Ubass Buyers Guide + 2019 Kala Ubass Lineup

*Playing a Fretted Exotic Mahogany at the Kala Booth at Winter NAMM 2019*

So you’re thinking of buying a ubass, thats great! What ubass should you choose?
I have put together a couple of questions (with some answers from me) you can ask yourself as a little ”pre-buy-check-up”!

1. What is your primary goal with the purchase? Travel instrument? First stringed bass instrument? A compliment to your electric bass? A compliment to your upright bass? A second instrument if you already play for example guitar?
2. What sound(s) are you after?
3. What styles do you want to play?
4. Have you played fretless bass or other fretless instruments like upright bass, cello of violin?
5. Have you got small or big hands?

I think that these five questions is a great starting point. Ask yourself these before your purchase. Below are some of my answers to the questions…

*My mom picking up my first ubass while visiting Hawaii back in 2010*

There aren’t that many music stores left in the world, there are at least fewer here in Sweden now compared to 10-15 years ago, so it’s not so easy to get the chance to tryout different ubasses before you buy.
I know the feeling. My first ubass was bought by my parents visiting Hawaii back in 2010 and I had not seen or played one before.

There are a lot to choose from and different company’s have hoped on the ubass train. I play Kala ubasses, and have been doing that from the start, but there are of course other options out there now. I still recommend the original Kala Ubass in most cases, however if you find the 21 inch scale (most Kala ubasses have) to be to small for your hands you might find that it’s easier to play a slightly larger scale ukulele bass.

Here’s a couple of answers to the questions above that I hope will guide your search for the best ukulele bass for you!

1. What is your primary goal with the purchase? Travel instrument? First stringed bass instrument? A compliment to your electric bass? A compliment to your upright bass?

Travel instrument
I want to be able to bring a bass on my travels. Could be everything from your everyday comute to a vacation or holiday trip abroad or as a tour instrument that you bring on the bus or to your hotel room before and after your gig.
The ubass can be the solution to al the above! Since all the acoustic/electric ubasses are acoustic that do give you a nice unamplified sound. It’s not super loud but will work practicing on your own.
If you need more unamplified volume you can go for the Kala round wound strings. These will give a little bit more volume. Heads up: Most of the current models will work with either the Pahoehoe (original black polyurethane string) or the Kala round wound. It’s not recommended for the Wanderer model.

It you do want to amplify your ubass while traveling and don’t mind bringing an amp my recommendation is the Phil Jones Bass Double Four (or the new Micro 7). The (quite new) Roland micro Bass Cubes will work too. The core sound of the ubass is below 200 Hz so the better bass response an amp can give you the better your ubass will sound!

There are also headphone amps you can use. The Phil Jones Big Head (HA-1 or HA-2) seems like a good one although I haven’t been able to test one yet.
I have used my Zoom H6 recorder with great results too. The H6 has 4 tele-inputs and although the are line level inputs they have worked nice with my UBasses that has a built in preamp.

First stringed bass instrument
If you new to playing bass and want to take it up the Ubass is really a great place to start. Because of the shorter scale length you will have easy access to the first frets. You will not have to reach so far to play those low notes on the E string. The sound of the pahoehoe string through an amp is also very pleasing and full. Those strings are soft on the fingers too so you can start playing for quite a while without getting tired in your fretting hand.
I have been bringing UBasses to the high school where I teach many times (now we finally have two at the school) and all the students that have played them, even those with no or almost no prior experience, has been able to play and get instant gratification within a few minutes. Recently one of my students used a Ubass when one ensemble was to play Money (Pink Floyd) this made it possible to play the tune since the student was able to focus on the bass part and not spending a lot of time getting a good sound of a regular 34 inch scale electric bass that is so much harder to get. Great sound out of when you don’t have that mush experience and also quite small hands.
A great first stringed bass instrument for sure!

A compliment to your electric bass(es)
I bought my first Ubass back in 2010. I started playing bass around 1983. The new feel of those rubber strings felt strange at first but that feeling quickly went away when I heard it plugged in. The smaller scale length made it ease to play and the portability was of course also an exceptionally good attribute too.
Since 2010 I have used at least one Ubass at almost every gig. Sometimes as the primary instrument and sometimes for a particular song in a set.
I got hooked really quickly and can’t really see myself not using a Ubass since I feel that it is such a great musical expression tool for me!

A compliment to your upright bass
If you play upright and want to be able to get a sound similar to your upright without always bringing one a Ubass is the solution. Although I don’t see me primarily as an upright player I have played enough upright to be able to say that I know the basics of it. I actually try to think like an upright player when I play, for example, jazz on the Ubass. I use the same fingering, although it’s not necessary. I play with a lot of open strings because I would have done that if I played the same tune on the upright. This makes it easier for me to emulate the upright sound too. This is one reason I feel bass players that primary play upright player quickly can feel at home on the Ubass!

