The Winding Road to an Acoustic Bass Guitar

Breedlove Solo Pro Concerto - American Red Cedar top with African Mahogany sides and back

I am not a professional bass player, but I really enjoy playing the bass. Once I get past the playing the bass like it’s a guitar thing, and focus on building rhythm and feel, I can spend a lot of pleasurable time with a bass. For a couple of years, I have been thinking about adding an acoustic bass guitar to my collection. In this article, I am going to share with you all what I learned in going through the process.

The first thing that I discovered is that acoustic bass guitars are kind of slim on the ground. You can find a fair number of them from name brands, but built in China, that are basically made out of plywood. I tried options from Fender and Ibanez and determined that I could get better sound from bashing on a fence board. I then tried an entry level Breedlove which was more expensive but felt wrong and it did not make the grade. So for a while, I gave up on the idea completely, instead adding a 5 string multi scale electric and a four string fretless electric to the racks. The 5 string multi-scale is an Ibanez and it’s ok. I went for it because I wanted multi-scale, not because it was an Ibanez. It’s decent enough, but heavy and I find the control layout nearly has hard to remember as my Fender Ultra Precision. The fretless is a Sire, and it is glorious, so long as you like the sound of fretless and can deal with there being no frets so sloppy finger positioning sounds like tuna puke.

A Fender Acoustic Electric Precision Bass - not the one I went to see

So this past month, I started to look at an acoustic bass guitar again. While I despise the Fender Acoustasonic guitars myself, back in the mid 90’s Fender did make an acoustic Precision Bass. They are pretty rare critters and I found one on consignment at the 12th Fret in Toronto Ontario. I requested a short hold to account for the drive time to go see it and the shop was as usual very accommodating. The bass was built in 1994 and was in pretty good condition. No big issues and while it is the fretless version, that was not a bother to me. The strings were toast as one might expect, but the setup was ok, so I did not see a lot of work in the future. When I plugged it in, it sounded just ok, having a 1994 vintage Piezo pickup. Regular members of this community know how much I love (gack! spits on ground) Piezo pickups and while my ire frequently lands on the folks at Fishman, I really don’t like Piezos in general. I looked at the asking price and spoke with the very fine gentleman who was assisting me. He said that it was a new consignment and that they would not have flexibility to any small extent on the price for at least 10 days, perhaps longer. Since I would only offer 60% of the in my opinion rather delusional ask, we shook hands and I got in the car for the long and tedious drive home through what Toronto calls traffic and I call parking.

I then started checking credible, meaning not bought and paid for reviews and from people or organizations who need advertising investment to survive. This does not mean that I don’t respect the writers, but the owners have a fiscal responsibility and no org in their right minds, puts up a negative review of a product from a company that buys advertising space from them. That’s why most reviews smell like pablum. I didn’t find much to look for.

So I checked what inventory was available in stores in my area, since I will always avoid buying an instrument that I cannot check out first hand. There was a small assortment of plywood (sorry not sorry) laminated things and the only mid priced acoustic basses that looked decent were at Cosmo Music in Richmond Hill Ontario and were from Breedlove. So I checked their on hand inventory from home and then when able drove down there. The first Breedlove that I encountered was the current iteration of the version that I had tried about three years ago. It is called the Discovery S. Acoustically it still sounded like rapping on a piece of gap filled plywood. Designed by Breedlove, but built in China. Not all China built instruments are bad, both Squier and Epiphone have some really find pieces coming out of China these days, but I find myself less enthused about acoustic instruments, although in fairness, I will gladly recommend a Recording King RD28 to anyone looking for a Martin D-28 but without the cash and the patience to wait a year. Sadly this build is not up to snuff in my opinion.

Pursuit Exotic S - Beautiful wood, shame about the pickup

So I moved to the next model up in the Breedlove Acoustic Bass lineup. This model is called the Pursuit Exotic S Concerto. Concerto is a Breedlove size designation. Sides and back are laminates, myrtle wood with a mahogany inner layer. The top is myrtle wood, a species native to Oregon where Breedlove was founded. The tap test was positive, the neck felt good, but because of the deep acoustic body, it felt very long. Acoustically it was pretty decent, and the fit and finish on the one that I bought was amazingly good. I bought it because it was worth taking it home to validate over a few days and because Cosmo Music has an excellent exchange / refund policy. Sadly things did not go so well at home.

While the instrument came with actual D’Addario EXL strings as opposed to some awful cheap barbed wire (think Fender strings), the amount of filth that my fingertips picked up in the first 30 minutes needed automotive hand cleaner to remove. I used a couple of different string cleaners to make them playable, and the cleaning helped a bit in terms of tone. I expect to change the strings on any instrument I buy in the first two weeks of ownership. I found these strings to not just be filthy, but squeaky and noisy as all get out. So if I kept the instrument, the factory installed strings would hit the dumpster in short order. Plus the frets needed some polishing and the neck had too much forward bow. Not surprising for an instrument that probably spent months in a cardboard box in a variety of temperatures.

Then I plugged it in. While I am not a person of faith, I was pretty sure that some demon had been at work. I use AER acoustic amps and have never had an issue with them with any guitar. They can even tame the most nasally annoying piezo. But not this time. The built in Fishman Presys I pickup sounded like ass. It was horrible. There was a volume pot, a phase button and a contour button that as far as I could tell did nothing at all. The package also included a skittish built in tuner, that you cannot read while you have your fingers on the tuning machines. I have long arms and I could not see the tuner display and turn the closest tuning machine at the same time. Utterly worthless. So I wrapped the beautiful looking bass guitar in the very light foam wrap, put it back in its box and took it back to Cosmo at my earliest convenience.

