KTone 5208

Another eBay invitation. Once again looking around and not seeing any good new Ukuleles so I was doing searches for other chordophones. In this particular case, Having had a couple of friends telling me about their 5 string basses recently I thought I would run a search for that and see what came up. Obviously a number of very nice Basses came up and most of them were very expensive, but what caught my eye was a 5 string semi-hollow Bass made in China and branded KTone. Now I hadn't come across KTone before bidding on this one but it turns out that its one of those Chinese brands that don't have a website or anything like that and sell internationally through eBay and Amazon, (I have a number of Ukuleles branded like that and I have generally been very happy with them, but KTone don't do Ukuleles just Guitars and Basses which is why I hadn't come across them before). I didn't get it direct from the maker though, mine is second hand and was being sold with a buy it now price as well as an auction. Though the buy in now price was pretty good there wasn't long left on the auction and up until me no one had bid on it so I thought that it was worth the risk of bidding the auction start price and hoping I got it cheap. After all I wasn't that sold on it because, for a change I wasn't that excited by the hollow body, (whilst I luv big ol' hollow body Guitars I'm less keen on Basses), I only really bid because it was a 5 string, (and quite a nice colour), and if I didn't get this, there would be others coming up in much the same circumstance. As I hoped, (and suspected), no one else bid on it so in the end I got it for the start auction price which was a lot less than the buy it now price. So now a 5 string Bass is coming to Ukulele Corner, incorporating the Pony Guitar Sanctuary. I've never played a 5 string Bass before but as I'm not much cop on a 4 string one I don't think the extra string will make me worse?

It's here now and that low B has a mighty rumble!!

You can see it's second hand, it's not that shiny and clean but there is no major blemishes and it does look very fine, (and will look even better once cleaned). Luckily for the little Fender amp, I am borrowing, (with an option to purchase), a Peavey Microbass combo, because that low B would have seriously "upset" the Fender. It did upset my tuner, if the B string was a bit flat, (and it was to start with), the tuner wouldn't register so I had to use octaves, but once it was close I could tune it open, (this was good because I had heard, in investigating the brand after inviting it, that the wooden bridge of the KTone in not great for intonation, especially on the B string. I've not checked this out yet but if it is a problem it looks like a very straightforward job to change the saddle for an adjustable one) As I suspected having the fifth string hasn't improved my Bass playing; but it hasn't made it worse either, just lower and it's a big old neck still it's very welcome at Ukulele Corner incorporating The Pony Guitar Sanctuary and I'm "Ready to Rumble"

I have also taken up the offer to keep the Peavey Bass Combo so I can play this, and my other Basses safely