Cheap Acoustic Basses

[soundbass]

Are cheap acoustic basses any good. Seen quite a few under £120 but how playable are they.

How much is needed to be spent to get a decent acoustic bass.

thanks

[krysh]

get an 80ies EKO Bass, cheap and great - best bang for the buck ever.

[Maude]

I bought one of those really cheap ebay jobbies, they seem to be labelled 'Swift' now I think, mine was an earlier one ('Atrics' I think) but is identical.
£60 brand new for electro acoustic or £50 for acoustic so I thought why not? With a bit of fettling, lowered action, adjust trussrod, better strings it's actually really quite good.
I only wanted it for bumming around at home with but have done a few acoustic jam nights with it and it's fine, sure there's gonna be better ones but it's basically a Saturday mornings overtime and it's all paid for.
I put Chrome flats on it two years ago and the neck's been fine with the tension so build quality wise they're ok too.

[Looper]

I bought one from gear4music for about £100, it's fairly unplayable. Arrived with rattles on most of the frets, only became playable with a massively high action, pre-amp has almost no bass to it and the neck is like half a baseball bat. Put me off buying cheap new gear for ever. Cheap secondhand is better imo.

[Donnyboy]

I had a Viper(?) that was next to useless,I got it for nothing though. I've recently got a Legacy for £50 incl case and it does seem pretty good but in need of a set up and new strings.

[gafbass02]

I've a Harley Benton and really rate it. Gigged it quite a bit, with a feedback buster in, recorded live radio shows etc. sounds great, feels great, always gets comments. Love it.

(And as lately whenever I post, someone seems to make a snarky comment seemingly presuming either I don't know what I'm on about, or I'm an inexperienced beginner as my views may differ from theirs I'll add that I've owned over 65 basses and been gigging and recording for over twenty years, and am a total gear need and do know what I'm on about

and yep. It's great. Yes the action could be lower but that's part of an acoustic, but it responds well to truss adjustments and the preamp just needs setting up with your ears not your eyes.
Sadly they are pretty impractical as most times an electric bass will just do a better job, and as for keeping up with a couple of vigorously strummed acoustic guitars, well, expect to do a lot of work for not a lot of volume. A pic can help. But for home noodling or when you get a job that needs the image they are great. I love my Benton. I had a fender kingman too, which was awesome and I'd buy another if I had funds.

Edited July 28, 2013 by gafbass02

[BigRedX]

What do you want an acoustic bass for?

Without amplification you're going to be struggling to be heard in anything other than solo practice. There's a reason why the body of a double bass is so big.

Amplified unless you are very lucky or have spent a lot of money the tone will be poor compared with most solid basses and you'll be fighting against feedback at all but the quietest gigging volume.

[throwoff]

Another vote for that harley benton.

Its a very playable bass for a tiny amount of money.

As with anything that cheap I would suggest a string change right away, the wires on it are fairly poor. I expected to have to give mine a full set up but other than the string change she was perfect out of the box.

Also BRX I completely disagree. For jamming in the garden and writing with my band on acoustic it is perfectly audible. Team it with a decent amp and you can get a solid sound from a cheap bass for gigs if you want it. I sold the Benton and bought a tanglewood bowl back acoustic bass which if anything is quieter unplugged but still works.

Edited July 28, 2013 by throwoff

[Looper]

I think with cheap gear you can get lucky, on the other hand you can end up spending your hard earned cash on something that is almost useless. Most often you will get what you pay for.