haole
Well-known member
Got my mom the spruce-top U-Bass for her birthday. We've both spent a lot of time playing it over the past week and a half, so I think a review is in order. 
We have the spruce top model (with frets), which was purchased from MGM on eBay for $399. The spruce top U-Bass is the least expensive in the line, with an all-solid-mahogany selling for about $499 and an all-solid-acacia for $599. Since the instrument is meant to be plugged in, I can't imagine the more expensive models sound significantly different.
The spruce top model has mahogany laminate back/sides, a mahogany neck, a (wide) rosewood fretboard, and a gigantic rosewood bridge. As you can see from the picture, it has a nice, clean look. It has 6-layer black-and-white binding around the body, and a matching rosette. Both seem to be installed uniformly and look fine. The geared tuners are similar to bass guitar tuners, but with a big slot to make room for the massive strings. The tuners work well, and anyone familiar with friction pegs will appreciate how hard it is to knock the U-Bass out of tune once the strings settle. It has a Shadow bass pickup with individual piezo crystals for each string.
My favorite cosmetic touch on this uke is the sweet abalone Road Toad logo on the headstock, which refers to the inventor of the bass ukulele, Owen Holt of Road Toad Ukuleles. The Kala logo is actually pretty neat, too. There's a dark mahogany veneer over a lighter one on the headstock, and the Kala logo is laser-cut out of the dark layer so it shows up in a lighter wood. The satin finish over it is a little cloudy, but the logo is still a much nicer touch than a simple decal.
Cosmetically there are a few issues, but they don't affect the sound or playability at all. Ours came with some black paint flecks between the rosette and the soundhole (about the size of a grain of sand each), which aren't a big deal. The soundhole is a little rough around the edges, and the bridge could have used a better sanding around the edges before it was glued on. There's a tiny bit of glue visible where the bass side of the fretboard meets the body, and on the bottom of the bridge.
My biggest cosmetic (and perhaps functional) complaint is the wooden cover on the back of the uke, which pops off to reveal the electronics and the entry point of the strings. The manufacturer could have done a better job matching it to the woodgrain on the back of the instrument; on our U-Bass, it's not even close. The inside is finished sloppily, with rough edges and a little too much glue. It's held on by some magnets, and it's a miracle that it hasn't fallen off and gotten lost in our household yet. I plan on figuring out a better way to make it stay on there. Luckily, the strings are still pretty easy to access. (I haven't changed the strings yet, but when I do, the multicolored Dreads are going on here for sure!) One would expect better fit and finish on a $400 instrument, but it's forgivable since the positives of this instrument vastly outweigh the negatives.
The easy playability is the U-Bass's best selling point. It's one of the smallest playable basses out there, and it feels great. It's a baritone uke body with a 21" scale, making it a little bigger than a tenor uke but still significantly smaller than an acoustic guitar. It's very light and balanced quite well. My mom used to play a Gibson Thunderbird bass in her band days, but due to some nerve damage she finds it difficult to play bass guitar now. She finds the U-Bass very comfortable to play, even for long periods of time. After playing my Fender Jazz bass for several years, I also find the U-Bass really refreshing to play. The fretboard is actually wider than that of a full-scale bass guitar, but that's to make room for the enormous strings.
The U-Bass comes equipped with Owen Holt's proprietary Pahoehoe strings, which are a very thick, rubbery polyurethane. I'm guessing they needed to be this thick in order to make them tunable to a decent tension while they're tuned to such low notes. They feel pretty strange at first, but they don't dig into your fingers and hurt the way bass guitar strings (or even uke strings) usually do after a few hours of playing. It's pretty easy to adjust to the strange feel and low tension of the strings. My mom and I both found it a little tricky, however, to play in tune. The intonation at the 12th fret is almost spot-on, so that's not the issue. But the tiny metal frets are no match for these beastly strings! You barely even notice the frets at all, so it's easy to play too close to them (or right on them), so your notes will come out too sharp. It almost feels like a fretless, so it will take a bit of practice in order to find out exactly where the note is. You'll want to finger the notes between the frets, as opposed to right up against the frets. This is really not as bad as it sounds; overall it's very user-friendly for any size hands, if you're willing to take a few minutes to understand its quirks.
The other big attraction here is how good the U-Bass sounds plugged into a good amp! Unplugged, it has a pleasant woody tone like an upright bass, but it's really quiet. Played through a small practice amp (like my Crate BX-15), it lacks bottom end and sounds just okay, but that's to be expected from a $100 amp with a tiny 8" speaker. When we ran it through our Hartke Kickback 15 (120 watts with an enormous 15" speaker), however, it blew us away. It sounds almost exactly like an upright, and really delivers the low-end kick that even a lot of bass guitars simply can't achieve. The pickup seems to be fine for this purpose, and lets the true sound of the U-bass shine through. Even with the trebles cranked to the max, it doesn't have the funky pop of a solidbody bass guitar, but that's not what the U-Bass was really meant for. The deep, earthy tone lends itself more to grooves than soloing and shredding. Another interesting note: if you tap directly on the bridge saddle that houses the piezo crystals, you get a huge low-end thump not unlike a kick drum. It's fun for percussion!
So you'll still need a pretty good bass amp in order to enjoy the U-Bass to its fullest, which makes it a little less portable overall. Still, it's a lot easier than lugging around an upright or an electric. I hope to run it through a few more amps of various sizes and see if there's anything relatively small that still captures the sound well.
Overall, my mom and I are both very satisfied with the U-Bass. It's a really neat design with an unusually good sound. It won't replace your bass guitar or upright, but it's incredibly comfortable to play and is considerably more portable than anything else with this much bottom end. It's not for everyone, and even with this disgustingly long review, I'd still recommend you try it before you buy it. For us, it's a keeper.
