Electro acoustic basses

VimFuego · September 2013

how much like an upright bass do they sound?

Paul_C · September 2013

not very, as a rule

the closest I got was with a Washburn AB10 with some kitchen towel painstakingly arranged under the strings

and that was after trying all sorts of densities of foam and cloth first

VimFuego · September 2013

hmmm, interesting. Dumb question, where abouts did you wrap the kitchen towel?

steamabacus · September 2013

There was the Ashbory silicone-strung bass

When I was last up Denmark Street (or it might have been in Macari's on TCR) I noticed what looked like a new design (Chinese build?) using the same strings. I don't remember the brand, I'm afraid.

Paul_C · September 2013

VimFuego said:

hmmm, interesting. Dumb question, where abouts did you wrap the kitchen towel?

it was rolled up and tucked under the strings next to the bridge, but not too tightly packed - just enough to lose some sustain but not so much that it strangled the note altogether.

VimFuego · September 2013

gotcha. Was it VOS kitchen towel or Tesco value?

Paul_C · September 2013

VimFuego · September 2013

nice.

Just out of curiosity, is it possible to mimic the tone of an upright with an electric, fretted bass?

steamabacus · September 2013

Was that not the purpose of the string dampeners on the bridges of the early Precision basses?

Paul_C · September 2013

I've not tried, but it might be possible to get a vaguely similar sound.

I doubt it would fool anyone who's heard a proper upright though

ICBM · September 2013

I would have to add electro-acoustic basses to the catalogue of Works Of Satan.

They aren't actually usable acoustically - they're usually almost inaudible compared to an acoustic guitar and have no bottom end - and the amplified tone isn't much better, plus the pickups seem for some reason to be even more prone to string balance problems and general unreliability than even normal guitar piezos. They're for MTV "Un"plugged posing and little more, in my opinion.

If it's an upright bass sound you want you'll get closer with a fretless electric bass and some EQ (you actually want more low-mid than real low-end), and possibly the string dampers you do find on some old basses as Paul_C said. Strangely enough, holding an electric bass nearly upright, 'Bill Wyman style' and playing with your hand more in an upright-bass position with your thumb against the side of the fingerboard does actually make a difference.

Paul_C · September 2013

I have owned a passable acoustic bass (when plugged in, as ICBM says, they're never very loud acoustically) - a Fender Kingman.

VimFuego · September 2013

noted, thanks guys.

fretmeister · September 2013

Kala U-Bass

Does need to be amped though.

Jalapeno · September 2013

Lookout for Yamaha BEX4 on the bay of evil - has a piezo bridge pickup and a single normal pickup - very flexible sound.

I'm a bass newb - but am loving it.

monquixote · September 2013

ICBM said:

I would have to add electro-acoustic basses to the catalogue of Works Of Satan.

They aren't actually usable acoustically - they're usually almost inaudible compared to an acoustic guitar and have no bottom end - and the amplified tone isn't much better, plus the pickups seem for some reason to be even more prone to string balance problems and general unreliability than even normal guitar piezos. They're for MTV "Un"plugged posing and little more, in my opinion.

If it's an upright bass sound you want you'll get closer with a fretless electric bass and some EQ (you actually want more low-mid than real low-end), and possibly the string dampers you do find on some old basses as Paul_C said. Strangely enough, holding an electric bass nearly upright, 'Bill Wyman style' and playing with your hand more in an upright-bass position with your thumb against the side of the fingerboard does actually make a difference.

This is what I was going to write, but ICBM has already said it better.

They are a total waste of time. In order to work with bass frequencies the body has to be massive like this:

http://lifeblog.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/image3710.jpg

I think acoustic basses only exist to give bass players something to play on MTV if they don't know how to play an upright.

Stagg do a very good electric upright for not much cash.

VimFuego · September 2013

yeah, I've seen relatively cheap uprights, but what's always concerned me is how easy are they to learn? i.e. where the notes are on the neck?

monquixote · September 2013

Freless bases are surprisingly easy to learn (provided you have dots or lines on the neck)

Full scale uprights are a bit harder because the notes are a lot further apart.

Dean do a bass guitar scale upright, but it sounds much more like a regular fretless.

Jalapeno · September 2013

I'd agree that acoustic bass guitars are pretty gutless unamplified.

mart · September 2013

ICBM said:

I would have to add electro-acoustic basses to the catalogue of Works Of Satan.

They aren't actually usable acoustically - they're usually almost inaudible compared to an acoustic guitar and have no bottom end - and the amplified tone isn't much better ....

Sorry, but had to facepalm this. Yes, acoustic basses are practically inaudible unamplified, but that's where I stop agreeing. The amplified tone on mine certainly does not lack bottom end, and also has a really different character to my fretless solid-body basses. So, sound-wise it definitely justifies its existence. And then the appearance is also significant. It's the bass that attracts the most comments from otherwise ignorant punters. And if anybody is going to claim they choose an instrument on the basis of sound alone and with no regard to looks ... well, they probably shouldn't be on stage!

ICBM · September 2013

Facepalm away

.

Hopefully the pickup or the preamp won't play up on yours either... they tend to. To be fair, much of the reason I dislike them is the typical piezo systems - in my opinion they sound crap as well as being unreliable. If I could get (or make) an acoustic bass with a magnetic pickup I'd be prepared to give it much more of a fair hearing.

My Rickenbacker 4001 also gets complimented a lot on its appearance, which is part of the reason I use it!

mart · September 2013

Yes, I'm hoping the pickup and preamp behave; I've had it three years now with no problems, but who knows. Mine is just piezo, and I guess it would be nice to have a blended system. But even as it is, it has a nice distinctive tone. No, it doesn't sound like a double bass, it sounds like ... an electro-acoustic! Mine has an off-centre soundhole, but with a standard design couldn't you fit a regular soundhole pickup?

ICBM · September 2013

mart said:

Yes, I'm hoping the pickup and preamp behave; I've had it three years now with no problems, but who knows. Mine is just piezo, and I guess it would be nice to have a blended system. But even as it is, it has a nice distinctive tone. No, it doesn't sound like a double bass, it sounds like ... an electro-acoustic! Mine has an off-centre soundhole, but with a standard design couldn't you fit a regular soundhole pickup?

Yes in theory, although you'd be left with a nasty hole in the side where the original electrics were - those can be unreliable too so would be better gone.

I admit I'm probably a bit biased into putting acoustic basses into the catalogue of Satan's Works because my main contact with them is when they don't work! I detest electro-acoustic guitars in general, and I don't know why bass ones should be even less reliable, but they do seem to be. I really don't like piezos in general though - they have a distinctive nasty tone that seems to become more obvious and more annoying over the years. I don't really think they sound much more 'acoustic' than a magnetic pickup - just non-acoustic in a different way. I genuinely prefer magnetics for acoustic instruments. (Although don't get me started on the Taylor Expression system, which is magnetic-based and worse than almost any piezo!

). For bass, I don't think they have any real bottom end - you obviously get the pitch of the note and the boom of the body, but to me there's no power in the tone of the note itself like you get from a magnetic string pickup... maybe hard to explain.

mart · September 2013

I think I agree with you about the sound of piezos. I think we've become conditioned to hearing that quack and thinking "acoustic", but only by association, not because it is anything like the acoustic sound.

However, just like an acoustic bass doesn't sound particularly like an upright bass, but is an interesting and usable sound, so I think a piezo pickup may not sound like an acoustic, but it can give a usable sound. And I think it actually works better on an acoustic bass than on a guitar.

But I can understand you hating them if you end up spending a disproportionate amount of time fixing them!

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