New Fender precision uke bass

[sandy_r]

On 17/07/2023 at 16:23, jd56hawk said:

...I'd like to see this guy playing one

 

 

[gjones]

Dare I ask, what is the point of this....... thing? 🫤

[Owen]

9 minutes ago, gjones said:

Dare I ask, what is the point of this....... thing? 🫤

Deep, thuddy goodness.

[tauzero]

3 hours ago, gjones said:

Dare I ask, what is the point of this....... thing? 🫤

 

It's Fender attempting to cash in on the uke bass trend from people who won't have any bass but a Fender in one of the two most boring shapes.

[jd56hawk]

6 hours ago, gjones said:

Dare I ask, what is the point of this....... thing? 🫤

Well, it's a Fender that costs less than a good gig bag, so some people will jump on them, despite their shortcomings.

Other than that, the soundhole is absolutely useless and it looks preposterous and the bridge looks almost as big as the neck!

I wouldn't buy one if it cost the same as a pack of strings, but it actually sounds pretty good.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 7, 2023 by jd56hawk

[Baloney Balderdash]

Not short scale enough!

 

This is more like it:

Edited December 11, 2023 by Baloney Balderdash

[BabyBlueSound]

!!! WARNING !!! ATTENCIÓN !!! POZOR !!!

 

Just ordered one of these, NBD post incoming in a few days or so!

[BabyBlueSound]

So the little guy has arrived, and I am enjoying it a lot. I guess it's not for everyone, but as a mainly shortscale guy, this is MY shortscale.

 

The build quality is not terrible for £220. The wood is fine, the pieces are joined up nice, it's a pleasure to look at. It DOES sound prec-ish somehow.

 

The fretwork is where the "made in China" shows, they don't even show on photos that much, but the fitting is quite disgusting around a few frets.

 

 

 

As you can see, the fretboard was dried out to the point where the wood starts to become grey-ish, so gave it some lemon oil, and it turned nice dark brown.

 

 

 

However at this point my nut fell off. After a brief panic, I used some very weak wood glue to stop it from moving sideways and I let the strings hold it in place. It's working and should be fine.

 

 

 

Unfortunately the E string is pretty much dead, compared to the other 3 strings which sounds fine. But I don't mind as I never care about the factory strings anyway. Might try the weird postie rubber strings just for kicks, but I in the long run I just plan to put some proper strings on it. I might also try cutting up my older coated strings, try to put them on and see what happens. 

 

After re-stringing, it takes ages before the strings stretch to wherever they should be.

 

Intonation is... what it is. For any bass ukes, usually this is the pain point. The G is spot on, but the D is almost a quarter tone off at 12th, and there are smaller differences for A and E as well.

Just play the low frets, or get a real uke 😜

 

The electronics are pretty nice, colourful accurate tuner, and a pretty wide TONE knob. I guess it's active, having a battery, but's surprisingly loud even compared to the "hot" pot setting on my Sterling Stingray. I was genuinely surprised how crappy and dull the Sterling sounds after playing the uke (but I got 1yo bummed out cobalt flat strings on the Sterling, so that's somewhat expected, I was just surprised at how big the difference was in clarity).

 

My biggest pain point is, there's no blue coloured uke bass. They made a blue uke... but not a bass uke. So now I got an instrument that's not blue  

 

Mildly Sansamped sound in action below. Please excuse the crappy playing, this is just a test short, I shall use this instrument properly in the near future  

 

 

[BabyBlueSound]

On 06/12/2023 at 19:55, NoirBass said:

I’m warming to it slowly and hoping it’ll be more than just a novelty ‘mini’ bass. I shall test it out on a gig later this week and report back. I’m pretty sure my band mates will hate it! 

 

...and how did it go? 😁 

 

I am still enjoying mine, but I am just a living room bassist, no band.

 

My experience is similar with the tone knob, anything above 50% becomes scratchy, artificially metallic sounding.

 

My only problem is, it's so easy to pick it up and play it's loose-ish comfy strings and tiny neck, my muscle memory is already starting to reset and I am making more mistakes on the shortscales 😄 

[NoirBass]

11 hours ago, BabyBlueSound said:

 

...and how did it go? 😁

Ok, I’ve used it for some trad Irish music, a bit of Jazz and a few acoustic trios to simulate an upright which works pretty well.

