New Solid Body Kala U-Bass 4 string 5 String

[UkueBass23]

Anyone played one of these? They came out last fall (2023), maybe September? Online reviews are very positive. Bass seems solid and well made. Looking at a 4 string vs. 5 string option to see how that fifth string sounds, as on the short scales the low B has a tendency to be nice and "rumbly" but not terribly functional up the nexk due to the slackness of the string itself.
Thoughts? experience with these? Link below. (not an ad for this, just looking for more info).

Solid Body U•BASS® – Kala Brand Music Co.™

Pulling inspiration from the original California Series U•BASS®, this innovative short-scale bass is a whole new take on the U•BASS®. Kala’s Solid Body U•BASS® features a sleek off-set body shape which is contoured for balance and comfort. The 22 frets and 23.5" scale give you plenty of room to...

kalabrand.com

 

[therealsimon]

Hey!

I was at NAMM this January and tried all the models, they're solid! I tried the fretted and fretless options, both are very well made, choose your preference. In terms of the B string on the 5 string, I found it fairly playable and the tone was fine. The tone on both 4 and 5 string, fretted and fretless is shocking considering the scale, (yes, the U-BASS still blows me away after playing it for a couple of years.)

Overall would recommend, I loved them. Let me know if you have any more specific questions.

Simon

 

[UkerDanno]

This guy...

 

[Jim Hanks]

Hey!

I was at NAMM this January and tried all the models, they're solid! I tried the fretted and fretless options, both are very well made, choose your preference. In terms of the B string on the 5 string, I found it fairly playable and the tone was fine. The tone on both 4 and 5 string, fretted and fretless is shocking considering the scale, (yes, the U-BASS still blows me away after playing it for a couple of years.)

Overall would recommend, I loved them. Let me know if you have any more specific questions.

Simon

I was curious about the difference in pickups between the 4 (split coil) and 5 (humbucker) string configurations.

I'm kinda holding out for the flatwound 5 string but unsure about fretted/fretless. My other two (Kala Cali and MF Timber) are fretless since there is no bridge adjustment, but I might try fretted since these are adjustable

 

[hands_on_lanzon]

I started to fall for this thing after seeing Ukulenny bring his around and hearing it in person a few weeks ago. Then seeing the NAMM hubbub, getting a Best In Show award and watching a few YT reviews. The final push was the fact that the pink model isn't even available on the Kala site and I found only ONE online anywhere, so I had to grab it.

It shipped fast and I got home to it yesterday and I'm already having a lot of fun messing with it. I did realize that mine might be a different pink than what's supposed to release soon and mine has a white pick guard while the new model will have a black one. I'm not sure if I got some strange anomaly, but I kinda dig it that's it's a bit different.

I don't have much experience with basses, but I'm excited to learn and start getting it into my recordings soon.

It's a keeper!

 

[rlgph]

I gather the fifth string is a low B. Is it likely to be feasible to string it with strings 2-5 standard bass (EADG) and put a higher pitch string at 1?

 

[Jim Hanks]

I gather the fifth string is a low B. Is it likely to be feasible to string it with strings 2-5 standard bass (EADG) and put a higher pitch string at 1?

Good question for Kala. i imagine the nut would be the biggest issue. That B string is gonna have to be PHAT so all the nut slots would be very wide for an EADGC set up. And then you'd have to find a high C string. I'm imagining an electric guitar string of the proper gauge could be found?

 

[UkerDanno]

Good question for Kala. i imagine the nut would be the biggest issue. That B string is gonna have to be PHAT so all the nut slots would be very wide for an EADGC set up. And then you'd have to find a high C string. I'm imagining an electric guitar string of the proper gauge could be found?

Not really that fat, finding a good C string might be tricky.

 

[rlgph]

I've been intrigued by 5-string basses, but with a high extra string rather than a low B string, so when i saw a brand new 5-string Kala solid body from Alto Music at the price of the 4-string, i jumped on it. It arrived yesterday, and i immediately removed the low B string and shifted the other four strings up. (I had to keep the G string on the first post since it wasn't long enough to go to 2nd post.) I didn't have a nickel wrapped string for the high B/C string, so i used an extra phosphor bronze (0.036") acoustic string for it just to see if i could string it on the Kala bass. Although in the first string position, it had to wrap the vacant 2nd string post, and so had to cross over the G string on the head side of the nut.

It worked! The phosphor bronze acoustic string has a different tone than the nickel wrapped strings, of course, but one can buy an individual nickel wrapped steel electric guitar string whose tone should match the 4 Kala strings pretty well.

At this point i'm thinking that one could alternatively get a set of Bass VI strings and use strings 2-6 on the Kala. (The gauges are a good match to the corresponding Kala strings so tension should be okay.).

Or, if you prefer a baritone range (ADGCF or ADGBE for a guitar tuning) you could use strings 1-5 of the Bass VI set.

I'll wait to see if this suits my taste long term before i think about replacing the nut. My next step is to adjust the saddles to optimize the intonation.