By Tom Mulhern
When Leo Fender introduced his Precision Bass to the world in 1951, few people had given any thought to the idea of a solidbody electric bass guitar. The cumbersome upright bass, often called a bull fiddle, doghouse, or a dozen other derogatory names, reigned supreme in almost every type of popular music since the beginning of the 20th Century. Today, just more than 40 years after Leo changed the world, the world is changing again, thanks to the fortuitous combination of new approaches to building acoustic basses, improved pickup designs, and the popularity of MTV’s Unplugged series.
Acoustic basses are different animals from acoustic guitars. Building an instrument that properly supports the tone and delivers low end at usable volume levels is very difficult. Upright basses evolved with a massive body, a large soundboard, and a huge air cavity because that’s the best way to create and disperse sufficient energy in the lower frequencies. Even the biggest acoustic bass guitar has a body with only about one-fifth the capacity, so don’t expect the massive woooom underneath the sound of an acoustic bass guitar–unless you plug it in. This goes almost double for acoustic basses equipped with a fifth, low B, string.
There’s a lot to recommend today’s acoustic basses: They can be used ampless in the park, on the porch, and even in the studio. Their tone is completely different from solidbody basses’. And, of course, they’re lightweight (especially if you consider the added weight of a big ol’ honkin’ bass amp).
Although their prices range from about $500 to over $4,000 (for custom jobs), acoustic bass guitars can be categorized in three ways: those designed to sound good acoustically, those designed as a compromise between good plugged-in and unplugged sounds, and those designed primarily as electrics even though they provide an acoustic tone. This is where you have to make your choice when selecting one of these instruments. Of course, muddying your decision-making are the overall looks of the basses, their electric tone, and to a certain extent the name brand.
Common attributes? Most acoustic basses are offered with a piezoelectric bridge pickup and active electronics (well worth the extra money if they’re optional). The active electronics are, without exception, reasonably quiet and reasonably flexible, often with separate treble, midrange, and bass controls. Martin’s MEQ-932 on the B-65 bass has an added ultra-flexible parametric control section with a selector for six EQ preset modes. Most of the time, though, the treble and bass controls provide most of what you need. A few basses, notably the Washburns, Ovation, Samick, and Gretsch are offered with cutaways (Ovation and Washburn use tapered fingerboards with more frets for the high strings than the low). In addition, fretless and 5- or 6-string versions come from Washburn, Gretsch, Larriveé, and others–be sure to ask, since these options have come and gone on some models as the marketplace has evolved.
If you’ve been around acoustic guitars, you know that solid spruce tops and deep bodies point to a robust sound, while instruments with laminated (plywood-like) tops, thick paint jobs, and shallow bodies sound less formidable. Unfortunately, these guidelines aren’t entirely helpful when it comes to basses. Take, for example, Martin’s B-65. It has a solid spruce top and a round soundhole, in the tradition of Martin’s great acoustic guitars. Its body is deep, and it sounds very good. From several feet away, however, Ovation’s B768-4, with its "bowl" back of synthetic material, a spruce top, and cadre of small soundholes seems to project more volume and a wider range. Go figure. Up close, both basses sound exceptional, and the venerable Guild B30 (available since 1975) likewise has a lot of body. On the other hand, the Samick Kingston has a shallow body, f-holes, a thick finish and steel strings (most of the other acoustics have bronze-wound strings). The unplugged tone is predictably nasal and not very loud. It’s definitely designed to be at its best plugged in. Likewise, Washburn’s AB20 and AB40, which have enclosed tops, except for a group of narrow slits that act as a stylish compound soundhole. They, along with Gretsch’s 6175 and 6176 shallow-body cutaway models, are much more commanding when plugged in.
Don’t expect looks to necessarily guide you to the perfect acoustic bass. And make sure you take into account how much time you will actually be playing acoustically, and how much time your bass will be plugged in. I didn’t judge any of these basses purely on their acoustic merits, simply because I know that many of them become almost entirely different beasts when plugged into an amp, mixing board, etc.
Keep the price in mind, too, especially if you only want the acoustic as a part-time bass. Not all acoustic basses are extremely expensive. The Applause AE40-4 has a list price under $500, while Samick’s Kingston sells for around $700.00. Martin’s second line, Sigma, offers an acoustic bass with very good tone and rosewood sides and back for about 1,000 clams. What do you pay for in the higher-priced basses? Good ol’ handcraftsmanship. Basses from Martin cost about $2,500, while scarcer instruments from excellent builders such as Boom Bass, Larriveé, Breedlove, and Dave Maize can run from about $1,600 to whatever amount it takes to get your ultimate custom bass.
Guitarists can take advantage of the acoustic bass phenomenon without pulling their tendons out: Kaman’s line includes a couple of basses similar to the B768-4. The Celebrity Deluxe Bass and Applause AE40-4 Bass are far less expensive (one-third and one-quarter, respectively) and have short scale lengths of 29-3/4". While their scale length is more than 4" greater than the typical guitar’s, that’s still more than 4" shorter than the standard bass scale length of 34". The tradeoff, however, is fewer frets, decreased sustain, and a darker tone.
I’ve loved acoustic basses since I first picked up an old Earthwood in the mid 1970s, and it’s refreshing to see–and hear–something new since the last big thing in basses, the rise of the 5-string. Despite the plusses, though, don’t look for the acoustic bass guitar to shove the electric out of the picture. Instead, think of the acoustic bass guitar as an additional instrument, rather than as a replacement.
Acoustic Bass Guitar Manufacturers
Boom Bass, 642 Shasta Rd. #B, Yuba City, CA 95991; (916) 671-6692
Breedlove Guitar Co., 19885 8th St., Tumalo, OR 97701; (503) 385-8339
Dave Maize, 999 Holdon Rd., Talent, OR 97540; (503) 535-9052
Gretsch, Box 1175, Savannah, GA 31402; (912) 964-0880
Guild, 2885 S. James Dr., New Berlin, WI 53151; (414) 784-8388
Kaman (makes Ovation, Celebrity, and Applause), Box 507, Bloomfield, CT 06002; (203) 243-7105
Larriveé, 267 E. First St., North Vancouver, B.C. V7L 189, Canada; (604) 985-6520
Martin Guitar Co., 510 Sycamore St., Nazareth, PA 18064; (215) 759-2837
Samick, 18520 Railroad St., City of Industry, Ca 91748; (818) 964-4700
Washburn International, 255 Corporate Woods Pkwy., Vernon Hills, IL 60061; (708) 913-5511