 

I also used it a few times to play Fairytale of New York around the festive period at functions for the same reason.

 

I find it really uncomfortable to play with regular pizzicato for any length of time, so I’ve ended up just playing it with my thumb 👍🏻 - that just adds to the uprightness of the sound.

 

All that said, I’ve not taken it to a gig since the new year as it’s just extra baggage (I’m always looking to downsize where possible when packing for a gig) I suspect sadly it has ended up as a novelty item, but you never know I might have need of it on future gigs?

Edited May 26, 2024 by NoirBass

[BabyBlueSound]

Sounds about right, I would have never gigged with this. But so perfect and comfy for noodling around at home, and hobby recording. Just too loud to play next to a TV in the living room 😀 

[BabyBlueSound]

One thing I must highlight is since the strings stretched to their length, I barely have to re-tune the little guy, holds the tuning very steadily!

[JohnDaBass]

NBD 

Mine turned up yesterday. 

What a lovely fun little thing!!!

Sounds great through my Fender Rumble 800 combo,  very 'P' bass focused .

Good balance across all strings.

Fretboard appears quite dry so I'll sort that in the the coming days.

Very pleased with the Olympic White / tort finish and amazingly well balanced on a leather strap. 

Just the job for sofa noodling. 

Edited May 31, 2024 by JohnDaBass
Error

[BabyBlueSound]

@JohnDaBass how is your E string though? Mine was pretty dead, and the A is already losing brightness, and I always play with clean hands.

 

Ordered D'addario nylons anyway, might need to file the nut a bit

[JohnDaBass]

1 minute ago, BabyBlueSound said:

@JohnDaBass how is your E string though? Mine was pretty dead, and the A is already losing brightness, and I always play with clean hands.

 

Ordered D'addario nylons anyway, might need to file the nut a bit

So far no issues, there seems a good balance across the 4 strings through an amp.

Early days, but lets see how the strings bed in and settle down?

[JohnDaBass]

@BabyBlueSound have you been able to source a suitable gig bag or lightweight case?

[BabyBlueSound]

9 minutes ago, JohnDaBass said:

@BabyBlueSound have you been able to source a suitable gig bag or lightweight case?

 

Not yet, not a priority for me being a living room bassist, but I was eyeballing this one as I don't plan to spend a fortune: https://www.thomann.de/gb/thomann_uke_bass_baritone_uke_gigbag.htm

 

Apparently baritone uke bags work.

[NoirBass]

Hey chaps, this bag fits perfectly:

 

https://www.gak.co.uk/en/fender-fems-610-mini-strat-gig-bag/921839

 

[BabyBlueSound]

Oh thanks, but I prefer more... shape  we realised we need more stuff from Thomann anyway, like Elixirs for the shortie, so went ahead with that Thomann bag. I also got a spare nut which I can file to rubber string size, so I can have one nut for the regular strings (if I'd go for those RIDICULOUSLY expensive flats at some time in fhe future), and another for the rubber ones.

 

I think the bridge holes might need to be enlarged for those rubbers tho... 😓

[BabyBlueSound]

Ok, the D'addario nyltech rubber ones arrived and they don't have a ball end, wow. I guess a knot will work just fine. But that E string, whoah! Almost 20mm, really need to enlarge the bridge hole at some point.

[BabyBlueSound]

The case is a perfect fit! The leather plectrums are ridiculously good for this bass, never tried them before.

 

[BabyBlueSound]

Just finalising a basic tone comparison video between my Ibanez Talman, the short Sterling, and the Fender uke bass, good fun. Hope to be uploading it in a day or two.

[BabyBlueSound]

On 04/11/2024 at 10:45, BabyBlueSound said:

Just finalising a basic tone comparison video between my Ibanez Talman, the short Sterling, and the Fender uke bass, good fun. Hope to be uploading it in a day or two.

 

...or six. But finally done. Could have played a bit better, so umm "tone was my point" yeah 😅 This was recorded back in July so my mistakes are even more obvious to me after a couple months of additional  practice since. But always short on time, so compromises have to be made... 😅

 

Planning to use all 3 in a proper full mix setting too, working on a cover.