Ebay ABG / AEB, Sky, Best Choice Products

While doing research on these basses, I came across this thread: http://www.talkbass.com/threads/sky-acoustic-bass.699842
I don't want to bump the old thread, but I decided to buy one of these basses, and I want to provide a review and a little feedback, since there isn't much out there about this.

I won the auction for $66, including shipping. The bass arrived double-boxed, sortof. It was the typical trapezoidal box inside a rectangular box. The inner box was too wide to fit in the outer box at the base, so the outer box was cut to allow a little of it to stick out. It was all taped together. So it was mostly double-boxed. The body of the bass had a ton of wood chips, dust, and debris in it, which I shook out as well as possible. Oddly, the inner surfaces of the body were roughly finished in gloss poly, rather than raw. This gives the new instrument a chemical smell rather than a woody one, but that's fine.

It is shortscale - 30 inches. There are few reviews of this bass online, but from what I saw, it appeared to be shortscale, so this confirms that. The body is a single-cut dreadnaught guitar size. The modern-style sealed tuners work. There is nothing wrong with them. Strings are the standard nickel-steel cheap strings with red silk that seem to come on every cheap bass. Out of the box, the volume unplugged is similar to the last Fender Kingman I tried. There is significant string buzz, especially on the E and A strings. The nut is sky-high. Fit and finish is fine for the price. There is a scratch in the binding along the neck and there is a ton of opaque filler visible under the poly, especially at the heel, which is as rough a job of jointing an acoustic neck as I've seen, though it's solid and smooth to the touch. Plugged in, the preamp is high and tinny. It has a usable sound with the treble and presence fully cut and the bass and mid fully boosted. I saw something online suggesting that the battery for the preamp is non-standard. It is, in fact, a standard 9V battery. The fret ends are perfectly smooth and the binding looks good. It's a nice-looking bass.

Obviously the bass needs a full setup. First off, I took the nut off and sanded it. I took the opportunity to shape it a bit better, as well. The truss rod was completely loosened and the nut was disengaged from factory, so that's why the neck was completely flat. It wasn't back-bowed, though. Anyway, I threaded it back on and tightened it up to medium-low action. There is a high spot along the G string at the 13th fret, which frets out. I'm not raising the action for that one note though, nor do I really feel like doing a fret job. I don't see myself playing up there much on this acoustic bass, anyway. Playabilty is leaps and bounds better. I also added a strap button to the bottom of the heel because I don't like it behind the nut.

I consider everything I did to be within the realm of setup, rather than repair. I don't intend to be playing out with this bass, and bought it to play around the house in the same way I do an acoustic guitar. For $66, it fits the bill.

 

I've recorded it direct into Reaper a few times now, and think I've got it dialed in reasonably well, despite the lack of a better preamp. I have some exchange credit at a local music store though, so maybe.

 

My bridge ultimately lifted a year or so in.