Strings for an unamplified ABG -- Applause AE-40

The Big D · #1 06-21-2011, 06:20 PM

I have to play a few unamplified outdoor gigs this summer. Acoustic bass guitar, a djembe and an acoustic guitar. Even the vox are unamplified.

I borrowed an Applause AE-40 ABG from my brother. It's a 30" scale with old bronze strings.

I've played one gig with it and it was OK. Lots of string clack on the E string and just so-so volume for what we do (think Chris Issak-type originals). The volume would have been meh in and indoor setting, but the great outdoors just ate it up and left me with a sound that was just kinda there. And it ate up my fingers.

I was thinking of getting flats or tape wound... but worry about losing the just almost there volume I already have. I could get fresh bronze strings for volume, but at the heavy gauge to get volume, I'm gonna be ripping my fingertip off!!! HA!

I figure tape wounds are the easiest on the fingers and have no string noise (I have them on my hollowbody electric) and that flat wounds would be about in the middle between tape wound and bronze. Am I right?

So I need something at the heaviest gauge for volume...

And the heavy tape wounds will probably not string through the tailpiece...

And so I'm probably looking at flatwounds in the heaviest gauge I can get.

Does that sound about right to you guys?? Flatwounds? I think I'm gonna lean that way unless someone with more ABG experience tells me I'm crazy!! HAHAHA

Oh, and because it's only a few (5) gigs, I don't want to spend any real cash buying a Pignose Hog battery amp or my own ABG thats louder. An Ibanez or Dean if we pick up the gigs for next year... maybe, but not now.
The Big D

SBassman · #2 06-21-2011, 06:40 PM

I'm surprised you can conjure enough unplugged volume.

Anyway, if it is definitely going to stay unplugged, I think your max volume will come from a fresh set of more bronze strings. And a pick.

The Big D · #3 06-21-2011, 06:54 PM

Yeah... I was using a pick and really digging in on it hard. Like I said... it had volume... but just barely.

So one vote fresh bronze and a heavy picking hand!

Thanx Frank.

fretlessguy · #4 06-22-2011, 03:46 AM

I would go with the bronze as well. If you are to be loud enough, then it surely doesn't have the "body" or lowend to sound very "bass-y" at all.
Sounds like a guitarrone or upright would be the way to go, or perhaps a very discretly placed small practice amp/combo of some sort, like one of the battey powered ones.

ZombieSpacebat · #5 06-22-2011, 03:58 AM

Acoustic basses really do need to be amplified to compete with anything else, i say bring a small practice amp.

SLaPiNFuNK · #6 06-22-2011, 04:01 AM

The loudest you are going to get it is with a Pick and a new set of bright bronze.

All the acoustic bass guitars I have ever played did not project like an acoustic guitar.

Get a nice clean natural sound from an amp and you will be golden.

The Big D · #7 06-22-2011, 04:59 AM

Thanks guys for the quick answers!

Yeah, my little GK and my hollowbody bass with tape wounds would be ideal... but there's no electricity. And I really don't want to plunk down cash for a Hog 30 or Crate Limo battery amp to play 5 gigs...

So if I need volume, that leaves me with bright bronze and a pick and attack it like Fat Albert at a free buffet.

Though a crazy though entered my head. And of course it's extra cash, but buying a Guitarron and stringing it like a 6-string bass (I could never learn the double picking style of a true Guitarron player in a week). Yup... that sounds CrAzY!!

Thanks guys!

NOISE! · #8 07-04-2011, 10:06 AM

As said big bright strings, pick hard, and play like Lemmy: lots of chords, octaves and drones.

Caca de Kick · #9 07-04-2011, 11:09 AM

If there's no electricity, then you're screwed, simple as that.
I used to have one of those Applause basses and that tiny acoustic body just doesn't project volume. You're going to be worse off with tapes or flats because you're going to loose all the overtone complexity in the notes and you will sound even quieter. Not to mention that cheap bridge and they way the drill for top-loading stringing isn't going to support heavy-thicker strings, you'll snap the top half right off. Fresh bronze are going to be loudest, but yes, the clackiness is going to be even more apperent with them.
Plugged in, they sound great with tapes.

Sorry to say it's usually a loose/loose deal with ABG with no support. They simply need an amp to be heard and while some do maginally better than others, but the Applause just won't do it. Just go have fun playing along and don't kill your fingers trying to project volume.

davidsmashdrums · #10 07-04-2011, 03:14 PM

GHS Boomers heavy 115 95 70 50 are awesome and loud on my acoustic bass guitar

I've tried GHS Tapewounds, chromes & GHS brite flats

GHS Boomers heavy gauge the loudest on my Oscar Schmidt

Caca de Kick · #11 07-04-2011, 06:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidsmashdrums

GHS Boomers heavy 115 95 70 50 are awesome and loud on my acoustic bass guitar

Except that you are not going to string a .115 on an Applause bridge.

SBassman · #12 07-04-2011, 06:41 PM

It's a losing proposition. This is not a problem to be solved with a different set of strings.

The Big D · #13 07-06-2011, 05:01 AM

Thanks for all the help guys. Yup... it's a lose/lose situation.

I feel like I'm playing "air bass"!! So I just smile, plunk away and well... that's what they get for not letting us amplify.

Well, at least we got a different gig out of it... so that's something, right?! HA!

davidsmashdrums · #14 07-06-2011, 08:26 AM

can you barrow an UpRight bass?

The Big D · #15 07-06-2011, 06:02 PM

If one of my bass-playin' buddies had one, I would probably try it out... but honestly, I've never played one before and to try and woodshed 30 or so songs for 2 more gigs like this... I don't think I'm gonna travel that road.

But, yeah... if I could, I would.