Like any acoustic bass guitar, it depends what you want to hear. They are very nice basses, all, even the top of the range, now made in China. The very earliest were actually handbuilt by Lakewood for Warwick, and were apparently very loud, utterly amazing, and humongously expensive. The current version will, like almost an other ABG, hold its own with a quiet acoustic guitar or two, but beyond that will need an amp. Mine was The Alien fretted four and was very nice ( and free, too!), but for my ABG needs was outclassed in every way by a £300 Fender Kingman. Not that the Kingman was necessarily better, it just suited ME better...