6-string Acoustic Bass Guitar

[Watson Guitars]

I am in the process of building a 6-string Acoustic Bass. I'd really like to know from the TalkBass community whether a bass like this would be more appealing to you as a bass player if it was Fretted or Fretless. Please give me a vote as I would love to know how people see these features as they relate to acoustics rather than electrics.

[bassteban]

I will say that I like fretless ABGs; piezo(presuming you're going that route)+frets=not my cup of tea, whereas fretless+piezo=niceness.
I'd dearly love to see a fretted or fretless acoustic 6 w/wide(at least 18mm)spacing & both magnetic and piezo PUs.

[fryBASS]

Originally Posted by bassteban

I will say that I like fretless ABGs; piezo(presuming you're going that route)+frets=not my cup of tea, whereas fretless+piezo=niceness.
I'd dearly love to see a fretted or fretless acoustic 6 w/wide(at least 18mm)spacing & both magnetic and piezo PUs.

+1

[Darkstrike]

I'd definatly prefer fretted, but that's because I don't plug them in.

[cheapimitation]

I mostly practice on a 5 string fretless ABG, and study Hindustani music... a 6 (or even 7) string fretless would be a great thing. For what it's worth, I tune my 5 string Epiphone El Capitan F#-B-E-A-D, low to high (i.e., one whole step higher than a normal 5 string tuning with high C). I do this partially because my teacher plays sitar in C#, but also because the higher tuning makes a huge difference in the quality and volume of sound -- if I had a low 6th string, I'd tune it to C#, and in fact I have experimented with using a low B string tuned up to C# -- I usually use D'Addario Chromes, and the .132" string sounds great tuned that way, and the resulting tension is actually quite moderate, as the string when tuned to B would be very low tension, even in comparison to other low tension strings in a given set.

I use plain steel wire on my high D -- .026" or .024". Sometimes I'll use .028" plain wire for the A string (where the G would normally be).

I play with a pick, as it seems to work the best for this type of music, and I like the sound. I prefer a very narrow string spacing at the bridge, ranging from 16mm between the low strings to 13 mm between the high ones. A 24 note fingerboard would be desirable. It's very exciting that you're working on an instrument such as this!

[wilser]

fretless, baby.

[Kwin Smith]

Voted no speedbumps!

[mikezimmerman]

Fretted, mostly because of this...

Mike

[Son of Magni]

I vote fretless but all my basses are fretless so probably my vote shouldn't count.

Gotta admit though, there's something about that fretless mwah on an ABG

[Mr. Pickles]

I'll take one of each, please!

[Ammioz77]

Originally Posted by cheapimitation

I mostly practice on a 5 string fretless ABG, and study Hindustani music... a 6 (or even 7) string fretless would be a great thing. For what it's worth, I tune my 5 string Epiphone El Capitan F#-B-E-A-D, low to high (i.e., one whole step higher than a normal 5 string tuning with high C). I do this partially because my teacher plays sitar in C#, but also because the higher tuning makes a huge difference in the quality and volume of sound -- if I had a low 6th string, I'd tune it to C#, and in fact I have experimented with using a low B string tuned up to C# -- I usually use D'Addario Chromes, and the .132" string sounds great tuned that way, and the resulting tension is actually quite moderate, as the string when tuned to B would be very low tension, even in comparison to other low tension strings in a given set.

I use plain steel wire on my high D -- .026" or .024". Sometimes I'll use .028" plain wire for the A string (where the G would normally be).

I play with a pick, as it seems to work the best for this type of music, and I like the sound. I prefer a very narrow string spacing at the bridge, ranging from 16mm between the low strings to 13 mm between the high ones. A 24 note fingerboard would be desirable. It's very exciting that you're working on an instrument such as this!

wow... thats the kind of thing that interests me... taking the instrument into non-western applications and making it work. I've been thinking about the exact same thing partly with my fretted michael kelly custom club 5 fretted. I had the same model bass earlier but a friend of mine cracked the headstock. I'm thinking about getting it repaired and pulling the frets to do some experiementing and this is the very kind of thing I'm talking about. I had heard it would probably not be worth it trying to do an acoustic with more than 5 strings but here we go! I'm way excited about this - fretted or fretless.

cheap can you put some sound files up on your stuff? i would love to hear how it sounds. or email me some clips?

Thanks

[PasdaBeer]

fretted

[Watson Guitars]

Interesting - I really didn't expect the fretless to lead in votes. I looked on the internet and there aren't many 6-string ABGs out there, so it made sense to start with that. 7-string is not out of the question either - depending on how this bass turns out. I'm TRYING to have it ready for the 2009 NAMM show in January - but no promises.

[BenitoBassolini]

How hard would it be to hear that low B acoustically? I'm thinking it would be pretty quiet, considering how relatively quiet 4 string acoustic's are, imo

[kb9wyz]

I sure hope that you plan on posting pics of the build. I have never seen a 6 string ABG (Or ever thought about an acoustic 6'er for that matter) and would just love to get a view of the process.

[Stealth]

So far I've played only fretted ABGs. So, fretted I say.

[Ammioz77]

Originally Posted by kb9wyz

I sure hope that you plan on posting pics of the build. I have never seen a 6 string ABG (Or ever thought about an acoustic 6'er for that matter) and would just love to get a view of the process.

I'd have to second that man! I'd love to see pics of that build!

[FretFree]

As a fretless player, I will also vote for fretless!

[Watson Guitars]

On the low B issue - we're making the boy of this bass larger than the average 4-string ABG. Obviously with the high C there's no real issue - we're building a very resonant top and rigid neck and body which we hope will push the lower frequencies adequately.

I will be happy to post photos of the progress of the build. I am documenting the building process on my site (serial 08B023) but I'll post the most significant pics here on talkbass too.

[erikbojerik]

Fretless with narrow string spacing and without neck dive