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Ukulele Bass

Posted: April 10th, 2010, 7:24 am
by pjmuck
New from Musicmesse. Great sound, great price, cool concept, IMO. Not sure about lefties, but I'm guessing you could flip the bridge and redo the nut relatively easily:

http://www.premierguitar.com/Video/2010 ... _Demo.aspx

http://www.kalaukulele.com/ubass.html

Re: Ukulele Bass

Posted: April 10th, 2010, 1:47 pm
by rcubed
Very cool.

Re: Ukulele Bass

Posted: April 10th, 2010, 4:03 pm
by Basshappi
I've seen those and was impressed.

I've always been interested in mandolins and ukeleles

Have you ever seen Jake Shimabukuro?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puSkP3uym5k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqaYmQZg ... re=related

Re: Ukulele Bass

Posted: April 10th, 2010, 7:06 pm
by fivebass52
I sent the company an email about left hand availability, and will let you know what the company says when I get a reply. The owner of Kala Ukuleles used to live a few miles from me in a small beach community called Lanikai, so hopefully that will give me an "in" of some sort....

Re: Ukulele Bass

Posted: April 10th, 2010, 9:45 pm
by rcubed
fivebass52 wrote:I sent the company an email about left hand availability, and will let you know what the company says when I get a reply. The owner of Kala Ukuleles used to live a few miles from me in a small beach community called Lanikai, so hopefully that will give me an "in" of some sort....
Do they make lefty ukes? That might give an idea as to the chance we have a seeing a lefty U-Bass model.

Re: Ukulele Bass

Posted: April 11th, 2010, 5:38 am
by fivebass52
Basshappi wrote:I've seen those and was impressed.

I've always been interested in mandolins and ukeleles

Have you ever seen Jake Shimabukuro?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puSkP3uym5k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqaYmQZg ... re=related
I've seen Jake on several occasions here in Hawaii. I saw him in 2002 opening for Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, and just two weeks ago when he came on stage at Victor Wooten's concert and played a song with him. I know he's been featured at several of Bela's concerts. You know, he's the most recognizable name from Hawaii, but there are many talented Ukulele players here as well, from young to old.

Basshappi, here's a link to a young lady who is a protege' of Jake's - her name is Taimane. She's about 21 now. I happened to walk into an open mic night one night and saw her playing solo, and thought to myself "look out Jake". I was blown away by her skill, and voice. I talked to her after she got off stage and told me she had been taking lessons from Jake for years, and it shows. She also sings very well, and writes her own songs...

http://www.taimane.com/videos.html?task ... tlink&id=6

Look for the Video tab above for more videos if you care to, or go to her home page. Last summer my rock band played in Waikiki for a surf event, and after we were done, Taimane came on after us and wowed the crowd.

Re: Ukulele Bass

Posted: April 11th, 2010, 6:07 pm
by fivebass52
OK, got an email back from the owner of Kala Ukuleles, Mike, who wrote that they have had quite a few inquiries on left hand models, and will probably have them available in 4-to-6 months. I told him I'd appreciate it if he could keep me informed so I could let the members of this forum know. Also asked him if they make left hand Ukulele models, so will let you know, and keep you posted as I learn more....

Re: Ukulele Bass

Posted: April 11th, 2010, 6:10 pm
by Matt R.
fivebass52 wrote:OK, got an email back from the owner of Kala Ukuleles, Mike, who wrote that they have had quite a few inquiries on left hand models, and will probably have them available in 4-to-6 months. I told him I'd appreciate it if he could keep me informed so I could let the members of this forum know. Also asked him if they make left hand Ukulele models, so will let you know, and keep you posted as I learn more....

Ha cool, I emailed asking about it too. I wants. Bad.

Re: Ukulele Bass

Posted: April 11th, 2010, 6:19 pm
by fivebass52
Just got this back from Mike at Kala Ukes...

We are making a few LH ukes. We have Tenor cutaways w/eq in Solid Spruce top and all Mango.
We also have a few misc. LH concerts in stock. We will start offering LH conversions on non-cutaway models from our Petaluma shop To dealers starting in July-Aug.

Re: Ukulele Bass

Posted: April 11th, 2010, 8:21 pm
by pjmuck
:D I also heard back from Mike regarding lefties and whether or not the righties could be flipped:

Hi Peter--Because of the pickup saddles being compensated you cannot use that
Pickup and have good intonation. The nut would have to be modified. We will start
Working on a Lefty UBass fairly soon. Please stay tuned.

Thanks-Mike

Re: Ukulele Bass

Posted: April 11th, 2010, 8:24 pm
by rcubed
Thanks guys, I guess we bugged them enough. :mrgreen:

Re: Ukulele Bass

Posted: April 12th, 2010, 11:23 am
by Basshappi
Cool! Could be a Uke in my future.
Thanks for the FYI Fivebass, I'll check out Taimane.