Acoustic bass guitar?

[Bander]

IM an upright and solidbody player for decades. My son has done well on bass guitar, and im working him up to upright, so I got an older Epiphone Capistan acoustic bass as a transition. It has good electronics, 34"scale. We can't get enough volume unplugged even for a small acoustic jam, and plugged in, sounds more like a solidbody than an upright. Is that the consensus? We have a small battery op Cube Bass that works well for unplugged acoustic gigs. But other than the imagery, im not getting the point of these? What am I getting wrong?

 

[ProbablyTooLoud]

There's broad consensus that unamplified, they're not much good for playing with others, though some disagree.

There's universal consensus that the only thing that sounds like a db is a db.

As for getting a db sound from a not-db, everybody seems to have their fave way to fake it, from a "slab with flats and a mute" to a million other avenues to "almost there."

My personal "almost there" is a Rob Allen MB-2.

 

[ahbass2500]

You know how big your upright is and how much effort you have to put into it to get the volume you get. Now compare that to the Epiphone for both size and playing effort. You are never going to get a ton of volume out of an Acoustic Bass Guitar. I own one of the larger ones, an Emerald Balor 5, and even it is not particularly loud.

In terms of plugged in tone... What strings are you using? If they are phosphor bronze, you are never going to get anywhere near upright tone. I would recommend flatwounds or tapewound strings to get you closer. You are still never going to get fully to upright tone.

On the What is the Point question...
- Some people like the look, more about the vibe than delivering on anything in particular.
- Some people like that you can pick them up and immediately start playing; this is why I keep my Balor around. It is great for quick low volume practice/writing sessions.
- Some like the sound.

Most do not seem to bond all that much with them. In general I think the issue is with the expectations people have from them rather than the instrument itself. An ABG delivers what it does. People often want it to be louder unplugged and/or more upright bass sounding. It is never going to be either of those things.

 

[Bander]

We

You know how big your upright is and how much effort you have to put into it to get the volume you get. Now compare that to the Epiphone for both size and playing effort. You are never going to get a ton of volume out of an Acoustic Bass Guitar. I own one of the larger ones, an Emerald Balor 5, and even it is not particularly loud.

In terms of plugged in tone... What strings are you using? If they are phosphor bronze, you are never going to get anywhere near upright tone. I would recommend flatwounds or tapewound strings to get you closer. You are still never going to get fully to upright tone.

On the What is the Point question...
- Some people like the look, more about the vibe than delivering on anything in particular.
- Some people like that you can pick them up and immediately start playing; this is why I keep my Balor around. It is great for quick low volume practice/writing sessions.
- Some like the sound.

Most do not seem to bond all that much with them. In general I think the issue is with the expectations people have from them rather than the instrument itself. An ABG delivers what it does. People often want it to be louder unplugged and/or more upright bass sounding. It is never going to be either of those things.

We have nickle flatwounds on it. So it does look more organic, with the violin and flattop trio, than a Squier Bronco. But eh, it seems like a lot of bulk and trouble, just to avoid a solidbody. I had hoped for more utility. So the good thing about the dissapointment, Im motivated to starting him on upright this week, starting with an electric upright bass. I figure a month or two with that ought to set him up for starting on a full upright. I mean, a Bronco with good right hand technique seems good enough for seated gigs, but an upright is the right instrument for this trio.

 

[ahbass2500]

Yeah if you are after acoustic look, but playable with a group, I would tend towards something like the Godin A4, Sire GB4, ESP LTD TL4, Warwick Rockbass Alien Thinline, or the old Carvin AC40. Less hassle and if you need to plug in anyway they are just as loud when you plug them in.

 

[B-Mac]

IM an upright and solidbody player for decades. My son has done well on bass guitar, and im working him up to upright, so I got an older Epiphone Capistan acoustic bass as a transition. It has good electronics, 34"scale. We can't get enough volume unplugged even for a small acoustic jam, and plugged in, sounds more like a solidbody than an upright. Is that the consensus? We have a small battery op Cube Bass that works well for unplugged acoustic gigs. But other than the imagery, im not getting the point of these? What am I getting wrong?

Go here

By-pass the negative energy.

