Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

OK, it's not quite going to the dark side, and I have to say, if RIC made one, I probably wouldn't have gone with Fender. First impressions are, it's actually smaller than I thought it would be, quite comfortable to hold/play. The sound, while not loud, is nice, good tone with the factory bronze strings. Plenty loud enough for practice, messing around, and playing along with stuff while sitting out on the deck...

Not a run of the mill Fender, is it? The bound/blocked neck really is classy looking for an ABG.

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?

Yes, it's a Kingman. As for neck dive, so far I've only played it sitting with the guitar on my leg. Can't say I noticed any tendency towards neck dive.

Now with a strap I can see where there could be an issue and have heard reports of this. The neck is really long compared to the body, and there's really no weight to the body itself. They may have been able to reduce it with different placement of the strap buttons.

Guess I'll have to give it a try with a strap - 'course, all of mine have Schaller locks on 'em so they won't work on the Kingman. And since the pickup output goes through the strap button on the end of the body, changing them out for Schallers won't exactly work either.

I've still got 44 days left to evaluate it and decide if I'm going to keep it though, so no mods until them for sure...

cjj wrote:The neck is really long compared to the body, and there's really no weight to the body itself.

Put a horseshoe in the body, that should help balance things out.

Guess I could swipe one of these, that middle one's really big and probably has enough weight...

Or, one of these.

CJ
enjoy your new acoustic bass !

jps wrote:Or, one of these.

Oh hey, I've got a bunch of those in the barn...

I've got some of these too, but at 100lbs each, they may counteract the dive a bit much...

8mileshigher wrote:CJ
enjoy your new acoustic bass !

+1!

jps wrote: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?

I checked out all of the music stores within 100 miles of here, none had any ABGs. I was in Salt Lake City a few weeks ago and called several music stores and one had an Ibanez, another a Tanglewood. It ended up that I didn't have time to check 'em out, but with such a small selection, I'm not sure I missed much.

Anyway, I've got 45 days to decide if I'm keeping this one, sure wish I could try out a few more...

Congrats CJ! I can say I love mine for just what you are talking about and I do like how it sounds plugged in. I had played an '88 Guild ABG huge body on it big round bouts, it was louder neck a little beefier maybe rounder would be a better description, also three times the price. It did have a very nice tone to it. I grabbed a random image of one.

The Guild is probably one of the best ones,if not the best. I owned a Tacoma Thunderchief for about a year and a half,and it was really nice. In the end,i didn't really like the big body,and turned my attention to hollowbody and ultimately semi-hollowbody basses. The 2 Carvins i've recently gotten (ac40 fretless,Ac50 fretted)are fantastic sounding basses,altho there is not a lot of volume unplugged.

I've always wanted an acoustic bass guitar but never really found a good application for them. Even at a "campfire" setting they just don't seem to cut it in a mix of other acoustic instruments. Maybe a guitarron? Anyway, please share recordings if you wish as I'd love to hear them. And congratulations on the new Fender!

cassius987 wrote:I've always wanted an acoustic bass guitar but never really found a good application for them. Even at a "campfire" setting they just don't seem to cut it in a mix of other acoustic instruments. Maybe a guitarron? Anyway, please share recordings if you wish as I'd love to hear them. And congratulations on the new Fender!

Agreed - when I owned an acoustic bass guitar, I was constantly told that it was incredibly audible from the back of the venue. No good whatsoever though, if neither I nor any acoustic band-mates could hear the damned thing close-up!

'The acoustic bass I owned at that time was a custom-built round-back instrument (think of a bass version of an Ovation) and as fine a piece of woodwork and "luthiership" (if there's such a word) as I've ever seen. However, without amplification, I got no sense of how or if my band mates or the audience were responding to what I was playing, so at least half of the magic formula that is what live work is all about simply didn't happen. I found this happening at live acoustic gigs, rehearsals and whilst camping out with instruments in tow.

I've found quite a few acoustic basses that I really liked the tonal qualities of, and a few that have been able to match acoustic volume with that of other acoustic instrument players, but never yet both at the same time.

Ever optimistic though, I'd be very interested to hear feedback on yours, CJ.

Ash