Alden BB-2B Deluxe Violin Bass

One of the recent crop of "McCartney" bass clones, this four-string short-scale 22-fret model is made by Alden in Korea, and designed by Alan Entwistle. It's up against competition from brands such as Rogue, Shine, Harley Benton, Tanglewood, and even the cheaper Epiphones.

The body is maple with a close-grained spruce laminate top which isn't heavily flamed, unlike many other clones, but features a rich tobacco sunburst. The bindings and finish in general are superb. The tailpiece is very like the original Hofner, rather than the curly "pretzel" shape most of the other clones use.

The neck is glued to the body, and is maple with a rosewood fingerboard and medium frets. It's fairly narrow compared to my other (fretless Jazz Bass clone) bass, but not at all cramped.

The bridge is floating and made of rosewood. The wood of this may be a little soft, but I'm hoping I won't need to do much to it over the years anyway. Fiddling with the intonation once it's nearly there is dead easy - just wiggle the bridge into the correct position to give you true harmonics, and you're done!

It has two custom Alnico humbuckers modelled on the "staple" design featured on some Hofner originals, and the volume and switching controls are also modelled on the early designs. The pickup surrounds are chrome, whereas almost all other clones I've seen (and some originals) have plastic surrounds. This sort of attention to detail adds up to the impression of a very classy instrument.

The bass was supplied with roundwound strings which I believe were long-scale (no silk windings at the neck end, very low tension and a very brassy tone) - I replaced them with flatwounds pretty well as soon as I got the bass, but if I ever want it to sound like a piano being plucked, I now know how to do it!

With the flatwounds (Rotosounds), it has a superb warm, rich, remarkably deep tone that you'd expect from a much heavier and more substantial-looking bass. The pickups perform very well - even with the flatwounds there's some treble to spare if you want it, but it comes into its own with the Bass switch on, when classic bass tones that will fit into many types of music can be yours with next to no effort.

Some people report that these violin basses lack sustain, but that doesn't seem to apply too much to the Alden.

This is one of the electrically quietest instruments I've ever bought - no hum or interference at all. However, the volume and switch controls may be fairly authentic in design, but they are one weak point on this bass for me. You have a volume control for each of the pickups, one Treble and one Bass slider (which switch in capacitors to shape the tone) and a Rhythm/Solo slider, which in the original was supposed to cut the volume for rhythm work. The Bass slider works just fine. The Treble cuts so much signal that it's pretty unusable. The Rhythm/Solo switch doesn't seem to make any difference at all.

What you're left with that does work makes a great noise anyway - for a 3/4 bass, it has a BIG aound - but this bass is in line for some customizing - the basic sound and pickups are good enough that they'd benefit from more conventional tone controls (I reckon I'll fit two concentric volume/tone controls so I can use the same faceplate) and a few amendments to the switching system (not decided exactly what yet, but one of those switches will be adapted to let me reverse the phase of one of the pickups).

This bass is unique for me, in that it's needed the bare minimum of tweaking to the setup (mainly to adjust the height of the pickups to my own taste). The nut is well cut, the action is superb, and it plays like a dream. The finish is very good indeed for a bass in this price range, though it'll obviously need some care to avoid dings in normal use.

I'd be a little concerned about the chrome fittings tarnishing, but I'll just have to try to be conscientious about giving it a clean and a polish every now and then.

It's a light-bodied bass, so inevitably a little neck-heavy. I counteracted this with a suede-lined strap, but I've found that the playing position that feels most natural for me is with my right forearm draped over the curve of the body topside (I tend to play my guitars strapped close due to a couple of left wrist injuries way back), which corrects the balance pefectly.

So far, I've been surprised by just how "solid" this bass feels for a hollow-bodied guitar (the Hofners always look quite fragile in photos). I haven't used it live yet, but I'm sure it would be fine, and I don't think you'd need to be any more cautious with it than you would an acoustic guitar.

So far, the neck is rock-solid - it's a set neck, and there's next to no play in it - and I think the short scale length may mean it's less vulnerable to disruption leading to the need to tweak the truss rod.

Not needed them (yet).

I've been playing over 30 years. This bass joins my harem of an electro-acoustic six-string, a Strat copy and a four-string fretless bass (with a couple of other guitars littered around the house that aren't for "best").

The original strings weren't great at all, and some may take exception to that. Myself, I figured I'd almost certainly want to fit strings to my own taste anyway, but not everyone will be happy about having to shell out for decent strings (I'd suggest flatwound suit it best, and you need medium-scale ones, since the tailpiece adds to the overall scale length - short-scale strings will be too short) before they can really get to grips with the bass.

I've really enjoyed playing it and getting to know it. It feels very natural, and its action and general friendliness encourage you to play, and play adventurously and fluidly.

If it was stolen or lost, I'd get another in a flash.

I guess one issue with a bass like this is the "McCartney" legacy. I'm of the generation where it gives me a bit of a kick to own and play a bass that resembles that iconic instrument. But even without that factor, this is simply a brilliant guitar, it stands on its own merits, and I'm sure I can get over feeling a bit self-conscious about playing it in public (where it's bound to be quite a talking point).

To sum up the above pluses and minuses:

Pluses

Superb finish and body design
Lovely overall sound
Feels great, and plays like a dream

Minuses

Switches not 100% functional
Wrong strings fitted when supplied