#16
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Another fan of the Kala U-bass. Acoustic version. Great tone, just have to get used to the very short scale and the funky strings. Amazingly full bass tone.
For a full sized option in your price range, try to hunt down a used Guild. They are quite big, but sound and play great. |
#17
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Update.
I ended up buying Ibanez PNB14E, a short scale acoustic bass which uses the same strings as Taylor GS mini bass. It's much cheaper but still comfortable to play (especially for guitarists like me) and it sounds really good. Here is my sound demo of this guitar (mic signal first and then the pickup): |
#18
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Great video. This helped seal the deal for me. Was able to finally sell a six-stringer to finance the purchase. It's on order and I should receive it within a week or so.
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Furch Little Jane Limited 2020 LJ-LC (Czech Rep.) Alpine/Cocobolo Furch Little Jane LJ 10-SR (Czech Rep.) Sitka/EIR Hex Sting P300 (Indonesia) Sitka/Lam.Sapele |
#19
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After auditioning the PNB14E for about 3 weeks, I ended up returning it. Its amplified tone was too metallic for my taste, the pickup was very unbalanced (EG strings too quiet, AD strings too loud), and I found that I prefer the sound and playability of the bass ukulele.
Speaking of which, I also auditioned a Hadean. While I like how it sounds and plays, it suffers from a number of quality problems (e.g. fret buzz, poor pickup grounding, nearly impossible access to battery compartment, general "cheapness" in fit and finish, etc.) It's also being returned, and I did what I should have done in the first place - get a Kala U-bass. Here's another week of waiting.
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Furch Little Jane Limited 2020 LJ-LC (Czech Rep.) Alpine/Cocobolo Furch Little Jane LJ 10-SR (Czech Rep.) Sitka/EIR Hex Sting P300 (Indonesia) Sitka/Lam.Sapele |
#20
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Hopefully the U-bass will work out for you. But I couldn't get used to the rubber strings on my U-bass. |
#21
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I guess I took to the rubbery strings fine, perhaps because I don't have prior experience with bass guitars and hadn't developed any preferences/biases. I'm cautiously optimistic that the Kala will be of a much higher quality than the Hadean. Sometimes you get what you pay for, and the $129 price on the Hadean was too good to be true.
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Furch Little Jane Limited 2020 LJ-LC (Czech Rep.) Alpine/Cocobolo Furch Little Jane LJ 10-SR (Czech Rep.) Sitka/EIR Hex Sting P300 (Indonesia) Sitka/Lam.Sapele |
#22
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Another fan here of the Kala, those rubbery strings really sound like a double bass when amped.
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#23
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Anyone serious about acoustic bass should check this out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3S9XkqMrASY |
#24
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Well, the U-Bass (Passenger) didn't cut the mustard, either. This one had some seriously badly stripped screws on the gears of the tuning machines, and one of them (the E string) just fell off when the string was loosened. It was horrible quality control, something I didn't expect from Kala. So that one just got shipped back for a refund. I'm so far 0-for-2 in ordering a bass ukulele from Reverb. It appears that the lower-end Kala U-basses aren't any better than the cheaper models elsewhere. In fact, they all kind of look very similar, which tells me that they might be made from the same low-cost factory in China. I probably need to go north of $300 for a decent-quality U-bass, but I'm going to hold off for now. Because...
Interestingly enough, I stopped by a Sam Ash on Labor Day, and came across this ultra-low-cost model. And surprisingly, this was of much higher quality than the Hadean and the Kala that I just sent back. No fret buzz, no badly stripped tuning machines, just very easy to play. This one doesn't have a back access or dot markers on the side of the neck, but for less than $100, I could live with it. (My left hand actually fits through the soundhole, so I can change strings without huge difficulty.) Also, the intonation at the higher frets is a bit of an issue, but I understand that it's an inherent problem for bass ukuleles with rubber/plastic strings. So I guess I'll keep this around, at least as a backup. And maybe in a few weeks I might get a higher-priced (and hopefully higher-quality) one, almost certainly locally. I got burned by two bad ones from Reverb already.
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Furch Little Jane Limited 2020 LJ-LC (Czech Rep.) Alpine/Cocobolo Furch Little Jane LJ 10-SR (Czech Rep.) Sitka/EIR Hex Sting P300 (Indonesia) Sitka/Lam.Sapele |
#25
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Quote:
Quote:
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/det...twound-strings - one of these: https://www.sweetwater.com/store/det...with-scrambler - a set of these: http://www.juststrings.com/lab-760nhbb.html - and, speaking as a former owner of two (Guild) acoustic basses, if you can't get a good amplified-acoustic sound with this combination you're not really trying...
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"Mistaking silence for weakness and contempt for fear is the final, fatal error of a fool" - Sicilian proverb (paraphrased) |
#26
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Hah! Sir Paul comes to mind with that bass.
I hadn't been thinking of this one, but will give it some thought. Cheers.
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Furch Little Jane Limited 2020 LJ-LC (Czech Rep.) Alpine/Cocobolo Furch Little Jane LJ 10-SR (Czech Rep.) Sitka/EIR Hex Sting P300 (Indonesia) Sitka/Lam.Sapele |
#27
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My husband has the Taylor and is very happy with it. Nice size, not dinky and ukelike nor giant and mariachilike. He had a ubass and did not care for the rubbery strings. He said they just didnt feel right after years of playing a conventional electric bass. The Taylor is surpringly loud considering its size and he and I can play together and my guitar does not drown him out. In a group, you’d obviously need to plug in.
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#28
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Pickup Problems
I just bought an Ibanez PNB14 acoustic bass. It's fun to play and sounds great, but now the G-string doesn't get picked up hardly at all. I need to fix it. Any advice on how to do that?
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#29
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Since Taylor released the GS Mini bass a few other manufacturers are using the same design and the same strings. Taylor is a responsible company and they aren't going to leave anyone high and dry without a source of strings to put on A GS Mini bass. So many times you see folks who wish to save money but end up not being totally happy with their purchase. My Taylor purchases have always been good experiences and they will ALWAYS hold a substantial amount of their original value at re-sale time. |
#30
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But I had some similar issues with the LR Baggs Element pickup and managed to get it fixed. You can try to remove the saddle and the pickup and reposition the latter. I had to place a thin piece of paper under the saddle and pickup where the high E string is (it was on a Gibson J-15) and now the output is perfectly balanced. |