The second video in my DIY series is finally done!!! It sure took a while to get it done. Mainly because the lack of time.
This spring have been extremely busy. Besides my work as a music teacher and IT-pedagogy I have toured Sweden and just got back from a trip to Brazil…
Anyway, now it’s done! I hope it will be informative and could work as a guide if you want to perform this DIY!
If you have any questions please drop me a line at: ubasslessons@gmail.com
To help out even more please feel free to use this guide in PDF-format!
The next DIY video will be the first in a series of post. This is quite a big project in probably ten parts. More about this soon!
/Magnus
Play UBass! 
Dear Magnus,
1st of all, congratulations for your playing, and thank you a lot for all the resources your are putting on the ubass. It is truely a wonderful instrument, but it is not without its flaws.
There is so little knowledge about it that makes your site and your youtube channel a true reference.
I also have a solid body kala ubass. I recently installad kala roundwound strings, which improved a lot the sound (finally I have mid/high harmonics). Still, I have noticed that the bass distorts a lot on the low frequencies.
Is that why you replaced the pickup? What pickup/ preamp do you recommend? What kind of EQ do you use? Oh, and the 1.000.000 € question – to compress or not to compress? Do you think a dual band compressor could make the difference (e.g. digitech bass squeeze)?
Cheers,
Miguel
Hi Miguel,
First of all a big thank you and I’m glad that what I share on my blog and youtube channel can be of help!
Pre-amp change.
I changed the pre-amp from a MiSi (re-chargeable pre) to the LR Baggs designed pre to get higher and more a more stable more output.
What solid body model have you got? Is it the MiSi or the LR Baggs? You could of course skip the build in pre and maybe wire straiht to the output jack and use an outboard pre. I use the Bassswith IQ/DI by Ruppert Musical Instruments for my acoustic/electric ubass that has no built in pre. That way I have the ultimate control an the Basswitch has a 1MOhm 10MOhm switch that make a huge difference.
To compress of not.
I do use compression when I record and also if I bring my pedalboard. I use another RMI pedal called the Dual Compressor on that board. When I record I either use the pedalboard signal chain or the built in compressors of my Universal Audio Apollo hardware/software.
I will try to make som recordings with different compression settings and offer these on my blog…
Good luck with your Ubass explorations,
Magnus
playubass.com
Thank you for the quick reply!
I have a SUB Solid Body (fretted). According to its spec, the preamp is a Shadow® U-Bass NFX.
I really love the ”grab and play” concept of the ubass (I used to play double bass…) I would like to keep the preamp internally. Do you think this high gain on the lows is from the preamp or from the pickup? Do you know how the LR Bagg(in)s behaves against the Shadow?
I am looking forward to hear the different compression settings!
Miguel
Hi again,
I know that the SUB was designed to have a great and punchy low end compared to the a bit more ”tamed” sound/output of the California series of solid body ubasses.
Is the low end too hot even if you turn the bass knob down quite a bit?
PS LR Baggins = funny!
/Magnus
Sorry for the slow reply.
Following your comments I did some experiments with a friend’s amp this weekend.
Now it seems obvious, but I was using a small THR10 amp, and an apogee jam. When I tried the active input on my friend’s amp, there was no distortion on the lows.
Obviously when I turn the bass knob down on my passive inputs, I don’t have this distortion. This is something I will have to live with, but that’s not so bad.
Thank you again for your comments!
Miguel
What is the model number of the LR Baggs Preamp you installed?
Hi Brent,
I’m not sure…it was developed for Kala. Try to check with the Kala Support. It used to be available on the kalabrand.com website but I couldn’t find it when I did a search just now.