Bass instruments

Comment

Comment by David West on March 29, 2010 at 12:24am

The strings for the Kala Ubass are very stretchy Urathane. They are expensive, but sound great, and at a 20" scale make the true double bass notes. Look up the UBass on youtube. I want one, but the $500 price tag has me making my own.

Comment by Yellowbelly Flatt on March 28, 2010 at 5:00pm

Well,to be honest I can get aN E as in the low E on a regular guitar. It is the bass amp that makes it sound lower. I've not reallt played it much yet as the strings need to stretch a bit ad the guitar, being newly made, needs to settle. With the short scale - 50cm (20 inches) - it's difficult to tune as the strings from Newtone - although much thicker than conventional acoustic guitar strings - are made to be slacker than conventional strings.
I am currently working on a 104cm (41 inch) scale upright string bass using strimmer lines for the strings. I tried out the electrics today - a £1.50 piezo disc - with a 1.3 string tuned to a top string bass G and -through the bass amp - it sounds good. The strimmer line didn't really stretch and at 99p for 50 yards seems good value for money. I might try some American 'Weedwacker' strings at some time.

Comment by David West on March 28, 2010 at 4:21pm

I approve. I am currently working on two basses. I have the urathane strings from the Kala U-bass. How deep a note are you able to get from the metal strings and the short scale?
I will be using a 25.5 inch guitar scale, but will get the low octive notes of an upright bass with the urathane stretchy strings.
Hope it sounds good.
Dave