Acoustic bass guitar basics

[musical123]

Hi,

I am toying with the idea of buying an acoustic bass guitar in the $500 range and have no experience at all with them (never played one yet).

Are there any rules of thumb for these?


Brands to avoid?

Scale and nut?

Certain woods to consider?

Strings? Flatwounds?

Etc


Thanks for any information you can provide.

[Mandobart]

An acoustic bass guitar (ABG) needs to be amplified if you want to be able to hear it when being played with even just one other guitar. This is especially true for the lower cost ones. If you only plan to play your ABG at home alone you can maybe skip the amp. Otherwise you'll need to budget for an amp as well if you don't already have one.

My advice is since you'll need an amp anyway, go ahead and get an electric bass guitar. IMO you can get a better quality electric for $500 than you can an acoustic.

There are all kinds of options out there from the rubber stringed uke basses all the way up to a double bass. I just started renting an upright bass from my local music store at the beginning of the year. Again, just my opinion, but a 3/4 size double bass is the way to go if you have the space to store and transport it.

[Steve DeRosa]

Picking up on the above, you could score a Hofner Ignition Series bass (either Beatle or Club style) and a Fender Rumble 40 amp for around $600 total if you shop around - the light weight (for both) and the short scale make it a quick learn as opposed to a 34" P-Bass type, and with a set of flatwound strings (LaBella makes specially-designed sets - FYI the guitar-sized tuners won't handle regular bass strings regardless of brand or scale length) you can get a nice blend with acoustic instruments, with enough volume for most gigs...

[cliff_the_stiff]

I began bass playing an acoustic, but I didn’t really learn bass index and middle finger technique until I had an electric bass with a pickup to rest my thumb on.
So I can play an acoustic bass guitar, but I can’t “play bass” on one.

[Rudy4]

Originally Posted by musical123

Hi,

I am toying with the idea of buying an acoustic bass guitar in the $500 range and have no experience at all with them (never played one yet).

Are there any rules of thumb for these?


Brands to avoid?

Scale and nut?

Certain woods to consider?

Strings? Flatwounds?

Etc


Thanks for any information you can provide.

Very good suggestions already, particularly the relative unusefulness of a standard acoustic bass (unless you want one to play be itself.)

If you want to play bass the suggestion of the Fender Rumble 40 is solid. It is small, but will suffice in small settings. Moving up to the Rumble 100 is even better if you want to eventually get serious with your bass playing. (I actually gig with a Rumble 100.)

I can highly recommend a Ibanez Mikro short scale bass as an excellent option for a new bass player if you choose to go the electric route. I bought one of these that was less than a year old on Craigslist for $50, so there are bargains to be found.

If you want the "look" you could go with a pickup in a "acoustic bass guitar". Taylor makes and excellent starter bass in its GS Mini line of guitars, but there are a lot of other choices in acoustic bass guitars. You do need to consider that there's just not a lot of volume produced with these instruments.

[frankmcr]

Kala U-Bass? Since you're going to need an amp anyway.

Random demo:

[leew3]

+1 for the U-Bass. I love mine and when playing out I find that I more often take this one over my Fender J Bass. It's much smaller, lighter and sounds great-yep, you'll need an amp but bass combo amps that work well are cheaper by the day. Have fun!

[Brent Hahn]

I'm mainly a bass player. If you want to learn to approach music from a bass-player point of view and develop a real bass-player touch, I don't think it much matters what you get for a first one as long as it's not unplayable. Just get something and start playing.

My only negative about acoustics is that, if you get into the habit of playing one without an amp, the bottom 5 or so notes won't be as loud as they should be, so you'll tend to not play that fat E string at all and you won't develop your touch on it.

I've never been able to do much with a uke bass, but that's on me. Other people do fine with them. I don't think I'd get a 5-string for a first bass, especially not an acoustic. And once you've got "how to hold your hands" figured out, I don't think scale length matters much. The longer your scale, though, the more options you have in terms of where to play the mid-to-high notes without them getting "stubby."

