The New USA Made Kala UBass

The Ubass is to the electric bass, what the electric bass is to the upright bass. It covers the same frequencies, same tuning, but a very different instrument. A much easier instrument, physically. And unique with it’s voice and abilities.I was on Kala’s website the other day and saw a video of the Paul Simon band playing on the late night show. Baghiti Khumalo plays his Kala UBass and sounds perfect, with a deep and tight tone that smokes electric basses, in a way. It’s just different, but certainly a professional quality instrument if put in the right hands. So now Kala has just released their California made solid body version of this extremely short scale bass. I am not in the same league as Baghiti Khumalo, I could only dream!! But I sampled a new 5 string for you to check out the tone. Their are many tones you can get from this bass but I dialed it the way I liked. And it was fun!The new solid body UBass differs from the acoustic in a few ways. The pickup is powered by a Mi-Si active Align preamp. This is run by a rechargeable battery that charges by plugging into the jack with the Mi-Si charger that plugs into the wall. One minute plugged in gives you 8 hours of preamp life. That is a pretty large window to not worry about. Certainly good enough for any gig. This gives an extra power punch with your EQ system, which is another difference with the solid body version. They made the solid body 1″ longer in length, 21″ instead of the 20″ scale on the acoustic. I am thinking they liked the punchiness of a little longer scale and took advantage of the fact that their is no structural risk in a higher tension on the solid body. The acoustic side of the regular UBass is kind of soft anyway. It is something that needs to be plugged in to really be appreciated. So why not just go with a solid body and eliminate feedback issues? Well that is exactly what Kala has been working on and soon they will have an imported more affordable solid body UBass as well.

This one barely made the cut for theUkuleleReview because let’s face it. It’s a bass. But it has an appeal to ukers alike because it is the size of a baritone uke! A lot of you that would not even consider buying a big electric bass are thinking, hmmm, it does look fun to play. And I can honestly tell you, it is super easy to press down on these strings. Considering you just play single notes in a rhythm, I would say we have a new easiest to play instrument. No chords necessary! Just get one of these and start groovin’. It’s never been easier!