Acoustic Bass Guitars for 400-450gbp that are worth considering

[earthchild]

Hey,

Ive been looking for an acoustic bass guitar with a budget of 400 - 450 gbp, and unfortunately cant try much out for sound and playability - living somewhere with barely any choice available.

As many of you may have a lot more experience than myself in this area, could you please recommend models available nowadays that would be worth considering.

Would appreciate all input.

Thanks

[Dom in Dorset]

I've got an Ibanez AEB 8E? it's the cheapset one they do it's about £199 these days , it's great.
They do loads of other models ,my experience with their cheapie leads me to think that their top end models must be pretty good.
[url="http://www.ibanez.com/AcousticGuitars/Series-aeb"]http://www.ibanez.com/AcousticGuitars/Series-aeb[/url]

[Mog]

Ibby's are great IME. I think the Rockbass Alien might be in your price range too. Some of the Wahsburn acoustics I've tried have been very good also.
Tanglewood have a lot of models around that price too but I haven't come across any at the same standard as Ibby or Washburn.

[chriswilliams666]

I would consider looking at the Michael Kelly Dragonfly basses. Have tried a few through work, and they sound and play great. They also look pretty cool (and unique)

[quote name='Mog' post='834774' date='May 11 2010, 10:16 PM']Ibby's are great IME. I think the Rockbass Alien might be in your price range too. Some of the Wahsburn acoustics I've tried have been very good also.
Tanglewood have a lot of models around that price too but I haven't come across any at the same standard as Ibby or Washburn.[/quote]

[arsenic]

I have tried one of the Fender Kingman bass acoustics.

Basically an acoustic with a Fender Jazz neck.

Now - to me - unplugged it sounded quite full and rich, although not loud - but plugged in, with the Fishman preamp, I sounded really quite warm.

With the Jazz neck, the fretting arm/hand notices no difference between a standard Jazz and one of these.

The body, as you would expect, is a bit more bulky, but was still extremely comfortable.

For around £265 from Sounds-Live, I don't feel you could go far wrong with one of these - unless you don't get on with a Jazz profile neck

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

Tanglewood. I love my TRB CE 4 rosewood reserve
[url="http://www.dv247.com/guitars/tanglewood-rosewood-reserve-trb-ce-4-string-electro-acoustic-bass-guitar--62635"]http://www.dv247.com/guitars/tanglewood-ro...s-guitar--62635[/url]

[Dom in Dorset]

I must admit I'd go for the Fender if I had the cash , i've not tried one but on paper it looks good.
The ibanez looks and sounds great but it does require a bit more work to play.

[earthchild]

Thanks again for all the input folks.

Just a question regarding the basses mentioned in earlier posts (if anyone's tried) - do any of these aurally suffice with one or two other guitars in the picture?
That'd be a fairly big concern and I was hoping to avoid plugging the acoustic in as much as possible.

The fender kingman seems interesting, but like mentioned in the post earlier, i was slightly unsure about how loud it could project the highs n lows.

The warwick alien standard is attractive with the tacoma/olympia-like positioning of the sound-hole. Has anyone had a go at one of these?

I'm still underexposed, so if possible, please do mention anything else thats worth knowing/considering.

[Dom in Dorset]

The Ibanez isn't that loud unplugged. I had a cheap nasty no name with a smaller body that was a bit louder but very clunky.
I've tried an Eko that was fairly loud.
Many years ago (10?) I tried some in a shop in Brighton. They had about 5 acoustics, two Fenders (not the Kingma) stood out from the rest (acoustics were still a bit of a rarity then) one was natural finish , the other black. The black one was significantly louder. The heavy finish must have had an influence.