As Fran said, most ABG's are too quiet to be useful without amplification, except maybe practicing in the living room. Been there, done that. There is just not enough body volume / sound board area in a guitar shape to generate any meaningful acoustic volume at lower frequencies.
I dabbled with an upright doghouse bass after taking a couple of workshops and getting quite enthused. Very neat, and a good bass player is welcome nearly anywhere in folk music. But even imported plywood uprights are over $1500, and are so bulky as to be hard to transport in many vehicles. Then I came across the Kala U-bass. Within 90 minutes of buying mine, I was on stage with it backing a bluegrass styled trio, price tag still dangling from the head stock. Afterward someone came up to the stage and said, "I heard the bass, but never saw it." I just handed him my little U-bass and watched his jaw drop. Amplified and with a little judicious EQ they sound pretty doggone convincing. An amp / U-bass combo is both cheaper and much more easily portable than an upright. Gold Tone also makes a similar but slightly larger bass ukulele with rubber strings (actually polyurethane), both fretted and fretless.
The trick to tuning them is: get close to pitch, then press the string down between the nut and peg head to take up any lingering friction in the nut. Then re-tune up to pitch, and it usually stays good then. Those big rubber strings don't slide very easily through the nut slots, which affects tuning accuracy.
I don't play bass a whole lot, but my two nice electric basses have not been out of their cases since buying the Kala. And all delusions of getting an upright bass are gone too.
PS: I've played them a couple of times and they are not for me, but the new Taylor Mini bass (based on the GS Mini body) are pretty OK too. Proprietary strings, but they sound good. Still need to be amplified too. But it might be the "right" answer for you guys.
|