Interesting acoustic bass guitar

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

 

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.