Horse Bass Ukulele Review - Cheap Bass Uke
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- Опубликовано: 8 июл 2024
- Horse Bass Ukulele Review - Cheap Bass Uke / U-Bass
Horse Electro-Acoustic Sapele Bass Ukulele
Very cheap bass ukulele made by Horse - company links to Kmise and Aklot.
Available on Amazon and Ebay - price approx. £100 - one of the cheapest bass ukes on the market.
I have been given this bass ukulele to review as a free instrument but on the understanding that I could give an honest and in-depth review as a bass and ukulele player / teacher. I want to be as up-front and open about the review as normally, I am reviewing my own instruments that I have purchased.
Horse Bass Ukulele Review:
00:00 Intro to cheap Horse bass ukulele
01:48 Bass uke package - what is included
03:01 Basic info on price and available on Amazon and Ebay
04:35 Horse U-Bass features
08:52 Horse bass ukulele specification
10:00 Bass ukulele string compartment
10:53 Generally obsevations of bass ukulele
11:37 Horse bass ukulele played acoustically
12:35 Bass uke demo - string consistency
15:17 Full Horse bass uke demo
17:47 Bass uke conclusions and overview
Bass ukuleles and equipment featured in this video:
Horse Sapele Electro Acoustic Bass Ukulele
Warwick CCL ND4
Website: ukulele.wales/
T-Shirts & Merch: www.redbubble.com/people/ukul...
Ukulalien Play Along Channel: / ukulaliensukuleleclub
Welcome back, and thanks for the in-depth review/demo.
My pleasure and Thanks.
I first found the Ukulele Wales channel because I bought an inexpensive ukulele bass. I am still a novice but through your lessons and the Ukualiens play along videos I am loving learning to play. You are a wonderful teacher! I'm happy that you're feeling better. Thank you for this very informative review.
Thank You for your lovely comment Shirl. So glad to be helping and that you are enjoying. :-)
Thanks for the review. I bought a Horse Bass Uke before I found this review, and, as a beginner, I'm very happy with it. I'm also enjoying your Bass lessons, thank you.
Glad I could help!
Thank you very much for this review!
My pleasure! It's a nice cheap bass uke.
Very well done review. You make that bass a very tempting purchase for people like me who don’t need another bass but can’t resist a good bargain.
Glad you enjoyed the review, I do have to say, for the price I was impressed and in fact another member of my uke group has just bought one today.
Thank you! This was very helpful!
Glad it was helpful, Thanks
Hi there, great to have discovered you, I'm from Porthcawl :) I bought this bass the other day, before I found your tutorial and comments on the 'Horse' bass.. Good to see that you say lots of positive things about it. I'm really excited to get going and I'm definitely going to be following your tutorials! Chwarea teg!
Shw mae Andrea, love Porthcawl. Fab to hear you've got yourself a bass uke, please feel free to ask if you ever have a question. Do you play with a group? Shaun Keddy who runs the Maesteg club has organised a uke day on the 16th October in Maesteg but has also organised ukulele jams in Porthcawl too which were great fun.
You make it look so easy....thank you
Thanks, but there's a few decades of playing there. ;-)
Sut mae Rachel. Thanks for the honest review. My horse arrived yesterday and is just what I needed to expand my musical range. Been playing concert uke for six months and I've enjoyed your lessons. Now I shall start the bass ones. Diolch
Great to hear your bass uke has arrived and you having been enjoying the uke lessons too. Give me a shout if you get stuck. Diolch
Great review. You got a new subscriber. Greetings from México.
Awesome, thank you Alberto.
Hi there. I stumbled on your RUclips channel before Christmas and have been visiting your videos since. I wanted to get a u-bass but wanted to start modestly. I had an Aklot (fretted) in my Amazon basket for ages, but then it was sold out. I found the Horse one for a similar price and put that in the basket instead, and when during Christmas week it came down to around £80 I jumped on it. I'm now following your u-bass video lessons (about to start Lesson 3) but just happily stumbled on your review of the very same Horse u-bass!! When amped up, my top E string is quite quiet, so I'll try your trick of pressing down as the saddle to see if that helps! Many thanks!! Keep 'em coming!!
