Would love to hear what La Bella CB40s would sound like on a fretless like that.
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Guitar Scale Acoustic Basses
- Thread starter SBassman
- Start date
Would love to hear what La Bella CB40s would sound like on a fretless like that.
I thought I’d hate the original strings. But they sound good live in the mix. They wouldn’t want to be any wobblier though!
And this is the time our acoustic short-scale friends are meant for. It's 12:50 am, I don't have a good practice amp at the moment, just a Rumble 200 and I really want to play a couple tunes. Helllooooo Taylor Mini!
I'm psyched by the idea of picking up one of those lower end Ibanez for travel.
I'm psyched by the idea of picking up one of those lower end Ibanez for travel.
Yup. I keep my MK shortie out on a stand all the time. My wife can doze off, and I can still pick it up at 1am, in the still of the night, and noodle. Excellent.
I had some time to kill yesterday, and tried out a few cheap to medium-priced acoustic basses at my local Long & McQuade.
Don't freak out at the prices- the Canadian dollar is only worth about 75 cents US at the moment:
I would love to see what would happen if someone developed. longer-scale version of these basses. I bet a 28" baritone scale, or even a 30" would really shine.
Anyway, here's how Friday's batch stacked up unplugged:
Don't freak out at the prices- the Canadian dollar is only worth about 75 cents US at the moment:
- Denver DBE44SCE ($369, 34" scale ABG, looks a lot like a Dean jumbo)
- Denver Acacia Uke bass ($300)
- Epiphone Century Deluxe archtop ($1,349, but this one was marked at $900-ish, must have been used. 30" scale, D'Addario tapes, two hidden knobs for volume and slope EQ).
- Fender Kingman ($780, 30" scale, black)
- 23" Goldtone Microbass fretless ($560)
- Kala Rumbler fretted(529)
- Kala Solid Mahogany fretless ($808)
- Taylor Sapele GS Mini ($949)
I would love to see what would happen if someone developed. longer-scale version of these basses. I bet a 28" baritone scale, or even a 30" would really shine.
Anyway, here's how Friday's batch stacked up unplugged:
- The Taylor held it's own on volume against the regular ABG's, with the roundest and most satisfying open E string.
- The Denver, Epiphone and Fender were all disappointing volume-wise. I had hoped that at least the jumbo Denver might move more air, but that wasn't the case.
- The Epiphone was had no real bottom end. Just a woody plunk, and not much sustain.
- The Ukulele basses were quieter still.
- None of the Uke basses sounded good from a conventional perspective, with a disappointing, hollow-sounding E string and no warmth or depth to speak of.
- The Denver Uke was surprisingly good for the price point. The Mahogany Kala sounded slightly better than the Rumbler, but surprisingly, neither sounded good enough to make them worth the extra money over the Denver.
- The Goldtone definitely sounded the best of the four Ukes. It was the only one loud enough to hear over the TV if you were playing on the couch. It also sounded and felt more alive and response.
- Intonation was a problem on the Uke basses, particularly up in the dusty zone. The Taylor was pretty good- it seems that they have fixed the intonation problems I found with the early ones.
- The Epiphone was almost unusable. Through a Fender Rumble 100, it had very low output, and sounded uninspiring. More importantly, it constantly wanted to feed back, even with the amp almost off and the bass and mid bass dialled back. I'm talking about bedroom volume, not stage use. Sitting beside or behind the amp did little to improve the situation.
- I would want to check out a US-made Kala before buying a Ukulele bass, as the imports all sound like they could use better electronics. The Goldtone was my favourite of the bunch, but in the end the Ukelele basses all sounded similar, with that slightly compressed pseudo-upright sound. Fretless is better, as it eliminates the nasty fret noise. Still, they all needed careful EQ to avoid sounding plastic and quacky up in the treble.
- The Fender sounded considerably better than the full-sized Denver. Thanks to the 3-band EQ, the Fender could also be made to sound more like an electric.
- The Taylor trounced the others, with a richer and more balanced tone. If it had more output, an XLR jack and more flexible EQ, I would prefer it over my AVN1BE.
Thanks for the roundup, @steve_rolfeca ! Yeah, I love my Taylor. I may have said this two or a dozen times before. 
Yes, indeed. I'd really like to see one in that range with a compact body. E strings begin to get pretty floppy at shorter scale lengths. Have the neck join the body at the 12th fret for fuller sound. And make fretless an option.
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Great review, thank you!
I concur with your sentiments, pretty much. For my liking, I find bass ukes too inconsistent and fiddly. A full size ABG is big and bulky and still needs amplified, even then with sketchy results. A parlour bass is an awesome size/shape and sounds fantastic, especially the 25” scale. It’s a breakthrough format that both fun, convenient and credible. People I’ve gigged with love the sound/look, too.
I like taking my headless 23" solidbody with labella flats with a headphone amp and little earphones. It fits in a uke bass case too. Take anywhere, play quiet. For me the big boys should make a guitar scale acoustic to use normal pressurewound round or flat bass strings.. also come on and do an adjustable bridge for different strings.
Absolutely.
This market is Finally getting the attention it deserves. There's So much more the manufacturers can do, easily, that will yield big in sales - and in options for players.
I’ve put cut-down regular strings on my Ibanez, and it sounded awful.
If you think about it, this makes perfect sense. My 37” Dingwall has more snap and articulation than a 34” Fender, and a 30” Mustang sounds more mellow still. 23-25” is just too short for regular steel-core strings.
I have wondered about Thomastik Jazz flats, as they have partial silk internal construction. But they’re up around $80 Canadian...
I am mostly ignorant about this stuff but I suspect it would be very difficult to get the right tension (and volume) with regular strings.
Disagree as labella flats by gold tone sound great at 23 inch as well as ghs pressurewounds at that on solid body
I put a set of the Gold Tone on my Aquila 23" acoustic bass and I think they sound fine amped and not.
On my acoustic Ibanez, awful-awful, period.
Remember that you don’t have adjustable intonation on an ABG with a pin bridge, and Piezos pick up every little nuance...
The intonation was badly off, but the worst part was that the overtones within the note were off from the fundamental. Every note had a nasty, hollow out of tune sound about it.
You could at least fix the intonation at the twelfth fret on a short scale solid body with an adjustable bridge, but I wouldn’t count on it fixing the other issues.
The flats made for Goldtone by La Bella are a custom formulation that was designed specifically for that application. Based on my experience at least, I wouldn’t expect normal EBG strings to give you the same experience on a Goldtone or any of the other acoustic minis.
The goldtone flats are just labella deep talkin flats with silk ends to fit 23-25 inch. Nothing special made about them
In fact, the testing done by goldtone was nothing special either. Just left them on for 3 months to see if they crushed the already made tops. Intonation then just set by making the saddle slot wider to move it back
Can you describe the adjustment they made, I don't see it. (My moment to be a stickler; Gold Tone, not Goldtone.)
