I have a Fender Mustang that I’m loving. But I recently saw Josh Weinstein of Kat Wright’s band playing a U-bass during an acoustic set. It looked great and I already play the uke. Peoples thoughts? Brands? I think he has a Kala.
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The acoustic/electric Kala U-Bass is great (especially with acoustic bands) - but will still need amplification to be heard. It sounds nice, travels well, and my only complaint is the boxy edge is uncomfortable against my forearm after a while. I definitely recommend it.
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At the open mic we went to, there is a regular who gets up on stage with the band and plays his U-Bass.
He just seems to play roots and fifths but it is amped and you can hear it- sounds good too. (and looks cool)
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i hated the old solid body which was a mega expensive POS ripoff. the new solid body, however, is excellent and well worth it. i would steer well clear of any solid body ubass with a piezo pickup no matter what brand it is, I’ve tried a bunch of cheapo brands and they all had problems (and that is no knock on professional modern piezos fitted to real bridges).
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I currently have the Kala solid body and it’s great.
I also had the hollow body. It sounds good but not as comfortable sitting on the deck / camping, so I sold it.
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Ubass is awesome. Can’t be played without any amp though. The acoustic Ubass would sound like an upright very nice and boomy. Too many kinds of strings to explore. I like the ThunderGut they are very punchy.
The solid body like the one @Barney video is very cool. The stock strings have this warm overtone typical of the super short scale bass with almost standard strings. For some extra cash you can get a special set of string that would make the bass sounds like a normal full size bass.
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they are fun as heck (I have 2) but they are more a novelty than a daily thing.
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Honestly, I’m sure they’re good instruments but when I see someone playing one it reminds me of Homer on the small bike
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This is in fact exactly the feeling I’m looking for when playing bass - any bass 
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It’s probably because @JerryP and I don’t need to over compensate cough Thunderbird cough 
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I betcha you even played this in Hawaii, 
That sounds so good with this song. I’ll add a little bit of example here too. This is with the Stock Pahoehoe strings they are much easier to live with than their early version.
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Lol definitely something to think about for the double bass players out there 
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I’m a suspect source of information since I’ve done work with Kala before, but I only worked with them because they were great people, I love their U-basses annnd… they’re 2 miles from my house.
But thumbs up from me.
Though, I prefer the metal strings to the dark rubbery ones.
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I have a Kala Journeyman and like the sound very much. The sound is more rounder and comes close to a double bass. The punch from this little one felt more than from my long-scale. I’ve tried different strings, but ended on Flats from Gallistrings, wich are hart to get and not a bargain. My recommendation is not to use rounds or rubber-strings becouse rounds sound awfull and rubber-ones you have to tune all 5 minutes. Playing is quite unusual because there is no pickup to rest on, the frets are very small and you have to pluck way more gentle. I discovered for me, that the uke-bass-sound don’t fit to much songs.
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Chiming in since I have both a Mustang bass and the Kala Journeyman (like the one in the pics from @110010 and @Whying_Dutchman). Mine has metal roundwound strings. I think my next set will be flats.
I pretty much only use the U-Bass for bluegrass. It has the right look, I mostly play sitting down in jams, and most importantly I’m generally playing just roots and fifths on the first seven frets. With only 12 frets to the body you have limited real estate. I also find the intonation is kind of funky on the higher frets.
On the plus side, it’s compact so I’m not whacking the mandolin player in the head and the double bass tone is exactly what you want for bluegrass.
I started with the U-Bass and then got a Mustang once I realized I wanted to play bass outside that narrow niche.
Hope this helps @MelissaJ !
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