Really nice video about acoustic bass. Yes, they don’t sound loud enough to play alongside a couple of guitars as many other YT-videos point out. But I love mine to just grab and play on the couch at home. Only downside for me is that it often fills up with various toys since our toddler love to put things inside the sound hole. Luckily the hole is off centre.
@@lain9719 I’ve only played my cheap acoustic bass. It’s a quiet a bit louder with a pick and I can imagine a more sophisticated built one can turn up the volume. Also a resonator bass with pick seems like a louder option.
I went down a rabbit hole trying to get a sound like a double bass and realised I would never do it without actually getting one. Ended up buying a fretless Godin bass which is the best equivalent sound I’ve heard, not the same but has its own vibe and works well with an acoustic trio. Superb instrument.
@@deadandburied7626 funnily enough I ended up selling the Godin and buying a German made Hofner. Still not like a real upright but has a lovely sound and the fast decay has a wonderful thump up it.
I had the fretless version of that bass and used it acoustically, whilst performing aboard a cruise ship in Hawaii. I was part of a duo that would play in the Grand Salon dining room. We’d stroll from table to table, singing for the dining passengers. We had a great system, as to where we’d stay just long enough to become annoying. They’d usually end up tipping us to go away....$$$
Thanks for this video, acoustic bass don't get much love on the internet. I've been searching reviews and opinions about acoustic bass because i was considering it might be a good option for easy to grab & practice while at home.
Acoustic basses are great to have around, I sometimes get together with a bunch of acoustic guitar players and use mine, but I have never recorded with it.
Your vids are brilliant for learning. I always end up watching half of one and going off for a week to practice what I’ve learned. It’s gonna take forever to get through them all. Thanks so much dude.
I love my acoustic bass.. I bought it 2nd hand, it's heap and cheerful. I often work away and stay in a lot of hotels, it's bang on for practicing in my hotel room because it's quite quiet, even when I play if quite hard with a pic. I've not had any complaints so far and I owe a lot of what I've learnt so far to practicing on that bass...& your uploads of course Dan.😊
There are two major attractions to the acoustic bass: the first is that it's easier to play if you're used to electric bass, the second is that it's 1/10th the price of a double bass. The double bass is better in every way otherwise, although a U-bass has a similar sound.
I have a U bass and a double bass and I agree with you. I'm not sure many people use one to replace the upright - you can't really replicate that tone!
@@OnlineBassCourses also, some of us have homes where there's just no place to put an upright bass -- and carrying it around New York City would...not be fun. But it's true, I can't imagine most classic acoustic jazz recordings with the acoustic bass guitar -- or an electric fretless, or anything except the big fiddle.
Got a fretless acoustic I really love! I would have preferred a fretted, but the fretless was the on 34" scale I could find. The rest were 32" and I figured it might screw up my muscle memory. Even playing just acoustically, it sounds great with flatwound 55 gauge strings.
At the beginning, and from 4:25-4:35, you seem to play a scale, but very melodically. I’ve seen you do it often, and though it seems simple to you, I long to see a step-wise demonstration of how you (meaning “I”) gradually, slowly progress from playing a boring scale into beautiful, musical expression. I think there is a gap there between what you see as quite a simple, logical addition of musicality, and my beginner’s need to see the thing built up from the scale in small increments that I can copy and memorize to get the light bulb to go on. Thanks for all your great instruction, hard for a dead beginner to pick up, but I will follow you doggedly because I can really see the value in the way you see things (I just need help seeing your lightning fingers).
Hi Dan, I've had a few acoustic basses over the years. The photo with my handle is a Victor Bailey acoustic I owned and adored but was stolen unfortunately. Vic was a genius and I'm a massive fan, his sorely missed. Ive currently got and love, a Sigma mahogany ABG now for several years. Looks, plays and sounds beautiful, unplugged or plugged in. Paid around 1k at the time. A better instrument than FENDERS and some other ABG's in that price range I owned previously. I use it mainly for practice and it's great to play sitting around a fire, camping or take on holiday in general. Ive just been away on holidays for 3 weeks and looks like you've been busy. I have some vids to catch up on. Cheers
Great video! Glad I stumbled on your channel recently. I’ve got a mini acoustic bass that I take to the park when the weather is nice. Chords sound great on the acoustic too.
Hey Dan, would love a lesson on what you called “that classic finger style... freestyle” type of plucking. Or at least some intro ideas? Thanks man!! Keep em coming!!🤘🏻🔥
Thank you so much. I've just started learning bass, but I don't like the weight of the electric. Also, my amp is very low quality. I never knew that there even was such a thing as an acoustic bass! I also live in a very humid climate in the North of Australia.
Great great video! Lately I've been using my acoustic bass a lot in smaller gigs and I was looking for ways to improve the sound. Mic+piezo is a nice combo, but how about mic+standard magnetic pickup (using steel strings of course)? I'm thinking about placing a passive humbucker right above the soundhole. I feel that would drastically reduce feedback problems and give me way more possibilities to shape the tone.
Useful as an acoustic is for just quickly picking up the problem I have with mine is needing to keep the action quite high to keep the string break angle at the bridge great enough to get enough sound projection. Do any of you find this?
Thank you soo much for this video in response to my enquiry!!!! I'm glad that you consider it a good tool for practicing as I'm learning with it. Would you recomend a bonk thumbrest to learn how to position correctly the right hand (plucking hand)? Once again thanks for your kind advices!!!