Acoustic Bass Fetish Club

 

[jd56hawk]

IM an upright and solidbody player for decades. My son has done well on bass guitar, and im working him up to upright, so I got an older Epiphone Capistan acoustic bass as a transition. It has good electronics, 34"scale. We can't get enough volume unplugged even for a small acoustic jam, and plugged in, sounds more like a solidbody than an upright. Is that the consensus? We have a small battery op Cube Bass that works well for unplugged acoustic gigs. But other than the imagery, im not getting the point of these? What am I getting wrong?

I'm guessing you haven't seen MTV Unplugged.
Doesn't sound like a solid-body bass to me.

Other than that, what's the point of buying one of these?

One last thing, my Dean Exotica is more versatile than my Jazz bass, so there's that.

 

[urkel3000]

Flats or tapes and a mute will get you way closer

 

[Bander]

I'm guessing you haven't seen MTV Unplugged.
Doesn't sound like a solid-body bass to me.

Other than that, what's the point of buying one of these?
View attachment 7327919
One last thing, my Dean Exotica is more versatile than my Jazz bass, so there's that.
View attachment 7327920

Sure they sound great, and i love his bass sound, but that's nothing like an upright. Also MTVs "unplugged" is very plugged lol. Im talking no mics, amps, volts or access, like walking 50 ft across the park to a shade tree by the creek and a swingset. Ive decided to keep the ABG for the ocassional sit down gig where we wanna look as acoustic as possible, but there's no room to transport the upright. Ive got a good EUB, but Ill admit, an ABG looks a lot more organic. The best thing though, is it looks like he's moving quickly on the upright, which is a big goal.

 

[jd56hawk]

Sure they sound great, and i love his bass sound, but that's nothing like an upright. Also MTVs "unplugged" is very plugged lol. Im talking no mics, amps, volts or access, like walking 50 ft across the park to a shade tree by the creek and a swingset. Ive decided to keep the ABG for the ocassional sit down gig where we wanna look as acoustic as possible, but there's no room to transport the upright. Ive got a good EUB, but Ill admit, an ABG looks a lot more organic. The best thing though, is it looks like he's moving quickly on the upright, which is a big goal.

Yeah, I always say "I believe in the MTV Unplugged school of thought...plug in!"
I've been playing acoustic bass for thirteen years and always plug in.
Good thing there are plenty of battery-powered bass amps available, from 10 watts to 150 watts.
The Boss Dual Cube works for any acoustic jam, despite the misleading wattage.

 

[Turnaround]

There's broad consensus that unamplified, they're not much good for playing with others, though some disagree.

There's universal consensus that the only thing that sounds like a db is a db.

As for getting a db sound from a not-db, everybody seems to have their fave way to fake it, from a "slab with flats and a mute" to a million other avenues to "almost there."

My personal "almost there" is a Rob Allen MB-2.

I tend to agree that the only thing that sounds like a DB is a DB. And the only thing that sounds like an RA is an RA. Yum!

 

[2saddleslab]

Having gone thru a number of ABG's and never finding what I wanted I finally concluded that hollow body basses were the way to go, since I'd have to plug in anyway.

Both of these can cop a decent doghouse tone.

 

[B-Mac]

Having gone thru a number of ABG's and never finding what I wanted I finally concluded that hollow body basses were the way to go, since I'd have to plug in anyway.

Both of these can cop a decent doghouse tone.
View attachment 7327968

That Dean still makes my heart jump, but then again so does that Gretsch!

 

[Bander]

This is our battery amp. Decent, but the Terminator look disagrees with our acoustic settings, lol.

 

[Wasnex]

I'll be rude first. IMHO the idea of using an ABG as a transitional step to playing upright is nuts. A 34" scale ABG is going to play very similar to a 34" bass guitar, and I can't think of anything it does to help one develop the necessary technique and understanding to play upright. If the goal is to play upright, he should play upright. A full scale electric upright could serve as a proxy.

We can't get enough volume unplugged even for a small acoustic jam

Totally normal. I have a Tacoma Thunderchief, which was one of the louder ABGs. Acoustically it makes a difference when I play, but it's not going to balance in the mix the way we normally expect bass to balance. Part of the issue is guitarist in acoustic jams often wank on their guitars to get as much volume as possible. IMHO, unfortunately the only way the typical ABG can balance with a couple of wankers on nice dreadnoughts is to use an amp.

plugged in, sounds more like a solidbody than an upright

Most ABGs sound more like the lower strings on an acoustic guitar than a upright. A big part of the issue is the Phosphor Bronze strings. I believe this type of string is chosen because they are loud. They have sort of a grindy quality in the mids.

