Categories: all aviation Building a Biplane bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater
I've been to look at several different acoustic bass guitars now, and I figured I'd note my impressions of them. This is partly for my own reference, so I'm not going to dig up links to each of them. If you're not interested in ABGs, this is going to be a boring post.
The first thing I played was an Ibanez AEB30, which was used at $399. It seemed very quiet, but the acoustic environment at Trading Musician was pretty loud, so it's hard to say objectively how loud it actually was. I could barely hear myself against a background of several other people playing amplified instruments. I also know now that $399 for that bass used is a terrible price. You can get an AEG10 (which seems to be about the same thing) for $350.
Next I played a Dean Playmate, which was a bit better, but not by much. It was new. Similar price, too. It had a considerably larger body than the Ibanez, but didn't make a correspondingly more impressive sound. The Dean was $419.
Finally at that store, I tried an Ovation something or other, with all the funky soundholes up in the corner near the base of the neck. It sounded brassy and bright, and noticeably louder, but I hated the tone. It was $500 or $600, as I recall.
I was pretty dissappointed after that, and figured that would be about the end of my search. I did some digging on the old InterTubes, and found that the mythical beat-all ABG is a Tacoma Thunderchief, but of course they're not making them any more. I found a couple on Ebay, but they were $900 or so, except the one for $200 with the broken and (ugly) repaired neck and head.
Yesterday, I stopped into Dusty Strings, which is the nutty/crunchy acoustic music shoppe in Fremont. I didn't have high hopes, but it's right there in my regular lunch prowling grounds, so what the heck. I was about to leave, when I spotted the odd offset soundhole of, whaddaya know, a Tacoma Thunderchief. I sat down and played it a bit, and it sounded pretty good. It had a faint buzz somewhere inside, but made a good volume, and had a good tone. I was favorably impressed, and this one was only $750. Hmm. (Still too much money, but it might be one of those things where I kick myself later for not jumping on it.)
On the way home, I pass right by American Music, so I stopped in there to see what they had. Turns out they had a Breedlove 5-string (only $1200!) and an Ibanez AEB10 ($350 or so). I tried them both, and found the Breedlove to be nicer than the Ibanez. Duh. The Ibanez was fine, but unimpressive. The Breedlove was nice and a bit louder, but not $850 louder. The person who helped me out there said they'd be getting in a few more on Thursday, and that an Epiphone El Capitan was definitely worth looking at.
Today, I made the mini trek to Guitar Center, to see what they had in stock. They had two Michael Kelly (a 4-string and a 5-string), two Breedloves (4- and 5-string), and an Ibanez AEB10. I played them a number of times, finally with an audience (Kristin) to tell me how the projection sounded.
I'll take them in order.
The Ibanez sounded a bit flat, and quiet. It was the least favorite there, and also the cheapest, at $350.
The two Michael Kelly models sounded nearly identical, brassy and bright, and much louder. Neither Kristin nor I liked the tone, though, as being too brassy and obnoxious, or too much like Gilbert Gottfried's voice, or something. The 5-string's lower two strings (E and B) were difficult to play at any volume without a lot of fret buzz.
The Breedloves ($800 for the 4-string and $1200 for the 5-string, same as at American Music) were interesting. The 4-string sounded almost identical to the $350 Ibanez. Quiet and kind of flat tone. The 5-string was the favorite tone, fuller and louder, and without all the fret buzz.
Interestingly, fret buzz was prevalent on all of the basses I've tried, with the exception of the Thunderchief. That's the biggest thing to recommend it, now that I think about it.
On an amplified bass, you don't have to hit the string too hard to make a lot of noise. Need more noise? Just turn up the amp. On an acoustic, you have to whack the string pretty hard to make a big noise, so you end up running into fret buzz. I'm sure if I were a better/more experienced player, I wouldn't have as much trouble with it.
I'm interested to see what I think of the Epiphone tomorrow, and to go back and play the Thunderchief if it's still there. Going to Guitar Center tonight was pretty informative, since I finally had a number of different basses all together, and could play them back to back to see what the differences really were.
Another thing I need to keep in mind is that apparently (according to the all-knowing internet) there can be significant differences among different serial numbers of the same model. Everyone who claims to know anything on the topic suggests that it's best to play every one of a store's selection once you've found a model you like. I guess the differences can be quite remarkable, although no one's offered a really good explanation of why it happens.
Posted at 22:20 permanent link category: /misc
Categories: all aviation Building a Biplane bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater