I just loved the sound and idea of the KALA UBass... So I thought I'd give a ho'made version a shot... $30 for the Rogue Bari Uke, $30 for the RoadToad strings, and $30 for the Piezo Pickup from China... I didn't want to mess with the big bass tuners and all the slack string wound up on the tuning pegs, so I came up with a solution...
I moved the two lower tuners to the top end of the headstock... I used 30# nylon-coated fishing leader wire, and at first just made a loop...
Then I noticed that the wire seemed to dig into the strings too much, so I used a nut with the threads filed away...
And at the bridge, I first tried to sandwich the strings between the bridge and a piece of hardwood, with grooves filed in, but when I found out that the string tension (especially the G!!!) was so huge, I decided to string them thru the bridge, with some added screws for strength...
I had to shorten the strings numerous times, as they s t r e t c h so much!!! And my bridge is under HUGE stress, the $400 Kala is no doubt of sturdier build...
It SOUNDS GREAT accoustically so far... I have to put in the piezo still... And I'll trim the strings when I get them to settle in to tune... And I'll get better tuning pegs as the originals are quite cheezy.
Any suggestions on how to reinforce the bridge internally so that this little baby doesn't eventually explode??
VERY cool sound... Seems to tune up well... I'll deal with the intonation later...
I moved the two lower tuners to the top end of the headstock... I used 30# nylon-coated fishing leader wire, and at first just made a loop...
Then I noticed that the wire seemed to dig into the strings too much, so I used a nut with the threads filed away...
And at the bridge, I first tried to sandwich the strings between the bridge and a piece of hardwood, with grooves filed in, but when I found out that the string tension (especially the G!!!) was so huge, I decided to string them thru the bridge, with some added screws for strength...
I had to shorten the strings numerous times, as they s t r e t c h so much!!! And my bridge is under HUGE stress, the $400 Kala is no doubt of sturdier build...
It SOUNDS GREAT accoustically so far... I have to put in the piezo still... And I'll trim the strings when I get them to settle in to tune... And I'll get better tuning pegs as the originals are quite cheezy.
Any suggestions on how to reinforce the bridge internally so that this little baby doesn't eventually explode??
VERY cool sound... Seems to tune up well... I'll deal with the intonation later...
