
 
#993
mrufino1 said:
Hmm, interesting. So you still have the old preamp with the capacitor. I think they always said 8 hours, not 80. That sucks that it didn't work well for you. The lr baggs electronics are really good though, so if you decided to swap them it takes about 5 minutes and only requires a screwdriver and a wrench. If I can do it in 5 minutes, then everyone else could do it in 2!

But I guess they weren't selling. I love mine, although the more I use it the more I see some interesting things in the design (i won't call them flaws, but they're interesting). I replaced my bridge with a fender style bridge this week, and now the higher notes are in tune, but the notes on the E string, as I mentioned in my other post, are still flat. I don't know if it's a setup thing or what.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your encouragement. I swapped the pickup out while watching TV. It was that easy. No more buzz, much better sound. My low F is much punchier. No more looking at the second hand of my watch trying not to overcharge it. I also knew that someday the charger would fail. Plus the 6 feet of thin wire and the instructions to make my own charger from a 9v battery also did not lend confidence to the arrangement. This bass was so poorly constructed, The fretless frets were raised above the fingerboard, and the crappy KALA decal was buckled where it had been sloppily applied. Essentially it was a 1200 dollar bass kit made with a band saw. There is much better workmanship in the mahogany ones made in China. I guess KALA didn't want to pay for skilled Americans so they got some day laborers that were hanging around Home Depot. OTOH, It is my main axe. NOW it's great. Kala should refund everyone who bought one $1,000 since it is basically a $250 instrument. There is also a horror story when a Repair guy tried to get help from KALA for my bass. after that he said he would never sell their line of Ukes. i just ordered a hard shell case for it.
 
#994
That may have something to do with why the California series is not being made anymore (to the best of my knowledge, it appears that way). Sorry you've had issues with them. I think I've tweaked mine to the point where I'm happy with it now too. They still sell the kits (well, the pieces at least), having a good luthier you trust put one together might be a good idea if anyone is in the market while the pieces are still for sale.

That charger could certainly be an issue down the road, although to make one just might be a matter of taking the right wall wart and replacing the plug with a 1/4" Jack. The battery-less preamp sounds like a good idea in theory but I can definitely see the future proofing fear with it.

Glad you got yours working though! I can't go back to a 34" scale ever.
 
#995
I kind of liked the idea of no battery! I had a gentlemen I contacted on here come to Florida to see his mom and we met up so I could check out the Ubass for the 1st time. He had a acoustic and a California solidbody. The soildbody preamp was dead so he plugged in a guitar cable into the output jack and held a 9 volt battery on the other jack for a minute or so and it charged it up at least long enough to play it and see how it sounded! What a great community we have here on Talkbass! People you don't know coming together from everywhere to help one another, even meeting up to check out others instruments!
 
#997
Never tried one. But after putting a bridge on that can intonate , I can't go back to the wooden bridge that doesnt. I'm still trying to work out how to build our have built (more likely) a wooden bridge that can intonate. I like the sound of the wood bridge but if it's totally out of tune it's hard to play on gigs. Obviously fretless is a different story.
 
#1,000
Temcat said:
I wonder if an adjustable Graphtech bridge can be fitted to a UBass. (I understand that they are originaly meant for metal strings that may produce a stronger signal.)
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That's been on my mind for a while. If anyone has one of the cheaper Chinese copies of that bridge that were on eBay at one time I'd love to try it as proof of concept. I'm thinking about having a bass built with the 5 string uke scale length but with a truss rod so metal strings could be used also, and having magnetic and piezo. The ability to use the rubber strings when you want that sound would be cool as well. Anyway, I feel like the solid body uke bass concept is coming to a crossroads and some new developments are bound to happen.
 

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