American vs import U-Bass

Is the American made U-Bass worth the extra money? that natural swamp ash sure looks nice.

strumsilly said:

Is the American made U-Bass worth the extra money? that natural swamp ash sure looks nice.

Click to expand...

These custom prototypes look even more gorgeous.

CustomTopUBasses.jpg

I own a import solidbody and acoustic, that's two instruments for what a Cali would cost.
I love them and believe I got my money's worth.

I've never seen a Cali in a music store, so I've never played one.
They have better tuners, the Mi-Si pickup and the aesthetics.

But you would still be paying a thousand dollars for an instrument with rubber band strings and no intonation adjustment at the bridge.
(I guess this isn't an issue for uke players, but as a bass player it drives me a little nuts.)

The strings situation is getting better, as Aquila brought out their version (but still no 5-strings yet), and now Kala sells Pyramid metal roundwounds that fit the acoustic. [I have a set of those that I'm very happy with.]

If you want a 5-string or solidbody fretless, they're not available as imports, so the Californias are the only option.

There's quite a bit of u-bass discussion on the TalkBass forums from a bassist rather than uke perspective here:

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f8/kala-ubass-megathread-part-4-a-893171/

THANKS, I was asking because there is an almost new on the bay with a $600 starting bid and no bidders.thats still a couple of bens more, but it is supposed to be higher quality.

I also have an acoustic and the SUB import. I really like the solid body import a lot - I don't know that the Cali version would be worth the upgrade price. Most of my playing is with acoustic instruments, and even though I get to plug mine in - there is a bit of an electric instrument bias - so I mostly have to use the acoustic version. Too bad because with the solid body I don't have to worry about feedback and it is easier to play more cleanly.

I have the SUD Bass and love it. I played at a folk music sing around a couple weeks ago, next to someone playing an upright bass. Moving my UBass was a lot easier
Plugged into a b attery powered roland street cube, it had enough sound to fill the room. My only previous bass experience was playing Sousaphone n marching band in the 60's. I've only had the UBass for a couple weeks and only played it half a dozen times but it feels very natural.
This http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=11992973 was my fifth time playing it.

Is there a web link to these imports?
MM