Recommend the best midrange acoustic bass

[gorch]

Thorn's 18th birthday idea plus a chat with my sun at the gig last Friday brought me to the idea to present an acoustic bass to his 18th in August. Singer and guitarist occasionally play an acoustic set during the show or even play individual acoustic sets on order. I asked my son he could nicely join in with his bass. He came back to say he doesn't have an acoustic which in addition would not be affordable with his teenage funds.

So the idea came up which, in the meantime, have been approved by my wife.

Well then, please recommend me acoustic basses up to the midrange price range. Ideally it has a pickup installed to plug into an acoustic amp if necessary. Just like it is with most concert guitars. Brands are global so, there would not be any problems to find the basses in the German market.

My son doesn't know. It'll be a real surprise though.

[zenmindbeginner]

My brother's Breedlove is AWESOME! The all mahogany bass sounds as good as it looks. The wood grain is just sooo pretty with just an oil finish and a super thin coat of poly.

[JohnnyB]

Gorch: any so-called acoustic bass guitar will have a pickup (piezo) for amplifying. ZMB is right about the Breedloves. Their Asian-made Atlas series combine great materials and workmanship with innovative designs and a resulting instrument that looks and sounds good.

If that's too high for your budget, look into a Michael Kelly, which captures 80-90% of what the Breedlove does for less than half the price. In fact, a pro bassist whose electrics are Ken Smiths told me he got performance from a Kelly equal to the Breedlove by putting in a better, more carefully shaped saddle.

On the used market, a real sleeper is the Fender GB-41SCE.

It has both a solid spruce top and solid mahogany back. Tuning keys are excellent as are the piezo pickup and built-in preamp, which has lots of useful flexibility. Although they often hit $450-500 on the used market, occasionally they show up for $299 (as in the GC listing) or even $250. I got one in like new condition with hardshell case for $250 a couple of years ago.

Here's one more suggestion: I don't know if your son's bandmates would consider this bass "acoustic" enough, but the hollowbody basses fashioned after jazz archtops have a rather acoustic look and can produce a better acoustic tone than the piezo-pickup flattops. Specifically, the Ibanez AFB200 looks like an archtop guitar. I've played an Ibanez bass with these minibuckers and they pull out a tasty well balanced sound.

My own favorite fretted bass (of the 3 I own) is my Gretsch Electromatic hollowbody (not readily available).

These hollow archtop basses can produce a better tone to blend with an acoustic ensemble than (IMO) the piezo-based flattops. Put some coated pure nickel wrap strings or some flatwounds or tapewounds on and you get a nice resonant full-bodied sound that blends well with guitars and voices.

[gorch]

Many thanks for your recommendations so far. I'll go and study.

In parallel I did some research and found an interesting bass from a small German manufacturer called Ortega.

http://ortegaguitars.com/en/products/acoustic-basses/acoustic-bass/show/Product/d1-4/d1-4/

They also run a Ken Taylor signature line.

[cmatthes]

I've got a Takamine Acoustic Bass that works well - like pretty much all acoustic basses, the pickup is critial. They really won't cut it with even a regular acoustic, volumewise.

[MCChris]

In parallel I did some research and found an interesting bass from a small German manufacturer called Ortega.

They also run a Ken Taylor signature line.

Their taco kits are the bomb as well.