Hi Neil, apologies for the delay in my reply. So glad that you have joined the u-bass family and you are enjoying the lessons. I do hope you sort the sound on you bass out and hopefully pressing it down has worked. Also, take a look at the U bass freaks facebook group, lots of friendly bass uke players and even more info about fixing the sound. Thanks for the support.
nice review..I've got two low end bass ukes, a UK Dream (fretted) and an Aklot (fretless)..both play just fine to my ears, and audiences seem to like the sound they produce, so I've saved money for another full scale bass.
Thanks Jim, great to hearing you are loving it so much you are going bigger.
@@UkuleleWales my collection is getting too big (or so my partner tells me), but I do make sure I play them all
How do you change strings in that? There’s no screws to open back of the U bass to put strings! Any leads? Thanks a ton for this amazing video:) cheers
Hi, if your bass ukulele doesn't have the compartment in the back to unscrew, you remove the string from the headstock and then push the string out through the soundhole or at least undo the knot. You then do the opposite, push the new string in through hte bridge, tie the knot through the sound hole and attach to headstock. Hope this helps.
That looks very similar to my Makala Uke bass, they’re OK I got mine instead of a short scale bass I’ve got very small hands and just thought that it would be easier. I play my collection through a Blackstar BEAM, it’s a great little amp to have if like me you play Bass, Electric, Acoustic and MP3 backing tracks - hence the acronym! I think that there are quite a few reasonable Uke basses around especially on Amazon for around that sort of price, another one worth looking into is the Donner brand, apart from inexpensive but good pedals they also make nice budget guitars and ukuleles!
Agree Darrell, there are quite a few of these bass ukuleles that are very similar. I've got a couple of Donner pedals and think they are great too.
Rachel, I'm not sure where to leave this Ruby update, but I'll try here and hope you see it. Ruby's intonation was, indeed, a little more acceptable with the Road Toad pahoehoe polyurethane strings. However, after a good go, I realized that I'd never, ever like them. So I changed back to the round wounds, which involved reinstalling the original nut. Unfortunately, after that the intonation was back to being quite bad. In the end, I sold it-- being upfront about the issue, of course. Meanwhile, I still have my Kala Journeyman electro-acoustic and have grown to love it! It has round wound strings and perfect intonation! When I first got it, I disliked the top and string noise, but tweaking the EQ and input level on my PJ Double Four amp resulted in a marked reduction in that noise! Oh, and I found a PJ powered cabinet (on sale!) to connect to the Double Four, adding 100 watts of bass goodness! It sounds great, I learned a few things along the way, and, as you probably can tell from the exclamation points, I'm happy! LOL!! Wishing you a healthy, happy new year!
Thanks for the update Jules! I'm gutted for you but also happy that at least you are enjoying your journeyman more! WOW, great find with the PJ, love that gear!!! Do a search for: MARLEAUX CONSAT SOPRANO I'll just leave it there! ;-)
@@UkuleleWales Oh, those look so, so cool! Are you thinking of getting one? Maybe you should! Sell whatever it takes to make one yours! (But not Nik.) Maybe a big bake sale?LOL! Then you could demo it so that I can view it and drool all over my keyboard. 🤩
I just bought one of these. I am very satisfied with it (for $120). I already replaced the strings with UBass flat wounds...highly recommend this as they sound a LOT better than the rubber band strings that shipped with it (same as in this vid). I also took all the frets off and turned it into a fretless. While de-fretting I had a good look at the woods. I am pretty sure the fret board wood is bamboo stained dark. Not sure what the bridge wood is...mystery wood that looks painted. When I was done I took extra fine steel wool to the whole thing as the finish was very shiny and cheap looking. The steel wool gave it a nice satin look and feel. Still need to adjust the action as it is still set up for action ala-fretted which puts them a bit too high...but still very playable.
Mine sounds great through may bass amp(s) and is even fun to noodle around with unplugged. Strings are balanced in volume.
