This solid body short scale bass is a treat to look at, excellent to play and is really well made. It’s body is contoured for comfort and balance and it’s finished brilliantly. It looks fab, but importantly, it’s a solid body bass ukulele from a company that has a real focus on making basses. Kala’s boss is a bass player and he clearly knows what he’s doing when it comes to the instrument.

The fretted, tobacco sunburst solid body Kala bass has a 23.5” scale and a body that’s 33.25” long, making a bit longer than a baritone ukulele, but still well in keeping with a ukulele group’s ‘aesthetic’. There’s a laurel fingerboard, lovely and smooth maple neck and geared tuners that seem really smooth and well made too. The whole package includes a good quality Kala gig bag too.

The pickup is really clean and responsive, a split coil passive unit that produces a rounded, yet articulate tone. It feels comfortable to play and well put together - which is a relief. Although I check every instrument before it goes out and make any neccessary adjustments, it gives me confidence that these need tweaking, not a major overhaul (which could be said for some of its near-in-price competitors).

It has two strap buttons fitted, a nice looking headstock and scratch guard (if you see any ripples on the photos, that’s just the protective cover on that scratch plate). The nut width is 40mm and it’s fitted with Kala Roundwound strings. If you want to know the product code? It’s a clunky sounding ubass-sb-tb-fs! Thankfully this Kala bass ukulele is far from clunky, it’s quality.

If you click additional info below, you’ll find a short demo video from Kala. (You don’t want to see my bass skills on a video, as they’re very basic indeed).