NBUD (new bass uke day), two as a matter of fact.

KohanMike

Los Angeles, Beverly Grove West
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I had just finished modifying another Ronda Hadean solid body 24" scale bass uke yesterday when today I unexpectedly received the parts for another one I was sitting on.

The blue one was a last minute decision to add all the gold hardware and also gold scroll fret marker stickers, and even matched them on the leather strap. I'll eventually have the headplate redone to match the body color.

The Olympic white with tortoise pickguard came back last week from being painted and having the pickguard made. I was waiting for chrome hardware to arrive that I thought would take another couple of weeks, but it came yesterday.

Rondo blue & gold 800.jpg

Rondo Olympic & Tortoise 800.jpg
 
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Those look really great Mike! :)

What strings to you have on the Olympic white model?

Are they steel wound strings or are they the La Bella Timber bass strings from Magic Fluke?

Thanks for sharing :music:
 
Awesome ! I love the blue one. What scale length are they ? I'd like to find a solid body fretless that has at least a 23" scale.
 
Those are nice, Mike...don't think anyone has UBAS as bad as you! :shaka:
 
Those look really great Mike! :) What strings to you have on the Olympic white model? Are they steel wound strings or are they the La Bella Timber bass strings from Magic Fluke? Thanks for sharing :music:

They're LaBella flatwound Deep Talkin' 25" that are specially commissioned by Gold Tone for their M-bass solid body 25" scale and seem to be only available on their web site, https://goldtonemusicgroup.com/goldtone/products/mbls. I'm using them on all my mini bass guitars with magnetic pickups, this is the first piezo under saddle I've used them for and they sound really good, and I love the smoothness.

Awesome! I love the blue one. What scale length are they? I'd like to find a solid body fretless that has at least a 23" scale.

The Rondo Hdean UKBE 22-33 fretted are 24" scale, though on the web site it shows 23" scale.

Those are nice, Mike...don't think anyone has UBAS as bad as you! :shaka:

And proud of it.
 
They're LaBella flatwound Deep Talkin' 25" that are specially commissioned by Gold Tone for their M-bass solid body 25" scale and seem to be only available on their web site, https://goldtonemusicgroup.com/goldtone/products/mbls. I'm using them on all my mini bass guitars with magnetic pickups, this is the first piezo under saddle I've used them for and they sound really good, and I love the smoothness....

Thanks for the info Mike. The link is helpful too :) I will have to try a set of these. It's good to see a few more string options for bass ukes, aside from the rubbery strings.

Had I not just ordered a set of these Luna bass uke strings shown below, which are stainless flatwound as well, but an octave up (piccolo bass range, or lower four of a normal guitar tuning), I would have those La Bella's on the way to me...(I will keep the La Bella's in mind for the next order)



http://www.lunaguitars.com/query?upc=814064026384
 
I'm kind of surprised you don't have one of the Luna U-basses, Mike! A guy had one at a jam I was at about a year ago, it was cool! The strings were interesting, I just wasn't sure about the octave higher thing, could have a purpose. I just like the sound and feel of the rubbery Pahoehoes...:shaka:
 
... one of the Luna U-basses...the octave higher thing...

IMHO, the octave up is useful for when making recordings that most folks will listen to on TINY speakers of a laptop, tablet or cell phone (and without headphones) as these very small speakers are physically incapable of reproducing the lower frequencies.

The bass in the normal octave just gets swallowed up by the deficits in the playback system and not even heard at all.

For me, when recording bass, I will usually double (duplicate) the recorded audio track and on the second track use a pitch shifter effect an OCTAVE UP, and pan the original 15% left and the octave 15% right and at least this way, the BASS is still heard regardless of the equipment.

An example of this bass-recording-style can be heard in my video for last week's Seasons of the Ukulele contest here:


https://youtu.be/zPScZeAwGto

However, I have found that pitch tracking sounds MORE realistic when the source is higher frequency and the altered-clone is lower frequency.

So it is my intent to test this process with recording and see how it goes.

I write and record a lot of my own music, which will be released eventually, and I need to make sure that it can be actually heard, otherwise it's all just self-gyration and futile. :)
 
I'm kind of surprised you don't have one of the Luna U-basses, Mike! A guy had one at a jam I was at about a year ago, it was cool! The strings were interesting, I just wasn't sure about the octave higher thing, could have a purpose. I just like the sound and feel of the rubbery Pahoehoes...:shaka:

I looked at it, but the higher octave did not interest me, I like a bass to have a bass register, even if it's a little bass uke or mini bass guitar. After having put together so many, I really don't get how people can use those long 30, 32, 34 inch scale basses.

In additional my new ones above, I saw a post on the Talk Bass forum last night about a Pignose PGB-200 short scale bass (30") with built in Pignose amp and speaker. Too long for me, but they also have a 3/4 guitar 24" scale with built in amp/speaker and I immediately decided I'm going to convert it to a bass. I was up until almost 3 am last night, even did a mockup. I'm planning to use it for the UCLA/Mattel Children's Hospital gigs instead of my bass uke and Fly 3 bass amp rig since the Pignose will that much more convenient, if it reproduces the bass well enough at low volume.

PigNose bass conv 800.jpg
 
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