The Acoustic Bass Guitar or ABG for short is a great instrument which is a welcome addition to any bass/guitar players collection. The ABG is an instrument still in its infancy regarding its full potential. It has some obvious short comings, namely in a purely acoustic setting it will be hard pressed to be heard if competing against several other instrumnets. In small settings playing with perhaps one or two other instruments the ABG can manage quite well. Drums......forget it.

To my surprise i recount owning 6 ABG's, my latest is a US Tacoma Thunderchief with the  L.G.Baggs pickup incorporated. ABG's stem back to 1970's when Ernie Ball introduced the Earthwood Acoustic Bass guitar, a massive bass with quite a short neck similar to the Mexican Guitarron. Guild also made similar basses such as the legendary Guild B-30E. ABG's got a lot of attention when MTV introduced its 'Unplugged' sessions back in 1989 up until then the ABG was still quite a rarely used instrument.

The best thing about an ABG is that you can pick them up and play without requiring an amplifier as is the case with electric bass guitars. Typically ABG's use phosphor bronze strings which can sound quite harsh at first however with time these strings can mellow after they lose their intitial brightness and the top end drops off leaving the bottom and mid ranges to have more presence. Other players have found tape wound strings or nylon over copper winding to be quite successful. Personally i find phospher bronzes excell in volume but note nylon gives a very warm dark sound but sacrifices some volume (ok if you intend to play with an amp though).

Choosing a ABG- the thing with basses, is they have to be big to produce sufficient volume. Take for example the Double Bass, Sousaphone, Tuba or even the Mexican Guitarron. These are all big cumbersome instruments and perhaps this is the sacrifice a bass player has to make for a big sound. The ABG is a compromise between portability and volume. Being a smaller member of the bass family means the ABG has a smaller acoustic output, bear this in mind when choosing a bass, ideally find the biggest jumbo acoustic bass you can find. The 'Earthwood' and 'Guild' previously discussed for example have huge acoustic bodies approx 6-8 inches in body depth and at least 18inches in width and approx 25inches in body length! Modern luthiers who build expensive basses tend to use body depths of around 5-6 inches for comfort and widths of around 18 inches and body lengths of around 22 inches. Basses typically have a scale length of around 34inches. The theory bigger body cavity bigger the sound.

However you don't need to sell a kidney to find a bass with a decent acoustic sound. I've played on a number of acoustic basses such as the Harley Benton which had a good acoustic volume, the electrics sucked however. Alba's presently available on ebay (2008) recieve favourable reviews. Avoid the small body type basses available off ebay, typically they tend to have a neck that joins the body at the 17th fret as opposed to the 15th fret. Tacoma have a budget model called the Olympia OB3CE made in Indonesia which is also a very nice bass for those on a budget and for a bit more cash theirs always the older model Epiphone 'El Capitan'.(not to impressed with the new ones) To get a little more volume from your acoustic bass try adjusting the string action the higher the better and play with tough solid plectrum approx 3 to 5mm. (Coconut sounds good)

Lastly if possible try and avoid basses with a cut away section, this to me seems like an unnessecary design. My Tacoma has a cut away and i wish it did not. It reduces the acoustic volume in my view and as the neck in most examples joins the body at the 15 fret a bewildering concept? Good ABG's are not cheap, cheap ones that have big bodies tend to be laminated where as  basses made from solid tone woods  which are also  big tend to be 'Luthier' quality and are not cheap. Do your home work, this is a blossoming market and their are new acoustic basses being built all the time some good some bad.

I hope this guide has been of some use to you.