U Bass ???

RIng

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Hi all . Hope all is well . I have been playing ukulele for about 4 months . I play mostly Baritone . I am thinking of getting a U Bass . If you play both , how often do you play the bass ? Do you play it by itself and sing along ? What are your thoughts on the U Bass ? Thanks
 
Oh Miiiiike! :p

I play ubass, not all that well, but Ive been trying to replace MIDI bass lines in my projects with ubass.
 
I play a couple hours everyday. I love my baritone but I write music on bass. It’s been a revelation for me. I work with a really talented guitarist, multi-instrumentalist and similar people, percussionists among them. I write bass lines, in a jazzy, funky, rocky, exploratory manner and I let my partners harmonize the parts. I am an okay jazz rhythm baritone player but these guys I write with are really talented. They really like my bass ideas and I love what they do with them.
So, bass is easier for me to express my ideas. I’m deep into learning as much as I can. I’ve found this wonderful course which I’ve promoted here on UU called Chord Tone Lessons by Tomasz Ziobro. If you want to become good in any style start working to be a walking bassist. Ed Friedland’s basic courses are great too and will get you reading standard notation quickly.

The Tomasz Ziobro walking bass lessons are giving me the formal training I lack and they’re FREE. However I do seem to have native talent which I wish to enrich as much as possible. Coltrane said the more you know the more you can blow.

Oh yeah, big yeah, google Rondo music and get an inexpensive Hadean. They’re great acoustic with electronics or solid body.
 
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I’m strongly considering getting a ubass. Once I’m reasonably proficient I plan on playing it at our monthly uke jams. I’ll have plenty of time to practice before they start back up.

There are some bass only tunes I want to learn as well. Also I figure it’d be fun to play along with recordings. There are plenty of resources available on the web. Bass instructions can be used as is without having to transpose keys.
 
I have way more ukuleles than I need but not as many as I want . I will try to make upy mind Monday . I am looking at the Lanikai bass .
 
I came to this thread a little late, I always recommend buying a bass uke from Rondomusic.com, one of the Hadean acoustic or solid body bass ukes. I have 10 and find them to be good, especially for the price.

For the last 6 years I play bass uke/mini bass guitar with a seniors uke group of about 50 people, though now doing Zoom sessions only, nobody can hear it, but when the leader of the group brings in a new song or rearranges one, she'll record it with her uke, send it to me, and I add my bass to it. I then upload it to my web page with all our songs I recorded when we did meet so everyone can practice anytime as if they're with the group.

I also play my uke with other Zoom groups since the isolation started, before, I met with a group of acoustic players in a park on Sundays for 2 hours to keep up my uke chops.


This is Michael Kohan in Los Angeles, Beverly Grove near the Beverly Center
9 tenor cutaway ukes, 4 acoustic bass ukes, 12 solid body bass ukes, 14 mini electric bass guitars (Total: 39)

• Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children in hospital music therapy programs. www.theukc.org
• Member The CC Strummers: YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/CCStrummers/video, Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheCCStrummers
 
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I have way more ukuleles than I need but not as many as I want . I will try to make upy mind Monday . I am looking at the Lanikai bass .

The Lanikai is larger with a 23.4" scale and I believe it's tuned an octave higher than normal bass...
 
I know it is the 23" scale but I don't think it is tuned different .
 
I did it , just ordered the Hadean 23" scale u Bass .
 
Well I did it . I just ordered a Hadean 23" U bass😁
 
Electric acoustic longer scale and bigger body . 23" scale .
 
Yes, the Lanikai bass is standard tuning. From all the options that are available now, I think I'd go for the Lanikai: Slightly longer scale, but still playable and small, nice looking wood options, and just overall pleasingly designed.

I have one of the very first U-Basses made by Kala. I love it, but I hardly ever play it. It's great for trying bass lines, and cool to have such a portable option for adding depth when playing along with others, but playing the bass by myself doesn't fulfill me. I know there are some great virtuoso bass players that are interesting to listen to and watch, but that isn't where I'm at.
 
Yes, the Lanikai bass is standard tuning. From all the options that are available now, I think I'd go for the Lanikai: Slightly longer scale, but still playable and small, nice looking wood options, and just overall pleasingly designed.

I have one of the very first U-Basses made by Kala. I love it, but I hardly ever play it. It's great for trying bass lines, and cool to have such a portable option for adding depth when playing along with others, but playing the bass by myself doesn't fulfill me. I know there are some great virtuoso bass players that are interesting to listen to and watch, but that isn't where I'm at.

I ordered the Hadean 23" scale with bigger body . Similar to the Lanikai . I have several Lanikai and do not expect the Hadean to have the work workmanship of a Lanikai, 1/3 the price b.��
 
I'm not sure it will be a huge difference from the Lanikai though. I bought a cheap uke bass off Amazon a few years back, and while the details aren't as nice as a Kala, the Kala doesn't play four times as nice - I barely notice a difference from an entry level Kala, actually. One caveat, I had to buy a fret file. :p But the Hadean should be more nicely finished than what I got.

If you become obsessed with playing bass, you can upgrade later, if not, it's nice to have the bass for the occasion when you feel like noodling without a big investment. I'd probably do the same thing if I wanted to go up to 23" (I do, but don't play enough to justify it).
 
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The days of having to play bass by yourself are over. The free course I recommend Chord Tone Lessons has great backing tracks, as do Ed Friedland’s books. And I am sure there are many others in various musical genres.

Also, record a tune on Garage Band and add your bass part. Have friends send you tracks that you can download onto Garage Band or whatever you use. My group is composed of me in Hawaii, Jordan in California and Igor Leonardi in Slovenia. We send tracks to each other and build our compositions. No problem and high quality. I have also worked with musicians in France.

A very simple and reliable interface I use is called Irig made by Apogee.
No drivers. Very simple and very good quality and I believe it was relatively inexpensive. Chord from my bass to the Irig and then the Irig goes USB into my MacBook.
 
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Just got my Hadean 23" . The out side box had a lot of damage but it looks as if the u Bass is not damaged . I don't know how to post pictures here . I will put some up on FB . Quick service and so far I am happy with all . I have a Roland Micro Cube , from what I understand I should not run the bass through it????. After looking on YouTube I came across ukulele Wales . She seems to have slow easy lessons , just what I need .
 
Just got my Hadean 23" . The out side box had a lot of damage but it looks as if the u Bass is not damaged . I don't know how to post pictures here . I will put some up on FB . Quick service and so far I am happy with all . I have a Roland Micro Cube , from what I understand I should not run the bass through it????. After looking on YouTube I came across ukulele Wales . She seems to have slow easy lessons , just what I need .

I played mine acoustic for the longest time before I got an amp. Started with a VOX headphone amp and then got a Fly3 Bass. Still, I mostly play unplugged.
 
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