[columbia]

What type of music do you want to play? For bluegrass and folk, assuming a 3/4 upright is out of the question, I prefer the uke bass for sound and portability.

[nostatic]

I've done a lot of bass gigs with a lot of different bands doing a lot of different genres. I find acoustic bass guitar to be pretty much a useless instrument unless a bandleader demands that "look." They aren't loud enough to play in an ensemble without amplification, and you get all of the problems of amplifying an acoustic instrument (eg feedback, wolf notes, etc) without few of the benefits.

As others have noted, bass is a different mindset than guitar despite the same tuning of the low four strings. That is part of the hurdle. Depending on what kind of music and situation you're looking for, you could go full monty with an upright (some bandleaders want only that look), or you can just get a P-bass and call it good. I use fretless Rob Allen basses for my main gig these days (one is 34" scale, the other is 30" scale - both are spectacular), which can cop an upright vibe while not looking like a P-bass.

The Uke-bass can be fun - I have one that stays in the jeep as an emergency backup (fretless, rubber band strings, built-in piezo). But that wouldn't be my first choice for an entry into the low end world.

totally ymmv though...

Some might think an ABG would be the fit for this, but I think the Rob Allen kills on this (as does the bandleader and its his gig) https://www.soulstingers.com/coastofmarseille

[JLS]

The late lamented Tacoma Thunderchief was the only ABG that sounded like a bass instrument, but again needed an amp to be heard.

Several years ago, I got a Michael Kelley 5string ABG, converted it to fretless, installed a couple of SBTs, and very importantly, put a used set of TI Flats on it.
The fretlessness, and the legendary TIs, make you play it as a bass; I think this is a far better solution than just making a big acoustic guitar. A friend owns this bass now, and does a lot of winery gigs in a duo; he always gets compliments on the tone.

[Brent Hahn]

Originally Posted by JLS

Several years ago, I got a Michael Kelley 5string ABG, converted it to fretless, installed a couple of SBTs, and very importantly, put a used set of TI Flats on it.
The fretlessness, and the legendary TIs, make you play it as a bass; I think this is a far better solution than just making a big acoustic guitar. A friend owns this bass now, and does a lot of winery gigs in a duo; he always gets compliments on the tone.

A friend gave me a cheapo Chinese fretless 5 string with roundwounds. The 3 strings on the bass side of the headstock all collided with each other, piezo barely worked, bridge was beginning to rip loose. I turned it into a 4-string, put flats and an old mag pickup on, and got it a tailpiece so the strings travel in a straight line. Scroll down to about 2:18 in this and you can get a pretty good idea of how it works now.

[fitness1]

My best bud has a 25 year old Martin B1 that sounds incredible, even unplugged - I'm always teasing him I'm going to stuff a pillow in it because it's so loud - of course some of it is aggressive technique.

I heard similar sound out of one of the Furch basses - and almost pulled the trigger on a used one not too long ago.

Of course these are both out of the 500 range, so I'm not being very helpful...just wanted to comment that that are acoustic basses out there that sound pretty darned good unamplified.

[Brent Hahn]

That Furch has just about nothing in common with what I like soundwise, but it does do a better than average job of bringing out the lower notes. That said, in that demo I don't think he ever goes lower than a G.

[cliff_the_stiff]

Originally Posted by fitness1

My best bud has a 25 year old Martin B1 that sounds incredible, even unplugged - I'm always teasing him I'm going to stuff a pillow in it because it's so loud - of course some of it is aggressive technique.

I heard similar sound out of one of the Furch basses - and almost pulled the trigger on a used one not too long ago.

Of course these are both out of the 500 range, so I'm not being very helpful...just wanted to comment that that are acoustic basses out there that sound pretty darned good unamplified.

I do like the thumb rest extension on that Furch. Solving my primary gripe with acoustic bass guitars.