Guild B-30E Fretless

The bass is an older fretless, made in Rhode Island. It has an unlined fingerboard. It is a huge spruce-toped bass with an unbraced arched back, no cutaway and all four strings. Sound leaps out to the front, so you'll never really know how you sound. The bass has a factory Fishman pickup and preamp, with all the goodies except for a notch filter. It is nicely finished and bound, with a big beautiful inlaid Guild headstock and gigantic chrome Grover covered tuning machines. It has a one-piece bridge, filed to provide a bit of intonation correction. It has a stout neck. This bass must have been dropped on its headstock. It has a crack behind the fingerboard at the headstock that runs parallel to the fingerboard for about a fret. It may have been repaired, and causes no structural problem. It kills the collector value, so I'll have to keep it forever. I sold my fretless Tacoma Thunderchief when I got this. The Guild is better, and that's saying quite a bit.

It may be the best sounding ABG out there, but I'm going to give it a 9, since it has a 30" scale. Kinda silly. So's the mammoth pickguard.

If you want a fretless ABG to play unamplified at bluegrass festivals, this is it. Leave the action high, string it with roundwounds from D'Addario or Martin, and thump away. Bass leaps from the front, and you can keep up with guitars, with a well-matched tone. A fretted version would be better for this application.

If you are a bit funkier, string it with LaBella Deep Talkin' tapewounds stick a Fishman Rare Earth acoustic bass pickup in it, and play all your favorite upright bass licks, loud and proud.

If you want lots of mwah, lower the action. I'm not interested in the musical versatility of an oboe, so I don't.

The 30" scale makes the E string flabby. Tuning up a step corrects the problem, and the tension will still be less than a 34" neck at standard tuning.

For stage use, feedback is a big problem, unless you are playing with only a guitar or two. Use a long cord to get away from the speakers. This only helps a bit at bass frequencies. Upgrading to the Fishman mag pickup helps alot. For recording, use a mike.

The piezo isn't bad for a piezo, but the Fishman mag pickup will let you play louder and sounds better.

I can't speak for the factory setup, since I bought it used. The case stickers show that it has been around the world. It is very well made. And big. And heavy.

The stout neck holds tuning well. This is a rare acoustic guitar that has been out of production for a while, so it needs to be treated well. They are extremely hard to find. Try a fretted model (these are much more common, but still hard to find) and use your imagination.

I don't have any experience with the manufacturer.

I've been playing for years. I suck, but I'm a tone freak who loves his 8 guitars. The bass is rare, and would be extremely difficult to replace. If you had one, why would you sell it? I had to hunt for a while and bought it unseen.

I'd like a 34" neck, but the 30" neck is easy to finger.

This bass competes favorably with a Martin or Tacoma. I haven't tried the Michael Kelly, but it is smaller, and would probably lose. Size matters. Fender/Ibanez/etc. don't compare.