Ukulele
Kala U-Bass Solid Body
Price: 200 EUR – 336 EUR
Price history
Cheapest seen
Most expensive seen
Availability: 2/10 (Very rare)
A short-scale bass guitar in a baritone-ukulele-sized solid body, strung with Kala's proprietary thick rubber-core Round Wound strings that produce an upright-bass-like tone from a compact, lightweight instrument.
About the Kala U-Bass Solid Body
Kala's U-Bass concept fits a genuine 4-string bass guitar - full EADG tuning, a split-coil pickup, volume and tone controls - into a body barely bigger than a baritone ukulele, achieved through a short 23.5-inch scale and thick, low-tension rubber/nylon-core strings rather than steel roundwounds. Those strings are what give the U-Bass its distinctive round, upright-bass-adjacent tone despite the small body, at a fraction of an upright bass's size and weight.
The Solid Body variant uses an okoume top and body with a maple neck and laurel fingerboard across 22 frets, finished in gloss with matching black hardware: a top-loaded 4-saddle bridge, closed-gear bass tuners at an 18:1 ratio, and a passive split-coil pickup wired to simple volume and tone knobs. A spoke-wheel truss rod allows standard neck relief adjustment, unusual on such a short-scale instrument.
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Reverb 200 EUR Best price View details
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Reverb 336 EUR View details
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Source: https://reverb.com/item/92721852-kala-u-bass-fretted-solid-body-jet-black
Sound character of the Kala U-Bass Solid Body
The thick rubber/nylon-core strings under low tension are the main reason this sounds nothing like a normal bass guitar: they damp high-frequency overtones and produce a round, upright-bass-like fundamental rather than the bright zing of steel roundwounds. The passive split-coil pickup keeps the signal simple and warm, without the added edge active electronics would add.
Technical data for the Kala U-Bass Solid Body
| Top/Body | Okoume |
|---|---|
| Neck | Maple |
| Fretboard | Laurel |
| Frets | 22 |
| Scale length | 23.5" |
| Pickup | Passive split-coil |
| Strings | Kala Round Wounds (rubber core) |
Price history for the Kala U-Bass Solid Body
Cheapest seen: 200 EUR · Most expensive seen: 336 EUR
Cheapest seen
Most expensive seen
The history of the Kala U-Bass Solid Body
Kala popularized the U-Bass concept in the late 2000s specifically to give bassists (and ukulele/guitar players wanting a portable bass) an instrument that could travel easily and be picked up without amp-stack volume, while still producing a genuinely deep, upright-toned low end through its specialized strings.
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