Epiphone El Capitan Acoustic 4 Fretless

I believe it was made in the early 90's. Unlined fretless. Features are the same as other El Capitan fretted acoustics, with the Epi6 active preamp. Mine is in sunburst finish - fairly well done espically on how they sunburst it not only on the front of the body, but also the back, side, and the neck itself. Ideally I'd prefer Ebony to be used for a fretless fingerboard, but they used dark (Brazilian?) rosewood for these basses which I still like very much. Single cut body give pretty good access to the upper registers. Tuners are generic Gotoh type which I had to replaced because they were leaking lubricant. I guess it happened because it is a almost ten years bass and may be climate change contribute to the leak as well (from sounthen west coast of the States to Toronto)

The fretless has great mwah all over the board. Didn't find any dead spot which is GREAT. I use the bass with a Yamaha PB-1 preamp, powered by a QSC PLX1202, and pump through a Yorkville 15'" cab. I love both the plug-in and unplug sound, especially with a set of LaBella DeepTalkin' nylon wraped strings. I usually keep the 'bright' and 'treble' eq flat and adjust the rest as needed. I know it is kindda lame to say that a regular acoustic bass guitar to mimic the upright bass sound, but it is defintely the next best thing to an upright if you don't have the money for it.

The action on mine is on the high side, which's the way I like it, because I feel I can plug the strings harder and give a more focused sound. The overall finish of the bass is very nice, the bindings are solid all around the top of the body as well as around the fingerboard and the headstock. The preamp control fits very sell on the contour of the side of the body.

As I said, the turners went bad becasue they were leaking lubricant, but everything else are very solid. It is also a very solid built acoustic, because being an idiot that I am, I've dropped the bass once (fell sideway while leaning against the couch), but they weren't any apparent damage except for some hairline laquer crack along the edge where the neck meets the body. That was my fault and if anything, it shows that the bass can take quite a beating!!

Never had to deal with them.

I've been playing for about 3 years, also own a Yamaha BBG5S. It is a great acoustic bass and I'm glad I got it for a fairly good price. This bass have shown me that acoustic bass sound best when it is a fretless, and I don't think I'll every sell it or trade it for anything else.