Epiphone El Capitan Fretless 5-String

Electric/Acoustic fretless 5-string bass
Laminated maple top with built-in 5 band eq on preamp..
Thin-to-medium size radius on neck

This bass is quiet acoustically, but the sound quality is great for such a small body. I play many styles and can even do jazz/fusion solos, slap, or pound out thrash riffs and power chords on this acoustic bass! That's versatility. It also does the fretless growl proud. However, the piezo pickup under the bridge sucks. Do yourself a favor and order a pickup from Bob Gollihur like I did. I played two nouveau flamenco gigs with this bass, one before and one after installing a Best Western pickup, and the difference was 300% better! The sound rating for this instrument is 8 or 9 for the natural sound and 3 for the amplified sound (especially at high volumes)

The action is great on this bass. Even though acoustic, Gibson fitted the bass with their .45 gage Thunder electric strings, and they sounded great for months on end, even though I play heavily and have corrosive sweat :b This instrument is SO responsive that I developed several speed picking, tapping, and flamenco influenced techniques on it; I can play this bass FASTER and more fluently than my Ibanez Soundgears!!! (To hear my style of playing, check the media page at Dividedskymusic.com and download a song with the initials S.O.C.)

As far as flaws go, only the electronics were disappointing; the LED for the 'feedback cut' switch went out in only a year.

I haven't even bothered to have this bass worked on or set/up or anything; it's my bass to grab at home when I have ideas. It's always there and always sounds great. I don't bother with the strap buttons, because I don't like the placement (I think I'm supposed to wear this hippy-style with one of those acoustic guitar straps... I prefer to sit compared to that)

Once again, the electronics were the flimsiest part, but for the price...

Only dealt with the company once to ask them what strings they used on the bass in the factory, they replied right away.. Didn't purchase a warranty, the bass doesn't need it and I bought for cheap.

I've been playing for about 13 years and own an upright bass as well as two 5 and 6-string Soundgears and an Aria Steve Bailey model 6-string fretless. What do I love about this bass? The fact that I walk into music stores and try out acoustic bass guitars that are double or triple the price that sound and play like S*** in comparison. By the way, the Aria SB fretless doesn't have that growl that this does (even though I've been using roundwound strings on the rosewood neck for years). I imagine that the only thing that would be better than this bass would be the custom jobbers that Jonas Hellborg plays or other high-end instruments.