Also: That access door on the back: Mine was hard to get off but after I got it off I noticed the 6 holes were kind of fragile. I fixed that by "painting" each hole inside and out with super glue. Just soak it into the wood grain. It will reinforce those holes so they don't break. Go easy and try to NOT clog the holes or you will have to drill them out so it works properly.
If you are looking to dip into the UBass world this is a fine starter. I play bass and guitar and have played lots of stuff over the years. This is certainly worth $120 or so (+ $50 for those flat wounds...which is worth the extra $$). -Dean
Hi Dean, very glad to hear that you like your bass. I can see you've made another comment too as it is not something I have tried so really can't say what the long term effect on the bass the strings might have. Fingers crossed that it works out, I would be really interested to know. At leat there is a trussrod so the neck may be able to cope with the extra tension. Great to hear you like the improved sound of the flatwounds, fingers crossed it works out.
@@UkuleleWales Hello Wales! So far the Horse has been strung up with the flatwounds for nearly a week. No problems at all. I put a flat steel ruler on edge across various surfaces of the top...and nothing is caving in. If it were caving in the edge, remaining straight, would allow light to show between it and the top. So far, so good. I will post back if this changes. I do believe a number of these instruments are all made in the same plant...so I am guessing what works for Horse works for Carmel, Donner, etc. Thanks for your channel! Good work!
@@deanrickman8093 Very good to hear. Yes please let me know if anything changes but will be considering doing this at some point 👍
Gr8 review and Thanks for it! A while back I bought a UK Dream cheap ubass for the reasons you suggested. Still have it tho it was a bit frustrating learning how to rid the instrument of buzz from the 6th to 12th frets but got rid of all but some of the 12th. No truss rod so won't change that 1 to steel strings of any type. My next ubass (was) is an Ohana UB22. It came with round wounds and I found a private maker (before Aquila started making any steel ubass strings) that made me a set of stainless flat wounds that sound and feel GR*! Well thanks again for the review and the time. Back to playing my Ohana.
Glad to hear your are enjoying th Ohana. I'd love to try flatwounds on a bass uke, especially on a fretless. That's my preferred choice on bass guitar. I bet yours sounds awesome.
@@UkuleleWales aye it does...
I sorted fret buzz higher up the neck on my Countryman with a small piece of credit card creased in a v shape placed over the saddle to increase the action on the E and A strings! 😉
Nice!
Thanks!
Loved it when you said, " I'm not a horsie kind of person." LOL! Me, either. 😄 Thanks for the thorough and very entertaining review! Take good care, Rachel. Be healthy, be happy, but not horsie. 😆
Thanks as always Jules, I do think we'd have fun chatting you know! I'm definitely not horsie!!
@@UkuleleWales Chatting with you would be very fun, I feel sure! 😊 Oh, and I owe you a Ruby update. Stay tuned, coming soon. Little preview: I've discovered a heretofore unknown deep dislike of Road Toad Pahoehoe polyurethane strings. I still ❤️ roundwounds.
Great to see you back on your fingers walking again Rachel. Your Horse looks like a cheaper version of my Caramel.
Thanks Tobias. Agree, there are quite a few bass ukes on the market now, many are similar in loks. How are you finding the Caramel?
One thing about the cheaper basses is check the fret markers. The ones I have seen online have been stuck in nonstandard patterns.
Totally agree! My Horse bass uke has the marker on 10 not 9 and I've noticed my Fanner bass has the same. I think there is often confusion as many ukuleles are marked on the 10th fret, I know sometimes I forget about it!
What would you advise for someone who has never played a bass or bass Ukulele but wants to start .... I'm considering the Horse bass ukulele or the Flight mini bass that you've also reviewed. Any advice greatly appreciated! X
Hi Jennifer, apologies for the delayed reply. The Horse bass ukulele and the Flight bass are very different instruments both in sound and the w looks. I suppose it depends on what you will be playing with it, if you want more of a bass guitar sound with the metal round wound strings on the Flight will achieve this, whereas the Horse with it’s rubber strings will sound more like an upright / double bass. The Horse is less than half the price of the Flight bass but I would say the quality of the Flight bass is better.