Back of the Breedlove Solo Pro

I did call ahead, and there was no problem with either a return or an exchange. I still had not given up on an acoustic bass guitar so I decided to try the next model up from Breedlove called the Solo Pro Concerto, which is solid mahogany sides and back with a solid western red cedar top. The tap test produced a bell like resonance that was very pleasing. There is a removable cover on the upper side to feed sound directly to the player. I have tried it on and off, and the port open is helpful when there is a lot of background noise. The instrument came with the same D’Addario EXL acoustic bass strings, and this set was filthy as well. Not as bad as the first instrument but still gross. The wood of this instrument did not reproduce the squeaks and squeals at the same level as the first instrument, but if I decide to keep this one, those strings are dumpster bound and I have a set of coated D’Addario XT acoustic bass strings ready to go on. This instrument sells for about $600 more than the Pursuit Exotic S and that includes a nice hardshell case. I need a storage unit for all my guitar cases because I play my instruments so they are either on hooks or in racks, but the case does provide environmental protection while in transit. The neck had too much forward bow, so over a couple of days, I would do a small adjustment, let it settle for a few hours, and then make the next small adjustment. I do not know that this absolutely necessary but I learned this approach from a well respected luthier and it has never served me wrong where large adjustments are needed. I give Breedlove some kudos because the truss rod adjustment is just inside the sound hole so very easy to work with.

By now you want to know what it sounds like plugged in. The pickup is a more expensive Fishman system called the Flex Plus T and into the AER Slope 60 it sounds like a Fishman piezo, all nasal and ice picky. The onboard bass and treble controls (what a concept!) bring it more into line, and the cedar / mahogany is a warmer smoother tone than the myrtle / laminate was in my opinion. So liveable if not exceptional. The electronics package has a built in tuner, that is incredibly skittish and again positioned so you cannot see it if you have your hand on a tuning machine. That is a Breedlove design flaw, not Fishman’s fault but the tuner is still about as stable and reliable as the utter piece of crap Amazon Basics Tuner that I had the misfortune to encounter recently. So if keep this instrument, I will get a Snark Air and leave it on the headstock. Not pretty but at least it works and I can see the tuner while tuning, an apparently novel concept. This model of Breedlove is also louder and far more resonant natively than the first one that I tried. Fresh clean strings will improve that greatly. If the coated D’Addarios do not work out, although I expect that they will, I will reach out to Curt Mangan and Stringjoy for their thoughts.

This is still a work in progress but I am leaning towards keeping the current Breedlove instrument. It was manufactured in China, and designed in Oregon, like so much of anything not made in North America these days. However as this will be an occasional instrument for me, there is no business case to spend thousands on a locally built acoustic bass. If Robert Boucher ever decided to build an acoustic bass that could change my mind, but his company is so backordered these days, that I would not expect that.

If you have never played a Boucher acoustic guitar, you are missing out big time. They are not widely sold, and are not inexpensive, but everyone who has played any of the ones that I own has been blown away, and these are folks with excellent US made Martins and Taylors. Classic digression on my part, sorry not sorry.

The fit and finish on both Breedlove acoustic basses was really excellent. I preferred the faux tortoiseshell binding on the Pursuit Exotic S model over the black binding on the Solo Pro model, but so it goes. The finish is a poly and while I would personally prefer nitrocellulose lacquer, poly finishes are easier to deal with and are much less environmentally sensitive. They also work best on laminated instruments because laminates naturally outgas, and that smell can be unpleasant and poly finishes are thicker and don’t breathe. Since these instruments have to cross the ocean on cargo vessels, I understand the finish decision.

I like the Breedlove Solo Pro that I own now. The tuning machines are not “aged” and I found them smoother and having more precision than the one on the Pursuit Exotic S. That could of course be related to friction in the nut and on the Solo Pro Breedlove does use a Tusq nut. I would prefer the Solo Pro without the Fishman stuff and would instead much prefer a K&K Pure Bass. There are no controls on the K&K at all, you do all the work at the amp, but I find their contact based pickups are much less shrill than any piezo. You can get an upgrade kit to add an in sound hole volume control. I use K&K Pure Minis (now called Pure Pickup) and their Trinity System which adds a belt mounted 2 channel preamp and a gooseneck condenser microphone in the guitar body and recommend them over any other acoustic pickup system. Only the LR Baggs Anthem system comes close in terms of an aftermarket product. Maton Guitars from Australia also use a combination of contact and condenser microphone in their instruments. They sound fabulous, especially into a really excellent acoustic amp like an AER.

I recorded this sample bass track using the Breedlove into Logic Pro direct via the Apollo. I then added a drum track and a keyboard loop to give you folks some context. The only post processing on the bass track was a VERY gentle LA-2A compressor.

Demand for acoustic bass guitars has fallen off somewhat, not unlike the demand for banjos and mandolins. I happen to like an all acoustic instrument set, but do not object to amplification to ensure that the crowd can hear the talent of the musicians. Miking all the instruments can be challenging and requires the musicians to hold position all the time. An onboard pickup provides more freedom to the musician, and my foray into the acoustic bass guitar proves once again that there are very different audio quality levels available in pickups and that in general, the most common, the piezo, is not optimal.

Thanks very much for reading and being part of the That Guitar Lover internet family. Subscribe to be notified of new articles and podcast episodes. I’m Ross Chevalier and until next time, peace.