The Bass That Shouldn’t Be

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Don’t you love when someone revisits a weird idea from the past — and makes it even weirder?

I got a new bass last week, right before I left for the NAMM show. I finally had a chance to try it out yesterday. I think I’m in love. View the incriminating evidence in this brief video:

Usually I’d rather scoop the catbox than play through a piezo pickup. Yet I dig the way the piezo’s stringy/slappy highs helps bass lines slice through a mix. You can hear the line loud and clear, even when I slather on the loud guitars.

Kala makes several U-Bass models — this is the fancy mahogany one. It lists for around $600 US, and sells cheaper.

Comments

10 responses to “The Bass That Shouldn’t Be”

January 27, 2012

daren burns

Joe, this makes me happy:)

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January 27, 2012

corey smith

groovy!

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January 27, 2012

darren wilson

I’m not sure if this qualifies as weirder than the Ashbory. 😉 But definitely cool. I saw the solid body versions of these at NAMM, and i’m very tempted to pick one up.

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January 27, 2012

Bob White

I think it sounds great! I saw a Ash Solidbody bass Uke at the Kala booth at NAMM, It had a natural finish, Black Hardware and 3 knobs it was Sweet!!! I was so impressed I even took a pic of it!

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January 29, 2012

Steven Brenner

Wow…
I played your video 3 times in a row. Definitely cool.

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1. January 29, 2012
  
  joe
  
  Shucks! I was just having fun with my silly but cool new bass. 🙂
  
  Reply
January 30, 2012

Matthew W Seniff

Very cool tune. I have a reissue Ashbory that I love to death, I intend to get the Kala style strings to replace the standard Ashbory sili-rubber strings for my next string replacement ( I have read it is quite an improvement). Is the Kala you have fretless like the Ashbory? I prefer fretless but I have a friend that thinks he would like one if they were fretted (which I am not even sure would work with the rubber strings). Thanks for the great demo.

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1. January 30, 2012
  
  joe
  
  Thanks for the kind words, Matthew. No, my Kala is fretted. I wouldn’t have dared post any examples of my inept fretless playing! 😉
  
  Reply
  1. January 30, 2012
    
    Matthew W Seniff
    
    Well my friend will be glad to hear that the fretted ones work so well. I think a real short scale is the easiest fret-less bass to play (like an Ashbory), just seems easier to find the note to me (but I play slide 95% of the time so YMMV). Maybe there is just less bass to obsess over.
    
    Reply
January 31, 2012

Scott

I think this might be the same bass that Paul Simon’s bass player uses. He plays something similar at least, at he gets amazing tone from it!

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