The Blue Agave Forum: Another attack of UAS - The Blue Agave Forum

UAS, in ukespeak, stands for Ukulele Acquisition Syndrome. It's a disease that afflicts many ukulele aficionados and drives them to want to own every ukulele they see. It appears to be spread through Web sites and forums that cater to the uke.

UAS seems to be a fairly recent illness, maybe one of those emerging diseases like Ebola or Hanta virus that sprang from some hithertofore unknown reservoir, jumping across species until it landed on humans and took hold. A couple of decades ago, in the Paleozoic of the Net, UAS was unknown, merely a rumour backed by no epidemiological data. Today it's a full blown epidemic that has created dozens of ukulele manufacturers taking advantage of the growing spread.

I appear to be a sufferer. Whenever I see a different, new or unusual uke, I want it. I want to hold it, strum it, pick its strings, watch the glint of sunlight on its grain, feel its heft, lovingly caress its slender neck... I've gone through perhaps two dozen ukes in the same number of months. And still I long for another when its image shows up on some forum or a manufacturer's site.

Friday, I took posession of my umpteenth ukulele. I don't actually own every one I've bought. I trade them, and sell them, even give them away, in order to acquire another. I have 10, maybe 12. I'm not sure. It gets fuzzy when I count them in my head and I can't recall if this one or that one is still under the living rom hutch or in my office cupboard. Or was it sold to make room for that one on the dining room table?

Anyway, the latest is a hybrid. It's a bass ukulele, more correctly a Kala U-bass. It's a 20-inch acoustic bass with rubber strings and four piezo-electric pickups (one per string). It's the same scale as my baritone uke, a fraction of the length of a typical electric bass (30-36" depending on style and maker), and less than half an orchestral double bass (42").

The technology behind the U-bass is rather new. Kala paired with Owen Holt, owner and designer for Road Toad Music. Owen had produced some custom ukulele basses in the past (his 'Big Bufo' line), but the price put them in the upper end of the scale and not generally accessible to the average uke-buyer. Pairing with Kala allowed him to create a workable design that could be mass-produced, and sold at a price more of us could afford.

Of course, you have to want to play bass - and have the appropriate venue and equipment to do so. Bass isn't like guitar and an acoustic uke bass is very, very quiet. So quiet in fact that without amplificantion it's hard to hear more than a few feet away, especially the lower notes.