My Tacoma sounds great through a small amp and has a unique voice. Acoustically it's pretty thin. The lows are full, bloomy, and clear with an amp. The Tacoma interacts with the amp quite a bit. At low volume this creates a really nice tone. But you can only turn up so much before the tone becomes uneven. If you continue to turn up, eventually the bass will break over into feedback. Less resonant ABGs tend to deal with higher levels of amplification better.


I believe a fretless ABG with tape wounds will sound more like an upright. I believe the tone will be darker and the volume will be lower.

Not sure how well intonation will be on a fretted bass with tape wounds.

 

[jd56hawk]

This is our battery amp. Decent, but the Terminator look disagrees with our acoustic settings, lol.
View attachment 7328088

I'm big on battery-powered bass amps.

 

[Jeff Scott]

IM an upright and solidbody player for decades. My son has done well on bass guitar, and im working him up to upright, so I got an older Epiphone Capistan acoustic bass as a transition. It has good electronics, 34"scale. We can't get enough volume unplugged even for a small acoustic jam, and plugged in, sounds more like a solidbody than an upright. Is that the consensus? We have a small battery op Cube Bass that works well for unplugged acoustic gigs. But other than the imagery, im not getting the point of these? What am I getting wrong?

Welcome to the real world.

 

[2saddleslab]

That Dean still makes my heart jump, but then again so does that Gretsch!

Thanks, pal!

 

[Bander]

I'll be rude first. IMHO the idea of using an ABG as a transitional step to playing upright is nuts. A 34" scale ABG is going to play very similar to a 34" bass guitar, and I can't think of anything it does to help one develop the necessary technique and understanding to play upright. If the goal is to play upright, he should play upright. A full scale electric upright could serve as a proxy.


Totally normal. I have a Tacoma Thunderchief, which was one of the louder ABGs. Acoustically it makes a difference when I play, but it's not going to balance in the mix the way we normally expect bass to balance. Part of the issue is guitarist in acoustic jams often wank on their guitars to get as much volume as possible. IMHO, unfortunately the only way the typical ABG can balance with a couple of wankers on nice dreadnoughts is to use an amp.


Most ABGs sound more like the lower strings on an acoustic guitar than a upright. A big part of the issue is the Phosphor Bronze strings. I believe this type of string is chosen because they are loud. They have sort of a grindy quality in the mids.

My Tacoma sounds great through a small amp and has a unique voice. Acoustically it's pretty thin. The lows are full, bloomy, and clear with an amp. The Tacoma interacts with the amp quite a bit. At low volume this creates a really nice tone. But you can only turn up so much before the tone becomes uneven. If you continue to turn up, eventually the bass will break over into feedback. Less resonant ABGs tend to deal with higher levels of amplification better.


I believe a fretless ABG with tape wounds will sound more like an upright. I believe the tone will be darker and the volume will be lower.

Not sure how well intonation will be on a fretted bass with tape wounds.

I think there is value as a transition instrument, in that the more aggressive attack to get a purely acoustic instrument to thump, is similar. And, it really does look better with a flattop and violin trio, than any solidbody. But, the upright is going to work out!

Id love it if a fretless BG and tapes had potential, but no way that's going to work at all, if a fretted with flats doesn't work volume-wise. You're back to an amp to function.

Appreciate everyone's input.

 

[BassicJazzy]

I think the Ovation ABG is probably the loudest of the ABGs, due to the plastic resonator bowl. Loudness and a very bright tonal quality was the trademark of Ovation instruments, at least the ones produced in the US in 80's and early 90's. I only plug mine in to a tuner, never to the amp (though I do rest it in front of the amp, for convenience, as in photo below). It's been plenty loud enough for jams with other acoustic instruments.

Mainly, IMO, an ABG is just a great silent practice solution, for playing at night, or in apartment with thin walls. I like the play the Ovation more for its excellent tone than for its playability. Leaves me a bit ham-fisted for my light touch electric basses.

That said, I do not think it is a pathway to an upright. Doesn't bear any similarities, at least none that I can see. Playing an unlined fretless 4 string would probably be a better pathway, but I'd say, if you want to play upright, just play an upright?