frawley
Member
I've been playing my new Microbass for a couple of weeks now,so here's my opinion of it. A friend has a Kala Ubass Hutch Hutchinson which I have played a lot in the last year,so I have something to compare it to.
This bass was almost in tune when it arrived from the USA in the post !!
(couldn't find one in Australia).
Body: Larger/louder/warmer sounding than Ubass and more comfortable sitting down.
Neck:Nice profile and similar feeling to Ubass,but the 3" longer scale makes a massive difference to to the playability.The extra tension and upper fret access (mine is the fretted version) leaves Ubass in the dust IMHO.If you play full scale bass,the transition is much more painless.The extra tension also seems to add a lot more 'punch'to the tone.The tuners look to be the same as Ubass.
Electronics:This appears to have the usual generic Chinese preamp that seem to be on most cheap ukes,so I wasn't expecting much.The bridge pickup looks similar to the Shadow unit on some Kala's, but Gold Tone assured me that it is a proprietary device made just for the Microbass.Whatever, this sounds great through a Roland bass cube
and everything else I tried.
Stringsamn these Aquila Thundergut strings had a great feel for about a day, but after that my fingers couldn't slide on them any more without burning my fingertips.Must be some sort of reaction,but I don't have the same problem with the Ubass pahoehoe's.
Personally, I like this way better than the Ubass and when I sort the string issue out, it will be perfect for my needs.
This bass was almost in tune when it arrived from the USA in the post !!
(couldn't find one in Australia).
Body: Larger/louder/warmer sounding than Ubass and more comfortable sitting down.
Neck:Nice profile and similar feeling to Ubass,but the 3" longer scale makes a massive difference to to the playability.The extra tension and upper fret access (mine is the fretted version) leaves Ubass in the dust IMHO.If you play full scale bass,the transition is much more painless.The extra tension also seems to add a lot more 'punch'to the tone.The tuners look to be the same as Ubass.
Electronics:This appears to have the usual generic Chinese preamp that seem to be on most cheap ukes,so I wasn't expecting much.The bridge pickup looks similar to the Shadow unit on some Kala's, but Gold Tone assured me that it is a proprietary device made just for the Microbass.Whatever, this sounds great through a Roland bass cube
and everything else I tried.
Stringsamn these Aquila Thundergut strings had a great feel for about a day, but after that my fingers couldn't slide on them any more without burning my fingertips.Must be some sort of reaction,but I don't have the same problem with the Ubass pahoehoe's.
Personally, I like this way better than the Ubass and when I sort the string issue out, it will be perfect for my needs.
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