Fanned 40"-37" Kalium Guitar Works Quake. Production run of 5 Quakes

[Hollowway]

Your quake is so, so cool! I’ve been eyeing it up for the last little while, and it really was the final push! How have you been utilizing it? Are you tuned to a low C#? I can’t remember now.

Yep, C#. I was considering going down to G#, but even I think that would be totally unusable. The tension at that length needs to be really high to prevent floppiness, and, as Skip will tell you, the G# is barely enough to be usable. For the C#, I think even that is borderline at best. And don't plan on playing indoors, because it makes everything in the room resonate. You'll think you have a bad speaker or something, because the whole house starts rattling.

 

[ixlramp]

What bass are those strings for?

All O4P have said is that they're for a 36" or possibly 37" scale bass.

 

[BryanBuss]

Yep, C#. I was considering going down to G#, but even I think that would be totally unusable. The tension at that length needs to be really high to prevent floppiness, and, as Skip will tell you, the G# is barely enough to be usable. For the C#, I think even that is borderline at best. And don't plan on playing indoors, because it makes everything in the room resonate. You'll think you have a bad speaker or something, because the whole house starts rattling.

Hahah. I can’t wait! I have a couple bass rigs to try out, but ultimately I’d love to get a green boy, or those beaaautiful speakers Kalium are making now.

What are you using for amplification ?

 

[ixlramp]

With good timing Kalium has posted a string photo on FB also.
All roundwound, .266 bass, .182 bass, .182 guitar, .021 guitar.

 

[I play music]

All O4P have said is that they're for a 36" or possibly 37" scale bass.

For that tuning I was expecting something extra long, 37" almost sounds short for this

 

[ixlramp]

Certainly too short, a .412 on a fairly normal scale will of course be very 'stiff' in terms of the ratio of width to length. This ratio is what primarily determines the stiffness/inharmonicity/dullness of a string. Bass low B and the low F# of an 8 string guitar both suffer due to a problematically high ratio, despite the best efforts to make strings as flexible as possible for their gauge.
The 40" scale of a Kalium Quake (which apparently is surprisingly playable) makes a low B possible with this ratio equal to that of a light gauge E string.

 

[Hollowway]

Hahah. I can’t wait! I have a couple bass rigs to try out, but ultimately I’d love to get a green boy, or those beaaautiful speakers Kalium are making now.

What are you using for amplification ?

I was going to get a fEARful, myself, but I did some research, and it looked like the Mike Arnopol 112 got lower before the roll off (for the fundamental) so I decided to pick up one of those (used on talkbass). I want to get a better amp, but right now it’s just a Peavey Minimax. Which is good, but, like any good forum-goer, I’ve convinced myself I’d instantly be a better player if I get a Darkglass.

Anyway, here’s the MAS-112 specs. Check out the greenboy forums and the forums on the MAS page. Lots of good info there!

I was thisclose to buying a true-sub Kalium from Skip, but couldn’t rationalize throwing more money at low frequencies. I don’t even play live, so it’s getting a bit ridiculous for me to be doing this to the extent I am.

http://www.masoundworks.com/manage.numo?pid=23&module=shopping_cart&component=catalog

 

[BryanBuss]

Oh thanks for the link Hallowway!
That mas-112 looks amazing! I might have to go down that road one day....
I know what you mean about throwing money at low frequencies.

For now, for my Quake that arrived today! I am using some bass head (I can't remeber, haha) through an
Acoustic 301 18" and a trace elliot 1 x 18" . It is loud!

The Acoustic has some good rumble, and the trace elliot is quite clear and tight.

Same here, I am not playing live with this rig, so no reason to invest a crazy amount. That whole bass rig I am using was about $400 and a lot of luck.

 

[ixlramp]

 

[eggy in a bready]

If anyone is interested, i'm looking to sell my Quake. It's a crazy good bass, i have just come to the slow realization that i'm not super low tunings like i used to be.

It's the all-black mahogany neck-thru fanned Quake that was posted a few pages ago. PM me if yr interested.

 

[eggy in a bready]

*correction... bolt-on, not neck-thru

 

[ixlramp]

That's cool, but thought i would mention, the long scale benefits low B too, you can get a B with the flexibility and clarity of a light E.
Plus, it can be used as a tap bass with a string dampner and not lose any scale length when played from fret 2 up.

 

[ixlramp]

New page up about the Quake. They are using an interesting hum-bucking triple single coil blending pickup configuration https://www.kaliummusic.com/quake-bass/

 

[Dayn]

I saw that page. Knowing very little about bass electronics, that new configuration seems to be the best of all worlds.

I wish there was a 6-string available, but I guess 5 will do for the type of music I'd use it for...

 

[ixlramp]

The chat on Facebook suggests a 6 will happen in a future batch, and Skip might make it a headless in order to fit inside the gig bag provided with the bass (the 5s barely fit in the gig bag).

 

[I play music]

The chat on Facebook suggests a 6 will happen in a future batch, and Skip might make it a headless in order to fit inside the gig bag provided with the bass (the 5s barely fit in the gig bag).

Now THAT sounds interesting!
Btw, do those basses have SS or NS frets?

 

[Winspear]

Cool! I was always surprised basses this length weren't headless to start with, but I suppose hardware was much more challenging back then.

 

[saved]

Here is my 34"scale vig cobra bass,a 40"p-bass and a 47-44"scale headless bass (not finished yet,now its at the painting stage).
The headless and the p-bass are both the same total length,but i like more basses with headstock

 

[ixlramp]

Wow that headless is stunning. I can see you have placed the lower waist to shift the bridge well to the right. Make sure to show this to Skip at Kalium sometime. Really good to see this project.

 

[saved]

The body shape is for easier playing and reduce weight.Its only 4.5 kg the bass.And for this enormous scale,4.5 kg is featherweight.It also is torzal twisted design and mr.Ola Strandberg,allowed me to use his endourneck design.
Any way.This topic is for Kalium quakes.Dont want to hijack it.
When my bass will be ready (it took me more than 2 years because of my limited time,is the bass with my goat friend) i am gonna make a topic for this.
Just posted the pic to saw you a headless bass longer than 34" scale