Looking for a short scale acoustic for $600 or less-

[JennyandBrad]

that i can use round wounds on like Ernie Ball Earthwood phosphor bronzes. Our 11 year old son likes to play stuff by Brian Ritchie, and he has outgrown our micro bass. Hoping to avoid the synthetic string sound on those. When he outgrows it i will likely be playing it (i'm tiny) to record with and play live from time to time. He wants to play it in a folk punk band. Any thoughts?
Thanks!
Jenny

 

[jd56hawk]

Other than those Kala U basses which will definitely be too small if he's outgrow the Mikro, the only one I know of is this.

I'm one of the biggest acoustic bass lovers here so I have to ask...why phosphor bronze strings?

 

[JennyandBrad]

Thanks! Why the phosphor bronze strings? Why pure unadulterated ignorance of course. I looked up "how to imitate Brian Ritchie's sound" and that's all I came up with. Any advice for a gal new to acoustic basses beyond a micro?
Yeah we looked into the Luna Tribal. I wasn't sold on the sound. Maybe it was the strings

 

[HaphAsSard]

that i can use round wounds on like Ernie Ball Earthwood phosphor bronzes. Our 11 year old son likes to play stuff by Brian Ritchie, and he has outgrown our micro bass. Hoping to avoid the synthetic string sound on those. When he outgrows it i will likely be playing it (i'm tiny) to record with and play live from time to time. He wants to play it in a folk punk band. Any thoughts?
Thanks!
Jenny

I know of, and have played (ages ago) the long-discontinued Fender BG-29. They pop up used from time to time. Medium scale acoustics (32") are way more common, and might be worth a try.

As for strings, also consider
1) Savarez or La Bella nylon-core silver-plated copper-wounds - still vaguely in the ballpark of bronze strings but less clanky and more balanced IMO (quieter though):
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2) nylon tapewounds (over a metal core and round winding, like normal electric strings), both black (they exist of various makes and models - Invalid Link Removed are on the brighter side tone-wise, maybe Invalid Link Removed as well from what I've heard) and the Invalid Link Removed "white nylon" (actually transparent rather than literally white) offerings, namely White (informally AKA "silver"), Copper (a new forum favourite over in the Strings section) and Gold. These too are reportedly all quieter than bronze strings, and poorer in high highs, but might give back an air of Ritchie's microphoned Earthwood bass, with its big body and hence different tonal balance from your garden-variety ABGs.

 

[1stnamebassist]

The Fender tbucket is 32" scale and plays rather nice IMHO. I strung it up with D'Addario tapewounds and it sounds glorious!

 

[JennyandBrad]

Great. Thanks HaphasSard and 1stnamebassist (KickasS monikers)
I wondered if we should consider going with a 32". Not sure if it would be manageable or too clunky for my son. He does play upright bass but it's more the unyieldiness (is that a word?) of some I have played that concerns me. I'll check out the tbucket. Thanks so much for all the string info. Wondered how B. Ritchie got his sound. Opened for them years ago but for some crazy reason I never asked him about his gear.

 

[jd56hawk]

Thanks! Why the phosphor bronze strings? Why pure unadulterated ignorance of course. I looked up "how to imitate Brian Ritchie's sound" and that's all I came up with. Any advice for a gal new to acoustic basses beyond a micro?
Yeah we looked into the Luna Tribal. I wasn't sold on the sound. Maybe it was the strings

Probably, changing strings on my Dean Exotica transformed it from a great acoustic bass to the perfect acoustic bass.
And I'll have to agree with 1stnamebassist...the Fender T-Bucket is the way to go.

 

[HaphAsSard]

Wondered how B. Ritchie got his sound. Opened for them years ago but for some crazy reason I never asked him about his gear.

Bronzes in all likelihood. According to an old post,

I've got EB Eathwood strings on my fretless ABG now, and they're just peachy. Brian Ritchie of VF uses Martin 80/20 strings, but mainly just because they're cheap and available everywhere - he changes them every set.

I doubt he played with fresh strings back in the day (though he may have put a new set before recording). I do believe he mic'd his Earthwood bass - I'm not even sure if those came with piezos at all - and, again, the fact the body is so big means a different tone makeup than what you get from a modern, small body ABG. Not just more upper bass, but also acoustically masked high mids and highs precisely because of the more present upper bass. OTOH, the same, modern small acoustics can end up having too much bass than that when plugged in (as well as the typical, annoying hi-mid "quack" of piezos). To reconstruct that tone I'd bet you need to do some tweaking at the EQ level, and some string rolling.

EDIT: the specimen described here
Ernie Ball Earthwood
does have a Barcus Berry Hot Dot piezo pickup under the bridge. From the factory or modded in? Beats me. And, even if he mic'd it in the studio as I suspect, what on Earthwood did Ritchie use to amplify the acoustic live? Also not a clue. ^^'

 

[1stnamebassist]

I for the life of me couldn't get a good sound with bronze strings on my tbucket. The eq made little difference. The tapewounds seem to be the ticket and possibly flat wounds which I haven't tried on an acoustic. And I was able to get a great sound out of my Kala ubass once I ran an Fdeck high pass filter between it and the amp. As long as it was strung with the stock Paehoehoe strings.