Acoustic Bass
 

Is this a no no? Assuming that is a no, what would be your preferred acoustic bass choices:

List them from most affordable to the most desirable.

Granted affordable varies person to person so in the end don't hold back, lay it on me.

The reason I am asking? I have a serious craving to start trying bass again in addition to what I am already doing. It came more natural to me but wasn't as fun due to limited direction. I might find that with my teacher.

I do NOT want to invest a ton of money into this let alone buy more equipment than I need like an electric bass guitar and amp. I want to keep it simple for now just to see where this goes. Hence wanting to go acoustic bass for now.

The acoustic bass guitar is a great instrument.

Abe Wechter built the one(s) used by Jonas Hellborg on The Silent Life, Ars Moriende and other records.

If your budget doesn't have room for Abe Wechter, you can sometimes find the Klein/Kauffman-designed Taylor AB-x acoustic bass, which was in production in the late 1990s. Be aware that it's huge (19" lower bout). They can be found for $2-3k.

THANKS! But for now, I say a couple of hundred at most. If I were to spend 2k I might as well go electric with an amp.

I think you can get a lot more guitar for your money by buying an electric bass. I picked up a used Fender Squire Precision Bass for about $65-70 and it plays great. Inexpensive solid body electrics are one of the few things on which you can still get a good deal at pawnshops because they get inundated with them. I've been using it with an old Peavey Backstage 30 amp that I had lying around. Even though the Peavey isn't really intended for bass, since I was playing with friends on acoustic guitars I didn't really have to turn it up all that loud.

Most acoustic bass guitars are somewhat volume-challenged, so you may need to be amplified if playing with others.
I'll second the recommendation for a cheap electric bass and amp, if you're goal is playing bass with other players.

There have been a few threads about this on the Other Stringed Instruments forum that you might want to check out - I think there's one that's semi-active/fairly recent, so you won't need to search too hard...

FYI. you can get a name-brand electric setup that'll take you from the bedroom to all but the most demanding stage gigs for well under $1K - just by way of example:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/bass/...woody&index=1#
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/acces...0woody&index=3
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/acces...s-medium-scale
http://carvinaudio.com/collections/m.../products/mb12

Bearing in mind that you can pull an extra 10-15% off with MF over the phone, and the fact that Carvin's having a 20% off sale as we speak, a flat-out $1K will also get you an additional 15" bottom that'll turn your system into a quasi-4-way rig that you'll likely never need to replace:

http://carvinaudio.com/collections/m...roducts/115mbe

BTW, the MB12 is the bass-only version of the AG300 acoustic rig that's received some excellent feedback (pun intended) over on the Amplification forum - I've been using one as my go-to for the last four years so I speak from experience here...

Hope this helps...

Volume challenged generally applies. Poor ergonomics compared to electric basses.

Something like a Godin offers a nice chambered bass with a piezo, given you still need an amp, anyway.

I play Rob Allen basses, which are pretty much the Cadillac of semi-acoustic basses.

The only acoustic bass that interests me is this.

http://www.lemurmusic.com/Images/BA1...ot%20Front.jpg

The bass player in my band has one of those acoustic bass guitars and from my perspective they are not great for anything other than noodling at home alone. He has tried using it in informal acoustic jam sessions and the volume is simply not there. A double bass is the only thing I have heard that can compete with other guitars, banjos and fiddles.

Consider the new Emerald all Carbon Fiber XB-35 Acoustic Bass. It has recently been revealed by Emerald in a thread in the CF sub-forum including pics and videos (link to thread below). Looks and sounds very impressive.

http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/f...d.php?t=437000

Probably what the bassist from Violent Femmes plays, because that's the only guy I've seen who plays an acoustic bass.

No acoustic bass guitar that you can buy for $200 is going to be worth getting, frankly.

Acoustic bass guitars (ABG's) are one of those things that SEEM like they must be a great idea, but which don't really work all that well in real life. You can get a nice tone from some of them, but if you're trying to play with more than one other person in a quiet room, you won't really be heard unless you plug the ABG into an amp.

At which point the silliness of the whole thing becomes manifest. You can spend much less money and get a much better instrument by buying a used electric bass. They're a lot more portable, as well - I owned a Tacoma Thunderchief ABG for a while, and it was like carrying around a doghouse intended for a oversized pit bull everywhere I went. Plus it required an amp to be heard.


However, if you want to get an acoustic tone and still be portable, you can get one of these cool little Kala bass ukes:


These sell for about twice your budget, but if you're patient and faithfully watch your local Craigslist, you can probably snag a used one.

And they actually sound good. There's a band called "Walk Off The Earth" that posts a lot of music videos on YouTube, and they use one of these on a fairly regular basis.

You'll still need to have a little amp for it to be audible, but these Kala bass ukes are surprisingly viable instruments. It's a pretty good option for you to consider.

Hope this helps.


Wade Hampton Miller

For playing unamplified in a purely acoustic setting, my Martin BM acoustic bass guitar does just fine for me. As soon as there needs to be a PA for the vocals, I would want to plug it in to join the happy throng. For more serious endeavors, I drag out the Fender Precision. :)

Looks interesting, BUT...

1. I'd have to hear it in person and put it head to head with an acoustic guitar.

2. I'd have to play it for a while. Bridge placement often moves the bridge, which often means the reach feels a lot longer. The body thickness can make the plucking technique much less ergonomic.

Gold Tone is also making a version of this sort of bass uke, with what looks like a longer scale neck on it, which probably helps the intonation and tone:



whm

I have one of these and love it. I have the 25" scale fretted version. Acoustic or Mic'd you can get the flavor of a standup.