Maybe start with the Horse bass and if you find you are enjoying playing bass you could look to get the Flight in the future? (I’m currently up to 9 bass ukes if that helps 😉)
If you squint your eyes a little bit, the horse logo on the bag almost looks like the word kmise.
I hadn't noticed but now you say it................ I can too.
Do you think you could use round wound strings on this?
I’m new to uke bases, prefer a brighter sound. Thanks
Honest anser about the strings, I don't know. SOme bass ukes will take the extra tension of metal strings but I haven't looked into for this one yet. Take a look at the Kala Journeyman as they do come with round wounds. Hope this helps.
My Aklot Ukulele Bass loves the silver plated strings i purchased from Thoman, Southern Ukulele also supply.
Hi, and thanks for the review. You mentioned that the chord chart was useless. I play uke, so I figured that I could just get a Ubass and play it using uke chords and picking out the bass notes. I won't need to learn the bass guitar tuning. That would be doable, yeah?
Yes, the main thing is, if you can learn where the notes are on the fingerboard you can then just pick out the main bass note (the root of the chord normally). The chord chart is great if you also play the uke as you'll understand it but if you only play bass it's not that helpful. The beginner bass lessons I've done work in exactly this way.
@@UkuleleWales Great. I'm trying to work out if it's feasible to restring the ubass to tune it like a uke. I figure that I would have to select similar sized strings from two sets of strings, if that makes sense.
I just bought a Hartwood Bass and the side Frets are really sharp ..how do you smooth them down
Sharp frets are fairly easy to sort out, I either use a grinding stone (in a vid that I can't find right now) or an emery board spongue similar to in the video below. If I can find the other vid I'll post that too.
ruclips.net/video/3p-heZ6WMMo/видео.html
Update: A note of caution: Anyone reading this feed please take heed: I put the Kala flatwounds on my Horse UBass (as mentioned below) knowing full well that they might, because of higher tension, eventually (or instantly!) crush the instrument! The manufacturer did not authorize this at all...I did it on my own. SO...be forewarned and proceed at your own peril! I have no idea if this Ukulele will work "long term" with the flat wound strings as those strings have a higher tension than the Thunder Gut strings that came on the unit. So far, no problems but it's only been a few days. The Kala Flatwounds are by Kala and for Kala and I have read that the Kala boxes are supposed to be more robust as to withstand the higher tension of these strings. I have no idea. If, in the long run, these strings destroy my Horse UBass I will probably just get a fretless Kala.
PS: I am a horse person! Two, Pepper and Thunder, if you don't count the Uke! So I really like that Uke name and logo!!
Did it hold up long term?
@@brendanm6921 Hello Brendan,
Yes! It has held up just fine! Note that, as a precaution, I tuned it down to an D G C F for practice and storage...then I tune it up to E A D G if I play with others, do gigs, etc. That way 98% of the time it is NOT under full tension. I am not sure that is necessary but I don't want to find out either! It's happy with less tension and has lasted for months now with NO problems.
Hope this helps!
Determined to be cheap. Build quality is not bad for the price.
Would agree, it's not the same quality as the more expensive u-basses but it is very playable.
@@UkuleleWales I have not yet taken delivery of the Bass. I didn't buy to bass admire the beauty of it.
Hmmm sounds nice
Glad you like it.
Shw mae (Gday!) from Australia. Great stuff Rachel. Just thinking about a Bass as a beginner and was looking at Kmise. Which is a better buy do you think...the Horse or Kmise.
Gday Mic. I haven't actually played the Kmise bass ukulele but I do know the one you mean. It doesn't have the bacl string compartment which is something to be aware of. It is possible to change strings but a bit more fiddly. I would say on that front the Horse bass uke is an improvement. I also prefer the darker look to the fingerboard and bridge, but that is a personal thing. The specs look pretty much the same but without having played the Kmise bass it's difficult to comment on playability. Let me know if you do decide on.
Great videos only spoiled by the frequent annoying adverts every few minutes.
Fair comment. I just let the ads run automatically and I know they are annoying on some of the longer videos but the income is allowing me to invest in better equipment for better quality videos so I do hope you can forgive me.
Is this instrument fretted ?
Yes, fretted electro acoustic.