Cheapish acoustic bass recommendation?

[jd56hawk]

50 minutes ago, barrycreed said:

@jd56hawk I love the Alice in Chains unplugged album. He's using a bit of chorus on his bass right? I won't be gigging it, so I don't need a pickup or I don't care if it's loud, or not loud, or big or small etc.... I *might* use it to record....

Just read on Talkbass that it's a $10 chorus pedal he bought before the show...Alvarez acoustic.

(My Boss Dual Cube has chorus...I'm going to see how it sounds with my Exotica later today.)

 

Alice In Chains' Mike Inez: "Picking very hard is part of my tone secret - I attribute that to Zakk Wylde!"

Edited April 19, 2023 by jd56hawk

[Cat Burrito]

1 hour ago, barrycreed said:

@Cat Burrito how does it sound with the flatwounds? And what brand strings did you put on it?

Obviously it isn't quite as loud but the roundwounds always sound really harsh on acoustic basses. The tone is much more balanced and a bit old school. I think the brand was Fender. I like the flatwounds they do. Generally I have roundwounds on my electric basses these days but this just works.

[lemmywinks]

I love my acoustic basses, have an Ibanez 24" scale and an old fretless Ozark I've had for 23 years. When people claim they are useless what they usually mean is that they don't play like a conventional bass or fulfil the same role - they aren't meant to and you can sorta tell that by looking at them!

 

Depending on how they're set up and what strings you use you can get a lot out of them - a fretless with nylon tape wound strings can have loads of old school upright style thump and have an entirely different palette of sounds to a fretted acoustic bass with bronze strings. Similarly my little Ibanez with the bouncy multifilament core/bronze wrap strings sounds different to both, almost like a bass version of the bottom three strings of a classical guitar and is a very lively little bass to play, not to mention pretty loud acoustically.

 

The focus on here has always been about volume - "but they aren't loud enough, use a Precision" which is rather strange unless your only goal is to rehearse unamplified with a guitarist in which case then maybe they're not for you. If you like the sound they produce - and you really need to try a few of them, preferably with something other than the standard phosphor bronze strings - and feel yourself wanting something convenient for sofa practice then they might be up your street.

Edited April 20, 2023 by lemmywinks

[Waddo Soqable]

I quite fancy an acoustic bass again nowadays, I had one briefly years ago but passed it on as not really used much. I'm always a bit leery of the acoustic guitar type of build tho, it seems a rather fragile and they often seem to end up with the top bowing and becoming rather less than playable due to a crazy high action. 

Maybe it's a "build one myself" type thing 😁

[lemmywinks]

Also worth adding that playing heavily with the bronze/wrapped bronze strings like that guy in the OP's video will always result in an overabunance of clacky, squeaky noise. Acoustic basses with brighter strings reward a more restrained approach, in fact they're a really useful practice tool if you tend to dig in too much at gigs as they force you to pay more attention to your technique. Rein it in a little and they usually have tons of dynamic response.

[Frank Blank]

5 minutes ago, lemmywinks said:

An Overabundance of Clacky, Squeaky Noise.

 

The title of my forthcoming autobiography, there.

Edited April 20, 2023 by Frank Blank

[barrycreed]

Would one of those full hollow hofner ignition basses be a halfway house between acoustic/electric.

Different beast again perhaps ..

[jd56hawk]

4 hours ago, barrycreed said:

Would one of those full hollow hofner ignition basses be a halfway house between acoustic/electric.

Different beast again perhaps ..

Nowhere near the volume of an acoustic bass...louder than an unamped P bass, sure, but not loud enough to hear if you're trying to learn bass lines from an ipod played through something like this.

 

[jd56hawk]

You might want to try something like this

 

Edited April 20, 2023 by jd56hawk