An Acoustic-Electric Bass

So many, many years ago...how many years ago I can't even remember...I nearly bought an acoustic-electric bass. I was long before Ye Olde Motor Primitives...MAYBE even before Wyrd Tuesday. It must have been after quitting grad school though...when I was really into collecting and teaching myself to play new stringed instruments. I don't even know how I got the person's contact because this was before the internet...an ad in the paper? Who knows? But I remember distinctly going to a person's apartment to test out an acoustic-electric bass and being THIS CLOSE to buying it and then deciding that I had no idea what I was looking for and could easily be ripped off. Also, I think it buzzed...which I know now isn't surprising, but might or might not have been fixable.

Everything old is new again...and I find myself interested again. Sometime after that first time I decided that acoustic-electric basses were pointless because you had to amplify them to really hear them...and what's the point of that. But some of the bands are looking at unplugged sets coming in the next year...and...well.

I know that a cheap instrument is a cheap instrument and probably not worth the money. I also know that every instrument I own is cheap and they've all taken me as far as I've wanted to go.

If I'm not mistaken, for Newport Kim Deal used a Godin...probably an A4. That's just way out of my price range...and possibly designed with amplification in mind. I'm talking about a 100% unplugged show with full band.

KS recommends a Guild...but jesus those don't even seem to be for sale at any major retailer...and that tells me they will be 1)hard to find and 2)expensive.

No...I'm probably looking at a Dean EAB or similiar. I recognize this is a shit instrument...but for the price (about $150...just stupid cheap) it seems to get pretty good reviews. I think it would be smartest to try one out in a store with one or both of my guitar players in tow. We should all three play together and see if you can hear the bass at all. I'll probably have to use a pick all the time. If I bought it at a brick and mortar store I could have them set it up for me too...to assure no buzzes and best action possible of the piece of shit.


So begins the research anyway...