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Guitar Scale Acoustic Basses

#1,941
@HaphAsSard thanks for that list!

The bass is a LaBella ABE-100. I don't think very many were made. I've never seen another in the wild and only saw one fretless version on Reverb. My wife (then girlfriend) bought this for me over twenty years ago. I knew she was a keeper, and so was the girlfriend ; )
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#1,942
mikeynets said:
@HaphAsSard
The bass is a LaBella ABE-100.
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The designer ought to have been shot for that headstock design- the angles over the nut are so sharp!

However, your closeup shows that the nut was nicely cut to reduce friction, and the rest of the instrument looks great. It reminds me of the Esteve contrabass, which isn't cheap:
Esteve Contrabass 4 String Guitar

I'm guessing that La Bella made these for the European market, where contrabass guitars are common in classical guitar circles.
 
#1,944
mikeynets said:
@HaphAsSard thanks for that list!

The bass is a LaBella ABE-100. I don't think very many were made. I've never seen another in the wild and only saw one fretless version on Reverb. My wife (then girlfriend) bought this for me over twenty years ago. I knew she was a keeper, and so was the girlfriend ; )
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I love this Acoustic Bass. The strings here are Nylon wound in Metal (like the Wound Strings of a Classical Guitar string set) so the tension is lower.
 
#1,945
EddBass said:
To all owners of Cordoba Mini II ASGBs, how do you find the stock tuners regarding tuning stability? I find the ones in my MH-E not very precise (I have to wind them quite a bit to get any change in tuning), also they lose tuning very easily. It could be a stock strings issue tho.

Are there any aftermarket tuner upgrades that would fit without modifications? I own a workshop so I could modify the lugs diameter if necessary, but I would prefer not to do so.
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I always assumed the slow tuning response was due to the strings being a bit more elastic than a regular scale bass. Haven’t noticed any particular loss of tuning though.
 
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#1,946
Hm, your bass appears to be of typical contrabass guitar scale (29.5", if this Reverb ad for a cutaway fretless version is any indication).
This means only the first group of options in my above post apply.

(But still, it was fun to make; it could also serve me in the future, as past others have in order for me to compile this one.)
mikeynets said:
You're not kidding — it's very similar to that Esteve model! Re: the headstock angle — yes, it's sharp, but in practice it hasn't been an issue at all.

Here's a closeup of the label, with the designer's name included. Let him know what you really think.
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That should be Richard Cocco, Jr., president of La Bella Strings.

(His estranged father, Richard Cocco, Sr., was, as far as I've been able to gather, involved with both La Bella and DR and possibly other companies many decades ago, but went back to Italy in the Nineties. A current Italian string company, Richard Cocco Strings aka R. Cocco, bears his name.)
 
#1,947
HaphAsSard said:
Hm, your bass appears to be of typical contrabass guitar scale (29.5", if this Reverb ad for a cutaway fretless version is any indication).
This means only the first group of options in my above post apply.

(But still, it was fun to make; it could also serve me in the future, as past others have in order for me to compile this one.)
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You're right. Mine is 29.5" scale as well. And thanks again for the list — even just the first group greatly expanded what I thought was available.
 
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#1,948
steve_rolfeca said:
I really like the idea of the higher string tension on the Magma. It would let me dig in more than I can on my Guild, and increase my dynamic range before fret slap.

I hadn't picked up on the fact that the BT-5 sets were already out of stock- your Google-fu is better than mine, oh master.

...you can't buy 'em if Magma ain't selling 'em.

...I wonder if we're simply too late to the party?
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Nothing to fix on the Guild.

Someone else was handing me 9v batteries to try, and it turned out that he was getting them from a recycling box in the equipment room... :)

Put a fresh 9V in it at home, and it's sounding just as good as always.

Got better news about the Magma, and some more details. It turns out the Reverb listing was misleading- although it said "1 left", there are actually 3 in the US warehouse, and more back in Argentina. Also, they apparently have string sets in stock in the USA warehouse.

Videos around the time of the instrument's launch (6 to 8 years ago) look promising.

On the Canadian Reverb website, it's listed at $1417 CAD and $28 shipping, so about $1,000 USD. However, they mentioned that the shipping price was low. Also, replacement strings are expensive, at $60 USD a set. Ouch!

That is as I expected. Most US venders quote between $100 to $250 CAD to ship an Acoustic to Canada these days.

After a couple of misunderstandings, I also found out the width at the nut. It's way wide, at 50mm or 1.97". The fingerboard is flat as well.

So it's more like a conventional classical guitar, than a "fusion" nylon-string like the Cordoba Fusion 5 with its 1 7/8" nut and 16mm radius fingerboard.

I'm torn at the moment. I'm very excited at the thought of finally having a 5-string AGB for amplified use, and less sure about spending that much on an instrument sight-unseen- particularly given the wide nut width, and the fact that they only accept returns in cases of damage or incorrect listing information.

Anybody Stateside that lives in Miami, and could check one out for me?
 
#1,956
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#1,957
tymbrewolf said:
Played one of these while my wife was in another store in a GC this evening. The first little basa I like better or as well than my gt microbass. Nice fit and we'll setup. Played an ibanez next to it. No comparison.. that little 24 was just fun. Just wish it was a satin finish. If it was, it would have walked our with me.
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Nice that it has a preamp with a built-in tuner.

I can't say that I mind the soundhole-mount Vol/Tone setup on my Guild, as it gives me all the EQ I need with such a lovely-sounding bass. Still, it would be nice to not have to faff around with a clip-on- especially in grab-and-go amplified situations where I'm not using my own backline, and there's no mute function.

I'm normally better prepared than that, but it has come up a few times.
 
#1,958
tymbrewolf said:
Played one of these while my wife was in another store in a GC this evening. The first little basa I like better or as well than my gt microbass. Nice fit and we'll setup. Played an ibanez next to it. No comparison.. that little 24 was just fun. Just wish it was a satin finish. If it was, it would have walked our with me.
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I A-B' d one for a few days against the Cordoba Mini II back in November when I was in the US. I did like the slightly bigger body and scale (compared to the Cordoba), but wasn't too impressed by the sound, feel and looks. My copy also had a buzz. I ended up with the Cordoba.
The whole genre is very appealing though as a quick "pick it up to work out a part" bass. I haven't yet got an amplified sound that I liked out of it, but I would love to hear people's tricks to do that as I know people do gig them.
 
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#1,959
Wannabebass said:
I A-B' d one for a few days against the Cordoba Mini II back in November when I was in the US. I did like the slightly bigger body and scale (compared to the Cordoba), but wasn't too impressed by the sound, feel and looks. My copy also had a buzz. I ended up with the Cordoba.
The whole genre is very appealing though as a quick "pick it up to work out a part" bass. I haven't yet got an amplified sound that I liked out of it, but I would love to hear people's tricks to do that as I know people do gig them.
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I highly recommend the Quilter Interbass 45 — a pedal sized preamp with a built in power amp with 45 watts @ 4 ohms. It's incredibly versatile and that power output is IMO a sweet spot for how/where acoustic basses are likely to be used on a gig i.e. relatively low volume.
 
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