project_c Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 Wasn't really looking for an acoustic bass, but I had time to kill yesterday and I stumbled across this thing in a second hand shop in Brighton, it's a cheap short scale acoustic that sounds remarkably good, and much to my surprise, plays better than any other acoustic bass I've ever tried. I have no idea what 'Artisan' is and I generally don't have more than a passing interest in acoustics, but this bass was cheap and felt so perfect I couldn't resist. It has a very satisfying tone, very upright-ish near the neck, and super punchy by the bridge, even with the crappy old strings on it, I couldn't believe it when I plugged it in. So much so that I've decided to leave the knackered strings on there. Because I was so sceptical, I then tried every other acoustic in the store, and none of them came close in tone or playability, let alone price. The short scale makes it really easy and fun to play, the action is remarkably low for an acoustic (check the pic below), and the preamp sounds pretty good. So all in all, a totally unnecessary purchase but it was not expensive, and it's really loads of fun to play, both unplugged or through an amp. [attachment=153043:ab1.jpg] [attachment=153044:ab2.jpg] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turk Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 Tidy !. How much is 'not expensive' ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Immo Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 Cool find! May we all have such unexpected NBD's Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annoying Twit Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 (edited) I'm also curious to know how much it cost. There are some of these on ebay, but the scale length isn't described properly. New price on ebay seems to be £134, though there is one for auction with a starting bid of £99. I'm no expert on basses and strings, but I have a vague suspicion that the tone might be because of the crappy old strings, rather than despite them. It seems to me that basses with old strings sound better. I don't like that metallic sound from bright strings, and if someone needs some more attack, they can use a pick! Are the dot markers in the right place? Edited January 24, 2014 by Annoying Twit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
project_c Posted January 24, 2014 Author Share Posted January 24, 2014 (edited) That price seems about right, I think they were asking for around £115 in the shop, I paid £100 after a bit of haggling, which makes it just about fit into the 'impulse purchase' bracket for me. it's not 'charity shop' cheap, but it's by far the least I've ever paid for a bass. The crap old strings do contribute to the nice tone, I totally agree. I also think new roundwound strings sound terrible on acoustic basses, I have no idea why they come with those. But there are other contributing factors, like the small body, the short scale and the low action, which means that it's easy to play, and that probably allows me to play better. Like I said, I sat there for a while trying another 4 or 5 acoustic basses which were all over £250, and they all felt horrible in comparison, crazy high action, woolly tone, awkwardly large body (I'm short so size is an issue for me), really the only reason I bought this bass was because I was surprised how good it felt playing it. I haven't put the preamp through its' paces really, and I don't think it's anything spectacular, but I set the volume about half-way, boosted the bass a little bit and that's it, it sounded pretty damn good. The neck, the frets, the nut and the fingerboard are all fine, I can find nothing there worth complaining about, the body seems fine, I can't find anything to criticise there either, the bridge saddle sounded a bit rattle-y at the E string when I first got it, but I loosened the string and gave it a clean, and the rattle stopped. And yes, the dot markers are in the right place too. The only thing that seems weak on the bass is the tuners, they're fine but they do feel pretty cheap. I personally don't care about this too much, it doesn't affect anything apart from having to have a quick tune-up before you start playing, but it's nothing drastic, the bass pretty much stays in tune. If you're playing epic 8 hour long gigs with it, you might want to think about swapping them out though… Other than that, 3 days in and I'm still happy with it! Edited January 24, 2014 by project_c Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turk Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 Well tidy for that price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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