NBD: I bought a F... a F... F..F..Fender

[cjj]

Well, so far, just sitting around the house or out on the deck, listening to the stereo and playing along, I can hear what I'm doing just fine. The stereo is at a volume that allows normal conversation, so not terribly loud.

Now, my wife said she can't hear what I'm playing, so maybe it's not much good for being heard by others acoustically. But then again, she can't pick out the bass line in something like Rush's Spirit of Radio, so I'm not sure she's the best judge.

Anyway, at least I don't annoy her with my playing along...

[cjj]

Tried it plugged in... All I can say is, I'm impressed, sounds darned good!

[jps]

A few months ago I played several different moderately priced ABG for a friend of mine who has very limited access to real music stores. I tried a Kingman (that's what your is, right, CJ?), nice, if soft (volume-wise), acoustic tone and it sounded very good plugged in, IIRC. The only thing that bugged me was the extreme neck dive, do you experience this with yours?

So, back to seriousness, which ones did you try and which did you like best? How did others compare to the Kingman?

IIRC, I tried a couple of different Ibanez', A Washburn AB20 (I think), the Kingman, and a Dean. Most of them were on the quiet side acoustically, most of them seemed fairly balanced neck dive-wise (except for the Fender), but surprisingly the least expensive Ibanez had the best overall tone (to me). Plugged in, they were all pretty similar, with varying tonal possibilities depending on the included preamp.

[bugman]

I had a Guild B30 (I think that was the model) and it was a great bass but man that thing had a huge body. You could hide a fat man and two of his friends behind it

[aceonbass]

I almost got a that Fender ABG myself, but instead scored a very nice 80's Ferrington in white. When I got it the pickup was dead, so I called Danny Ferrington to get advice on a replacement pickup. He told me they originally used Shadow pickups, but that a newer Fishman would be better. I got very lucky and found an NOS Shadow for $20.00 delivered from Ebay, and along with a new output jack, only had about $395.00 in the Ferrington. Being a bit larger, they're the original 80's acoustic/electric bass, and very iconic (Squire played on in the ""Love Will Find a Way" video). They are very bright and have a lot of presence.