Well, I'm still going through my inbox and now I'm down to just 281 messages left. What prompted this particular post was an e-mail I got from Rick Carlson over at Kala. He was just letting me know that Bakithi Kumalo played a U-Bass on the Colbert Report (with Paul Simon). The video is pretty rad. Enjoy!
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Paul Simon - Getting Ready for Christmas Day | ||||
|
||||
Yup. That does it. I definitely need a Kala U-Bass now.
So, I got a press release from Kala saying that their U-Bass is currently on tour with Paul Simon. Well, I guess I could say that more clearly. The U-Bass is actually being played by Bakithi Kumalo (thankfully, no one has invented the sentient, walking ukulele... yet. When they do, I'm out of a job.). Bakithi Kumalo is an incredibly musician and you've probably heard his playing before on Paul Simon records (he played on Gracelenad).
Anyway, reading the press release makes me realize that I need to know more about the Kala U-bass.
So, I did a little searching and this is what I've come up with so far. It's a 20" scale bass guitar and the strings are some sort of fancy polyurethane that is some sort of Kala secret ingredient deal. What is blowing my mind is that, for it's size, it has incredibly rich and deep tones. I think if you were listening to it and not looking at it, you'd assume you were listening to an upright bass. So, I guess it's like the musical instrument equivalent of a Bag of Holding from D&D. Somehow, it's like a magical vortex that channels extra deep tone?
Here, take a listen to these guys covering "Stand by Me" and tell me that this bass sound isn't exceptional deep.
Anyway, if someone has one of these, tell us more about it! Heck, make a video even, why doncha?