I have some unplugged video of Yes. It suddenly makes their music accessible. And they do their sound-check playing the Tiger Rag. (Imagine Rick Wakeman and, temporarily, only ONE keyboard, a piano!)
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Is an Acoustic bass worth it
- Thread starter Kalsarikannit
- Start date
I have some unplugged video of Yes. It suddenly makes their music accessible. And they do their sound-check playing the Tiger Rag. (Imagine Rick Wakeman and, temporarily, only ONE keyboard, a piano!)
Oh, surnames is another ballpark! We have some double-length surnames (mainly dating back to feudal times, I think), and we had a politician married to another double. Fasten your punch cards! - And Belgium has facilitated the use of Spanish-style father-and-mother surnames. - We (the Western world) may think of some zip-file shortening of surnames. Not mere TAFKAP stuff. ;-)
If you do get one, I would definitely put flatwound (or tapewound) strings on it. It will be even quieter acoustically, but phosphor bronze strings sound horrible and feel horrible.
Yes.
The trad split-coil Precision with old rounds/flats/nylons, tone rolled off, works extremely well with acoustic guitar. I often use one in an acoustic setting - Guitar, Mandolin, Banjo, Uke - and short of using a double bass, the tone of the P complements the ensemble perfectly.
If I was to go down the "must have something that looks the part in an acoustic show but still sounds really good" route, I'd be looking at a gold top Epiphone Jack Casady or a Hofner VeryThin. Both look the part and sound like a million bucks, especially the latter.
That is the essential point you need to remember with ABGs. There are two sorts: 1) those you can't hear unplugged, and 2) those you can barely hear unplugged. You'll know the second sort when you play one, because it will feel like you are hugging a canoe. I have owned two of the very best category 2 ones, namely an Ernie Ball Earthwood and a Guild B30 (I still have the latter), and even they are only loud enough to compete with a nylon string guitar, or a very softly played steel string guitar.
In my experience an acoustic bass has trouble keeping up with a decent acoustic guitar. The bass is just too quiet unamplified. A P with tapewounds would probably get the sound you're after. But hey, if the band is buying, go for it.
If you are talking about an upright, I'm with Jaco Pastorius on this when he said.......'too much hard work for too little sound'......lol!
Yes, that one! (You made me check.) The (short) acoustic show on DVD and the real thing on Blu-ray.
I think we agree: unamplified, my acoustic Fender bass would compete with my acoustic Fender western guitar for the frequencies and likely lose - while with roundwounds. With flatwounds, it would support it. Using the output of both from their piëzos, there wouldn't have to be competition, but (again) I'd favor the bass with flatwounds.
Sidebar:
After refitting the acoustic Fender bass with flatwounds (Dunlop, my older basses have Ernie Ball), I was eager to try flatwounds on a guitar. So I purchased a B-stock of a cheap electro-acoustic guitar (Fazley, home brand of Bax store), and fitted flatwounds (Thomastik) on it. Yessss!!! I like that for a rhythm guitar, both for the sound and for my left hand. Rhythm guitar for jazz and maybe blues, not for folk.
If anyone should wonder:
I haven't played live for years, but I want to record songs of my own. Many styles. I have a 1990 MIDI project with dozens of them as a starting point. Hence quite a pile of musical instruments in my apartment.
Forty years ago, I attended some Free Jazz workshops by Arnold Dooyeweerd (spelling from memory). He managed to transport his upright bass in a (British) Mini!
I drove a British Mini back in the 1980s. The only way you could transport a doghouse bass in one is to cut the roof off it with an angle grinder.
Shouldn't this be posted in the humor section?
ABG with which strings?
Because my Dean Exotica acoustic bass gets so close to an upright that I've been accused of faking its sound.
I've been trying to establish whether I did see a sunroof on his Mini or that I have imagined it there ever since. I think I did see it.
I had my five string set up with a high C. I really like it now. My approach is to make it sound like aAcoustic Guitar. In rehearsal with Mandolin, Banjo, and two acoustic guitars it blends in quite well.… It works great for working out vocals.… Plugging it in it sounds like a bass guitar.… Maybe somebody has mentioned some kind of miking system. That’s what it needs to get the real acoustic guitar sound that it has.
I've been playing ABG's for years, and DB for 8 years before that. Like everyone says, they do not look, play or sound the same. Which is why I used both at my last acoustic set. There is nothing, absolutely nothing like the look, feel and sound of real DB on stage. But it's so much easier to play diads, triads, and upper register fills on an ABG.
My ABG is a Spector Timbre, strung with flats. It sounds a bit more thumpy and airy than a P-bass but otherwise it's still a BG. However, it looks the part, and for most audiences that is enough.
I also have a Yamaha BEX-4, which is a thinline bass with both mag and piezo pickups. While it has a neat sound, it's also not the sound of the DB. But it has that hollowbody look, and the audience probably won't know the difference.
And I have a MIM Fender Power Jazz Bass, which has the same Fishman piezo bridge and preamp as the Spector Core. Mine has been customized with a fretless neck, and with flats and the right technique it does an admirable job of sounding something related to a DB. But of course it still looks like a J when you're on stage.
So, to the OP and anyone else in a similar situation:
If you're just going for the look, this is a good excuse to invest in an f-hole hollowbody.
If this is simply justification to buy that Taylor GS Mini or other short scale ABG you've been eyeing, do it.
If you want to experiment with tapewounds and upright techniques on your fretless, that answer is always yes.
My ABG is a Spector Timbre, strung with flats. It sounds a bit more thumpy and airy than a P-bass but otherwise it's still a BG. However, it looks the part, and for most audiences that is enough.
I also have a Yamaha BEX-4, which is a thinline bass with both mag and piezo pickups. While it has a neat sound, it's also not the sound of the DB. But it has that hollowbody look, and the audience probably won't know the difference.
And I have a MIM Fender Power Jazz Bass, which has the same Fishman piezo bridge and preamp as the Spector Core. Mine has been customized with a fretless neck, and with flats and the right technique it does an admirable job of sounding something related to a DB. But of course it still looks like a J when you're on stage.
So, to the OP and anyone else in a similar situation:
If you're just going for the look, this is a good excuse to invest in an f-hole hollowbody.
If this is simply justification to buy that Taylor GS Mini or other short scale ABG you've been eyeing, do it.
If you want to experiment with tapewounds and upright techniques on your fretless, that answer is always yes.
