Ukulele Bass

Ukulele Bass a.k.a U-Bass, UBass
The Ukulele Bass is technically not a Ukulele, this is a hybrid instrument. It is tuned E~A~D~G, often fretless and generally played 1 string at a time like a Bass Guitar, all of which take it away from being a Ukulele, however it has a Baritone Ukulele firmly in its heritage, is usually produced by people who make Ukuleles, and is usually lumped in with Ukuleles by resellers, hence its inclusion here.

Its story started off with the Ashbory Bass, originally developed in 1986 as a portable travel Bass / Double Bass by Alun Ashworth-Jones and Nigel Thornbory, (hence the name), and was marketed by Guild. It wasn't very successful at the time and was dropped from Guilds catalogue in 1988, but being innovative it was remembered and after Fenders takeover of of Guild they reintroduced it in 1999 under their DeArmond brand name. (Fender have sold Guild and DeArmond on, but have kept the Ashbory Bass)

The Ashbory Bass was the inspiration for luthier Owen Holt, (Road Toad), to invent the Ukulele Bass. He noticed that the scale length for the Ashbory and the scale length for his Baritones were practically the same, and wondered what would happen if he made an acoustic Baritone Ukulele that could take the rubbery Ashbory strings and tuning; so he made one.

Whilst it did work acoustically, it worked better amplified so he put piezo pickups in the saddle, and as he was experimenting he started looking for better strings than the Ashbory ones, (one of the reasons the Ashbory Bass wasn't more popular was because everyone hated the strings), and went on to develop his PaHoeHoe strings. With everything in place and a few more prototypes produced, (he called them "Big Buffo's"), he took the idea to Kala who liked the idea enough to licence it and started producing the Kala U-Bass. With nicer strings that the Ashbory Bass, and the [[Ashbory Bass again being out of production, the Kala U-Bass was a success. Other Ukulele manufacturers took notice of this success and start to produce their own versions, (not under licence from Road Toad), and other string makers started to look at making strings to fit them, thus getting the ball rolling and making the Ukulele Bass far more popular than the Ashbory Bass ever was.

The instrument was firmly established as this Baritone size Ukulele with a very wide neck and very thick, rubbery strings, but there was further experimentation and developments. Owen Holt continued to experiment, producing Ukulele Tenor size Ukulele Basses he called "Baby Buffo's" and even Ukulele Concert size Ukulele Basses he called "Tadpoles". He also further developed his PaHoeHoe strings to fit these sizes. A few other luthiers, like David Gomes have had a go at making them, but the idea of an even smaller Ukulele Bass hasn't really caught on.

The string maker Aquila, having developed their own set of Thundergut Ukulele Bass strings, decided to look at the deficiencies of the current Ukulele Bass with acoustic volume and intonation and went on to develop some longer scaled alternatives, (up to 660mm - 26in), which improves both volume and intonation while still keeping to the spirit and portability of the Ukulele Bass. Some other manufacturers have taken up this idea and produced their own models and they generally get described as a Long Scale Ukulele Bass. There is an issue here particularly with the 26in scale Ukulele Basses as this runs into the scale length of a number of Bass Guitar manufacturers smallest models, often called Micro Bases, (Ashbory and Owen Holt weren't the only people looking to produce smaller, more convenient travel Bass Guitars over the years)

The string maker Pyramid also developed some Ukulele Bass strings, originally at the behest of Stevens Guitars, but there were wound round steel over a nylon core and were a lot thinner and more normal feeling than the rubbery ones. This development has caught on with other makers too with, for example, Kala creating the U-Bass Rumbler around them.

Owen Holt and Kala have also taken on the fact that the Ukulele Bass has acoustic limitation by moving firmly into Ashbory Bass territory and producing a number of solid body Ukulele Basses. Kala call them S.U.B (Solid Ukulele Bass), and they have no pretentions of being Electric-Acoustic. Other manufacturers are producing their own solid body Ukulele Basses both using rubber or wound nylon strings, but at time of writing Fender have not announced any reissue of the Ashbory Bass, (there are rumours; but there are always rumours?)