http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI....50034971147&rd=1&sspagename=STRK:MEWA:IT&rd=1 Here's one i was pleasantly surprised with. It is quite simply huge, after reading the listing i just had to buy it and see for myself. Standing at approximately 50 inches in length and with a 22inch body and nearly 18 inches across the waist it takes some wrestling to play. The body is a whopping 4.25inches. I figured this has to be close to the original Earnie Ball Earthwood bass of the 70's for acoustic playability. Its big but is it beautiful? They are sold quite cheap (£100)so they do come with some issues, i note the action was to low on mine so i've had to adjust the truss rod, i'm also thinking about a new set of strings but not really sure what would bring out more volume. (any ideas?) The neck is great nice and chuncky but one or two of the higher frets could do with some dressing or resetting. The guitar does'nt boast choice woods, being made of laminate spruce top and i think solid mahoganny B/S. http://www.geocities.com/andrew_kerensky/bass.jpg Sound? Well this did surprise me, i know a local jazz quartet who were without their regular double bassist this evening and they invited me along tonight to play with them, i had took an amp with me figuring i would need it to compete against the line up but the battery in the basses pre-amp was dead which meant i had to play acoustically, you know i did'nt miss the amp and both the sax and guitarists said they could hear me just fine. More importantly i could actually here myself too, i used a heavy pick though and it actually to my surprise worked really well. The bass by the way is a Harley Benton. I've added a couple of photos and you can see its a big beast compared to many acoustic guitar basses out their. Would like to hear from any one else with any experience with this mamoth. http://www.geocities.com/andrew_kerensky/bass.jpg
I also suspect that the bridge placement being in the middle of the lower bout is good for the sound. For strings, a lot of ABG players go with black nylon flats, Tru-bass, and some swear by Thomastiks. I used flats on my old Applause ABG and got a much boomier, organic sound, slightly louder and stronger in the fundamental. I too was checking out an ebay low-end ABG, a Tumbleweed, which looks close to yours but with no cutaway, and adverstising a 5" depth.
Hi all, I recently purchased a Tumbleweed acoustic bass guitar from eBay. Some specifications: Solid Spruce Top Mahogany Neck Mahogany Back and Sides Rosewood Binding Around Body Pearloid Rosette Rosewood Bridge Rosewood Fingerboard 46'' L x 17'' W x 5'' D Compared to other low end priced acoustic basses I've tried this one sounds quite good with nice volume unplugged due in part to the deep body. Neck is good with clean fret work. For less than $140 total I feel it's a great deal overall and would recommend it. The seller's ID is musicpro22 and the person you'll deal with is named Drew. Very helpful & answers all questions. Cheers, Doug
Well here's the thing, what do we as acoustic bass players look for in an ABG? Sweet tonal qualities or fat bottom ends and modest volumes, i've owned a genuine USA Thunderchief (not cheap to import to the UK) and whilst i thought it was a good bass tonally the volume is very comparable to my present German purchased ABG (no doubt made in the Far East), also surprisingly my cheap end ABG is actually bigger than my ex Tacoma Thunderchief, so go figure? I guess in the world of ABG, bigger really is better. I can only imagine the old Ernie Ball basses must be really lound. Just an after thought but to any one who cares to know, phosper bronze bass strings are really the best choice for ABG, they sound absolutely horrible for the first 3 months or so, bright and tiny and twang horribly against the frets. My advise is to live with it, once they darken and loose their top end harmonics they settle down and sound really really nice and bring out the best possible sound in an ABG played purely acoustically.
I've always had flats on my ABG. Swapped out one set of flats for another early on for some reason, but I've had the same ones on it since I got it 13 years ago.