New finishes for Kala Solid Body U-Bass
Kala Brand Music Company just added two more body finishes to options to their Solid Body 4-string fretted
U-Basses. This includes Surf Green and Surf Blue. For review WM got the beach friendly Surf Blue finish in. The total length of this Kala U-Bass is 33.35” with a 23.5” scale, 22 frets and a fingerboard width at the nut of 1.625”. Body is made of okoume, neck is maple and the fretboard is laurel. All of the hardware is chrome, and the bass strings are top load on the 4-string saddle. Passive split-coil pickups with tone and volume controls top mounted. Truss rod is easily adjustable at the bottom of the neck and Kala includes the tool plus a gig bag. Plugged in the Kala Solid Body 4-string fretted U-Bass sounds like a full-scale bass. This is an incredible instrument for musicians that have smaller hands or less hand strength, but also professional bass players utilize these instruments on the road and in studio. With a street cost of only $ 369 this bass is a real bargain and ideal for Youth Group jam sessions or anywhere a bass is needed, but a fullsize bass is more cumbersome. My personal preference is the Surf Blue, so hit the waves and play one today! www. kalabrand. com
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Donner DBM-100 Metronome Most of us can benefit from a good metronome, especially me since I will rush virtually any beat. Donner’ s new DBM-100 Metronome is not only a great metronome, with 4 different modes, but it also contains a Tuner and a Trainer. They have essentially combined a retro video game with a metronome and tuning teaching machine. The microphone on the front of the DBM-100 registers in the device and shows a colorful dot on the LED screen if you are on beat and key or off. There is a volume control on the right side of the device and a plug on the left for earbuds or headphones for silent practice. The buttons on the face of the DBM-100 are very intuitive and there is a kick-out stand on the back of it. The Tuner can tune piano, guitar, ukelele, bass and violin with different tuning values from 430Hz to 450Hz. The screen on the DBM- 100 is a high-definition VA HD LCD making it easy to read for tuning and rhythms. Donner’ s DBM-100 Metronome sells for $ 39.99 and is available in vivid Yellow( as tested) and Black. It has a built-in rechargeable battery with extralong life and its size only measures 3” by 4” and will fit in your instrument gig bag too. www. us. donnermusic. com
Port City Gain of Thrones Pedal I have worked with Port City Amplification for a number of years covering their high-quality amplifiers and cabinets made in Ashville, North Carolina. In recent years Daniel Klein and his team have expanded into creating effects pedals. For review, Worship Musician received the Gain of Thrones pedal. The chassis is a mid-sized metal frame with plenty of adjustable knobs to keep any pedal fanatic happy. Right out of the box the build quality impressed me, and I like the craftsmanship pride with a handwritten number on the base of the pedal. Controls are straight forward with adjustments for volume, presence, gain and boost level on the top row. On the middle row is the 3-band EQ with bass, mids and treble. Two footswitches are on the bottom of the pedal, the left one engages the effect, right one kicks in the boost. The boost is Port City’ s very own Salem Boost circuit which increased the level but doesn’ t bite you with piercing high-end tones. Plugged into the Gain of Thrones I was stunned by warm and full distortion with a touch of fuzz at wide open. The sustain that the GOT delivers is very close to what an amplifier provides when driven. It was simple to dial in heavy rock sounds, warmer Christian rock tones and straight-ahead blues. If you have several distortion pedals on your board now you can replace them all with the Gain of Thrones by Port City Amps. Priced at $ 345 keep in mind this is a boutique distortion pedal with distortion, boost and medieval attitude all in one and 9V outside power is required. www. portcityamps. com
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