Ubass Ukulele Bass Intonation

[macb3th]

hey folks, hope you're well

Recently bought a ukulele bass for around £200, Quincy koa version.. thundergut strings... anyways the tuning seems to drift pretty quickly which might be expected? I'm not sure, it's my first ukulele bass.. anyways when it's tuned, the intonation is mostly good aside from the E string which seems pretty close on the octave but drifts throughout.

really like the sound, but the intonation and constant re-tuning is putting me off a bit.

any advice is appreciated

[Len_derby]

Welcome to the Uke Bass world!

There's two things I'd say. Firstly, in my experience the silicon rubber strings on most Uke basses need a lot if settling in due to the initial stretching period they go through. So, just keep at it.
Secondly, the intonation of these things never seems to particularly good. Even on the expensive models. A lot of players seem to gravitate to fretless to mitigate this.

[Happy Jack]

Len is spot on except as regards the settling.

Thunderguts don't so much "settle" as keep stretching for ever. It's a feature, sir ...

[Len_derby]

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1472988455' post='3125758']
Len is spot on except as regards the settling.

Thunderguts don't so much "settle" as keep stretching for ever. It's a feature, sir ...
[/quote]

I was trying to encourage him Jack by sugar coating the bad news 😂

[macb3th]

haha.. thanks for the replies..

it definitely will require different.. ahem, "technique" from me.. main thing is though that I'm not messing about with tuning all day because I will lose interest and end up selling it... that sound though is sweeeeet but need to be stable.

I'll give it a week or 2 to settle

[kodiakblair]

2nd what Jack and Len say.

Another thing was fretting too hard made the note sharp.
Went fretless in the end before giving up on it,sounded great though

[macb3th]

thanks for the input.. looks like it's a frustrating instrument - I'd be even more frustrated if I bought new strings and it still didn't settle.. hmm

Is there any other way (similar price) of getting this sound? I'm a home recording / hobbyist bass player at best, only tried electric bass guitars until now.

would an electric-acoustic sound similar DI'd?

[SICbass]

I haven't heard an electric-acoustic that sounds like a uke-bass. Fretless is the way to go, should you choose to persevere.

[kodiakblair]

It's not so much a frustrating instrument,just one that's slightly different.

Along with the fretting thing I also needed a lighter touch when plucking strings. They were bouncing all over the place to
start with.

[macb3th]

I agree, it does need a different approach and lighter touch. Incredible sound for such a cute little instrument

[Maude]

Ditch the Thunderguts and order a set of Pahoehoe strings from Road Toad.
Contrary to every comment and review I've read I find the black Pahoehoe strings a lot less grippy, higher tension (or whatever you'd like to call it) and more stable once settled in.
Being slightly firmer the intonation issues that arise from heavy fretting is less noticeable. Also being less grippy you won't pull the string out of tune as easily when sliding.
All this is my opinion of course.

[duffer1]

Not been very impressed with Aquila thunderguts they seem variable quality. I prefer the Dadoria version made in the USA under license.

Currently experimenting with adding a resonator to a 18-22 inch scale bass of my own design. Early days yet. See pic.

[macb3th]

my bass is still for sale if anyone is interested on ebay or reverb uk - [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]£[/font][/color]125 - lemme know

[therealting]

I don't think you are allowed to advertise stuff for sale in this forum.

[Mottlefeeder]

If you rarely go anywhere near the octave, you might be able to reprofile the bridge to give you better intonation where you actually play. This bridge is standard on the Countryman bass-uke.

[url="http://s285.photobucket.com/user/Mottlefeeder/media/DSCF1446_zps437f5b92.jpg.html"][/url]

David