You're welcome! I don't actually know what those are but I can guess. Honestly, I don't really think you need one. You can rest the upper part of your wrist at the top body and anchor that way and it should feel secure. Then you can move your hand and fingers where you want.
Hi Dan, congratulations for your nice videos and your bass guitars passion and lessons. I've also an acoustic bass, your sound is perfect, could you please give me the type/manufacturer of the pickup that you have installed. Thank you.
Thanks very much Rogerio. On my acoustic bass? This one doesn’t have a pickup, you can just plug in and play with the onboard electronics. I think it’s Fishman but I’m away from my bass at the moment…
Thanks John. One of the best basses I ever played (I should have bought it) was a Yamaha acoustic fretless. That had flats on and it felt and sounded amazing. I haven't used them on a fretted but I bet it would work very well.
Hello, thank you for sharing this video. I have a quick question. My wife and I are wanting to play small acoustic gigs. I have my acoustic guitar. Now to add her on on bass...do we need an amp with electric bass or should we plug her directly on our small powered PA? Thank you for your time and hope to hear from you soon. Or would an acoustic bass be a better choice.
All valid options to be honest! I think electric with small amp is probably the easiest option. If the amp has a DI out then you can put some bass in the PA if you want. Or you could get a DI and go through the PA but your wife would need to hear herself properly. That's why I think the amp is the best option...
Thanks Kevin. I honestly can't remember but I haven't seen it around recently. I bought this a few years back and it wasn't that expensive so not one of the top models.
thanks for your video I play classical guitar and I love the sound of this bass! i've got a question: can you plug it on an electric guitar amp without the amp suffering from the low notes ?
Thanks. The tweak I made before filming this is honestly the only thing I've ever had done on this bass. Same strings too. I'd probably take it to a luthier if it needed a good setup as that's beyond my skill set.
I have a question, why in many of songs when bands play acoustic versions, there is acoustic guitars, sometimes even cajon for the drums, but barely even acoustic bass and they stick with the E-bass instead? I’ve seen it so many times and it’s pretty weird to me I just wanted to ask maybe there is a reason or they are just too lazy to get an acoustic one?
I'm trying to record my acoustic bass guitar with my interface to DAW. It gives miserable effects, and I have no electric bass or double-bass right here where I moved recently. I am trying to record with built-in pickup, with my vocal/acoustic microphone, and with my mixer that contains double-bass piezo + bass microphone, suitable for double-bass. It all sounds like a misery, even if I'm recording on four separate sources at once and later balancing them. Surprisingly, the best result of all gives simply acoustic record with my vocal mic. Any advice on recording an acoustic bass guitar in a home studio? I make pieces with light percussions, ukulele, and MIDI controller (pianos, effects). I'd love to have two final tones: 1. Close to double-bass richness and meat, 2. Durable (long lasting) sound like on electric bass, that doesn't work at all with acoustic bass no matter what I'm trying. I'm a professional classical double-bassist BTW, so I'm not lacking musical knowledge. I know no to very little about recording.
Are you happy with the bass sound before recording? The source has to be good before doing anything. I keep things simple but I use an Apollo interface which is decent. Then a good mic like a Neumann TLM 102. Good cables are a must for me. Then it’s all about setting the gain structure properly, as well as mic placement (experiment with this but position the mic about 6 inches away from the sound hole). Acoustic instruments with DI like to be recorded with ultra high impedance (like one million ohms) so check that too otherwise the tone might sound weak and thin. Hope that helps a bit.
@Dan Hawkins - Online Bass Courses thank you for taking the time to reply with advice. I admit this far my acoustic bass was just a grab-and-mess-around instrument, but I can get better tone from it with a bit of old double-bass symphonic German/Hungarian school tricks for good pizzicato. I don't have any fancy equipment, nothing bespoke or custom, I simply got "that better one" stuff at the music store, I have no experience with these. I'll try to make things up with the guidance you so kindly shared with me. I wish you a wonderful day!
I would recommend a really cheap starter kit that has bass, cable, amp, strap, and tuner. Something like the ones on Thomann (most big shops and online retailers would sell them). Acoustic basses are great but a little specialised. A solid body electric is more versatile so I’d get that to start with.
I was just at a local shop and found a Fender Kingman on the wall. I played a bit with it but found it to be quite quiet. To get decent tone do you feel you need to play these with a little more force than an electric?
The body on the Kingman is too small. You can do much better for less money. People will argue but Fender acoustic basses are not very good compared to the competition.
Hi Dan, just another doubt, it seems to me that slapping on acoustic bass is almost impossible, is my fault or amplification is required to give sound to the thumb beat?
Hi. Can you help please with acoustic bass recording? I have cort acoustic bass with piezo. When i plug it in audiointerface (rme ucx) i have really quiet signal ( about - 30 at gain in middle ) . Volume on bass preamp is full, but i still need to rise up rme`s preamp to increase bass volume. But then i get preamp`s white noise , and i can`t hear any noise on bass recordings on you tube. Same situation with new dimarzio magnetic pickup. I use it for acoustic guitar and need to rise preamp`s gain and again white noise when i want to get something about - 10 db. Maybe when people recording such things they use di boxes before audiointerfaces? What techniques used in studios? THank you
That doesn’t sound right. You shouldn’t have to push it that hard to get a good tone. Might be worth taking it to someone to see if everything is working and wired properly.
Thank you, its inspiring. I had one 3-4 years ago, a lot of fun! And tomorrow my Harley Benton B-35NT will arrive. Cant wait. Some my old video with HB hbb40ce - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dBoVj5_mZG8.html