We have the spruce top model (with frets), which was purchased from MGM on eBay for $399. The spruce top U-Bass is the least expensive in the line, with an all-solid-mahogany selling for about $499 and an all-solid-acacia for $599. Since the instrument is meant to be plugged in, I can't imagine the more expensive models sound significantly different.
The spruce top model has mahogany laminate back/sides, a mahogany neck, a (wide) rosewood fretboard, and a gigantic rosewood bridge. As you can see from the picture, it has a nice, clean look. It has 6-layer black-and-white binding around the body, and a matching rosette. Both seem to be installed uniformly and look fine. The geared tuners are similar to bass guitar tuners, but with a big slot to make room for the massive strings. The tuners work well, and anyone familiar with friction pegs will appreciate how hard it is to knock the U-Bass out of tune once the strings settle. It has a Shadow bass pickup with individual piezo crystals for each string.
My favorite cosmetic touch on this uke is the sweet abalone Road Toad logo on the headstock, which refers to the inventor of the bass ukulele, Owen Holt of Road Toad Ukuleles. The Kala logo is actually pretty neat, too. There's a dark mahogany veneer over a lighter one on the headstock, and the Kala logo is laser-cut out of the dark layer so it shows up in a lighter wood. The satin finish over it is a little cloudy, but the logo is still a much nicer touch than a simple decal.
Cosmetically there are a few issues, but they don't affect the sound or playability at all. Ours came with some black paint flecks between the rosette and the soundhole (about the size of a grain of sand each), which aren't a big deal. The soundhole is a little rough around the edges, and the bridge could have used a better sanding around the edges before it was glued on. There's a tiny bit of glue visible where the bass side of the fretboard meets the body, and on the bottom of the bridge.
My biggest cosmetic (and perhaps functional) complaint is the wooden cover on the back of the uke, which pops off to reveal the electronics and the entry point of the strings. The manufacturer could have done a better job matching it to the woodgrain on the back of the instrument; on our U-Bass, it's not even close. The inside is finished sloppily, with rough edges and a little too much glue. It's held on by some magnets, and it's a miracle that it hasn't fallen off and gotten lost in our household yet. I plan on figuring out a better way to make it stay on there. Luckily, the strings are still pretty easy to access. (I haven't changed the strings yet, but when I do, the multicolored Dreads are going on here for sure!) One would expect better fit and finish on a $400 instrument, but it's forgivable since the positives of this instrument vastly outweigh the negatives.
The easy playability is the U-Bass's best selling point. It's one of the smallest playable basses out there, and it feels great. It's a baritone uke body with a 21" scale, making it a little bigger than a tenor uke but still significantly smaller than an acoustic guitar. It's very light and balanced quite well. My mom used to play a Gibson Thunderbird bass in her band days, but due to some nerve damage she finds it difficult to play bass guitar now. She finds the U-Bass very comfortable to play, even for long periods of time. After playing my Fender Jazz bass for several years, I also find the U-Bass really refreshing to play. The fretboard is actually wider than that of a full-scale bass guitar, but that's to make room for the enormous strings.
The U-Bass comes equipped with Owen Holt's proprietary Pahoehoe strings, which are a very thick, rubbery polyurethane. I'm guessing they needed to be this thick in order to make them tunable to a decent tension while they're tuned to such low notes. They feel pretty strange at first, but they don't dig into your fingers and hurt the way bass guitar strings (or even uke strings) usually do after a few hours of playing. It's pretty easy to adjust to the strange feel and low tension of the strings. My mom and I both found it a little tricky, however, to play in tune. The intonation at the 12th fret is almost spot-on, so that's not the issue. But the tiny metal frets are no match for these beastly strings! You barely even notice the frets at all, so it's easy to play too close to them (or right on them), so your notes will come out too sharp. It almost feels like a fretless, so it will take a bit of practice in order to find out exactly where the note is. You'll want to finger the notes between the frets, as opposed to right up against the frets. This is really not as bad as it sounds; overall it's very user-friendly for any size hands, if you're willing to take a few minutes to understand its quirks.
The other big attraction here is how good the U-Bass sounds plugged into a good amp! Unplugged, it has a pleasant woody tone like an upright bass, but it's really quiet. Played through a small practice amp (like my Crate BX-15), it lacks bottom end and sounds just okay, but that's to be expected from a $100 amp with a tiny 8" speaker. When we ran it through our Hartke Kickback 15 (120 watts with an enormous 15" speaker), however, it blew us away. It sounds almost exactly like an upright, and really delivers the low-end kick that even a lot of bass guitars simply can't achieve. The pickup seems to be fine for this purpose, and lets the true sound of the U-bass shine through. Even with the trebles cranked to the max, it doesn't have the funky pop of a solidbody bass guitar, but that's not what the U-Bass was really meant for. The deep, earthy tone lends itself more to grooves than soloing and shredding. Another interesting note: if you tap directly on the bridge saddle that houses the piezo crystals, you get a huge low-end thump not unlike a kick drum. It's fun for percussion!
So you'll still need a pretty good bass amp in order to enjoy the U-Bass to its fullest, which makes it a little less portable overall. Still, it's a lot easier than lugging around an upright or an electric. I hope to run it through a few more amps of various sizes and see if there's anything relatively small that still captures the sound well.
Overall, my mom and I are both very satisfied with the U-Bass. It's a really neat design with an unusually good sound. It won't replace your bass guitar or upright, but it's incredibly comfortable to play and is considerably more portable than anything else with this much bottom end. It's not for everyone, and even with this disgustingly long review, I'd still recommend you try it before you buy it. For us, it's a keeper.