A second instrument if you already play, for example guitar?
The Ubass is the perfect bass instrument for a musician that have guitar as their main instrument. The scale length is pretty close to a guitars and if you want to get a warm upright and earthy tone on your demos (or other recordings) the Ubass will fit the bill!
Link to the Ubassists of the world – Gunnar Hjorth post

2. What sound(s) are you after?
There are roughy two main types of ubass sounds you can get from a Ubass – the synthetic rubber sound and the round wound sound. (More options are on the way, though…)

Synthetic rubber (Polyuruthene or similar materials)
The original black rubber string (Pahoehoe by Road Toad Music) is the original string and sound of the ubass.
Nothing really compares to this sound. It has a lot of warmth and low end. The only real downside is that they stretch a lot and it can take a while before they have settled in and won’t stretch of go flat. But the sound is soooo nice and will fit and compliment many styles of music hand in glove!
For more on the synthetic stings available please check out for a upcoming blog post about ukulele bass strings. You can find previous string tests here!

Round wound
The first round wound string for the Ubass that came out on the market was made by the German string company Pyramid. These were a really nice compliment to the Pahoehoe synthetic rubber string. It gave the player a more recognizable feel and a sound that was a bit more distinct and closer in feel to a regular electric bass string.
There is also another similar string on the market made by Kala.
I have used these strings on most of my Solid body’s for quite some time now. They are also great on a acoustic/electric Ubass especially if you can’t get used to the feel of the rubber strings. The sound can be very warm on the round wounds too since they have a nylon or silk core. More on strings in a upcoming blog post about Ubass strings and sounds. Kala has a nice selection of the now available ubass strings on the market.

3. What styles do you want to play?
Although I feel that every ubass model can be used to just about all styles of music there might be some things to consider when you make your choice.

Besides the different string choices available (see above) it might be good to think about the design of the different ubasses. Will you play mainly bass parts of will you also play chords solos in the upper register?

The Kala California Striped Ebony Acoustic/Electric Ubass with Pahoehoe strings

The acoustic/electric models have 16 frets and although you can play chords on these they can be a bit limiting if you want to explore this a lot. Maybe you already play chords on a regular electric bass and want to have a travel instrument or just another sound. In that case a solid body ubass would be an option to check out.

The Nik West Signature Kala California Solid Body Ubass with Kala Round Wound strings

Since the round wound strings came out these have been my go to strings for my solid body ubasses, at least my 5-stings. If you have followed my blog you might have noticed that I have been using a prototype set of the round wounds. This set have a high C instead of a low B. This makes it possible for me to play nice chord voicings not possible on a regular B-G set. This set will be available soon! I will write a dedicated blog post once I know the release date!) Below is an example of how the E-C set can sound. The video features my composition ”Tranquility”. This is composed especially for the

You can support me and my ubass music if you buy this song at my bandcamp page!
https://basmagnus.bandcamp.com/track/tranquility

The Kala Round Wound strings in action in my composition ”Tranquility” that feat. the wonderful bassoon playing of Mikael Lindström

The Journeyman model (it came out in 2018) has a nice design that makes it possible to get easy access the upper frets. So please consider this model if you don’t want an solid body ubass but still want upper register access. See below!

4. Have you played fretless bass (or other fretless instruments like upright bass, cello of violin?

If you have prior experience playing a fretless instrument please consider a fretless model. I really like the added expressiveness the fretless fingerboard gives me, especially when I play styles where a upright bass would fit in nicely. See previous blog post about this below!

5. Have you got small or big hands?
The Kala ubasses has a scale length from ~20 to 23,5 inches. I have quite small hands so I have never had any issues with the super short scale length. If you have bigger hands you might need to look at other brands that make slightly longer scale ukulele basses.

Examples
GoldTone has 23 and 25 inch acoustic/electric ukulele basses
Aquila ShortBassOne 12 and ShortBassOne 60 are both 23,6 inch scale ukulele basses

CurRent Kala Ubass models (2019)

I managed to cram most of the current models onto one of the ubass walls while working with Kala at the Winter NAMM Show in Anaheim in January!

Acoustic/Electric models

All Solid Mahogany (The model that started it all!)

Available in: Fretted and fretless (right handed)

Link

Solid Spruce Top/Mahogany (This model has also been around for a while although current model was updated in 2018. My first ubass was the original Spruce model w/o a built in preamp)