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Just curious-- I play bass a lot and wondering if there are any good acoustic basses or are they all too quiet?

I can't add a bass amp to my already cluttered apartment but I'd like to get some decent practice at home. playing bass through the guitar amp sounds terrible and I have heard that it can somehow destroy a guitar amp

I could just buy whatever's cheapest for practice but I'd like to avoid wasting money on something that is too quiet to ever play with my friends

ideas? rec's?

I've never really seen the point of them. To my ears they don't sound different enough from an electric bass and this is coming for a pretty acoustic instrument focused person, particularly in my last band which was on the folk side of indie-folk, we still used an electric bass and it was often the only thing plugged in at all. For practise I'd just get something to use with headphones a pod or similar...but that is just me.

hrm thats not a bad idea-- a pod you say....?

like this: POD ? it has terrible reviews

I've never found an acoustic bass that I've liked. They've all sounded crappy, and been too uncomfortable to play.

There ARE okay acoustic basses... there are some okay Fender and Epi acoustics... but the two 'best' acoustic bass makes are Breedlove (mainly the ABJ250/SM4) and Tacoma (mainly the Thunderchief).

However, these basses are pretty expensive and still get drowned out when played acoustically with acoustic guitars and hand drums. The secret is the strings though, and there ARE special acoustic bass strings that do improve volume.


Why not look into a Hollowbody bass? They do sound pretty good acoustically, but will easily sound better pluged in than an Acoustic Bass will, pluged in.

Of course, you could always look into a Doublebass. There really isn't anything better for playing acoustically and audibly.

My bassist has one, a Takamine I think. It was boxy and flat sounding and never gave the feel and space filling qualities of a real bass, it was just really useful for quiet practices and jams.

upright is the only way to go as concerns acoustic bass

Agreed, the acoustic guitar looking basses aren't really much if any louder than solid body unplugged, and you have issues with feedback plugged in.

Also, not the pocket pod express, Just about every other pod in the series is better. They used to make bass exclusive ones. See also: J-Station, Behringer V-Amps

brainfur wrote:I can't add a bass amp to my already cluttered apartment but I'd like to get some decent practice at home. playing bass through the guitar amp sounds terrible and I have heard that it can somehow destroy a guitar amp

Both of these are inaccurate; if you set the amp EQ to suit the bass' frequency range, and don't play at loud volumes, it's fine, I've done it for years.

i actually really like acoustic basses.
if i could only have one bass, it would be electric, but i like the acoustic sound for it's own purposes.

The best acoustic bass guitar I've played was the Martin BC-15E, but it does cost
It had the best volume/projection, as well as tonal clarity of any acoustic bass I've played; it *might* even be able to compete with acoustic guitar unamplified No other acoustic bass guitar I've tried comes close.

I played a Martin acoustic bass at some boutique guitar store I visited in Nashville. It was fucking beautiful. It was also $1,300

To the OP: I'm not sure what your price range is, but this acoustic bass isn't half bad:

Fender Kingman Dreadnought

I played one at a Guitar Center about a week ago and I liked it a lot. It didn't have the intonation/fret buzz/high action issues most acoustic basses in the cheap range do. It also had good volume, but that's relative. Unless you want to fork out the dough for a Martin, you'll be hard pressed to find an acoustic bass with high output. That's why most have some sort of shitty pick-up in them.

If that's out of your range, you could always grab a Dean: Dean Acoustic Bass

I bought one of these a couple years ago to keep in the living room for farting around. This thing is cheap as shit though. It has an ok sound and output, but the intonation is so fucking bad you wont be able to jam with anyone anyway. UNless everyone in your band is tone-def

Check out the michael kelly brand fretless ones. Gives it least a slightly different sound and they can be had reasonably cheap(though have not priced them in awhile). They used to have all fishman electronics as well. Michael kelly is know more for mandos and some electrics but if you coulld find one used or one you could try out locally it might work pretty well for you.