Ibanez AEB305LG

This is an apparently discontinued (but new) made-in-Korea 5-string "acoustic" flattop bass. 32" 22 fret scale, a wide rosewood fingerboard w typical bass frets and sealed bass tuners (unbranded); round wound brass strings, single cutaway, satin finish mahogany body/neck, spruce top; guitar-style bridge; Fishman piezo pickup & electronics (volume, bass, middle, treble, "shape", phase reversal). It came with a truss rod tool and a useful booklet on the pickup system. I paid extra for a hard case, which is reflected in the "price paid". One lack is that there's no neck strap button: either you can use a folklie strap that ties to the peghead or put a button in the heel of the neck. I play sitting down, so it's not an issue.

I bought this to play folkie gigs with, where my Carvin LB20 looked out of place among the banjos, mandolins, fiddles etc. I play simple runs on it, mostly 1-5 licks but occasionally I am allowed to stretch out a (very) little due to the musical genre. I use it with an Ampeg B100R amp, which is reasonably small and inconspicuous. I also find myself practicing with it since it is a nice little box. It has the typical piezo bass sound, but it is very easily tailored with the Fishman controls. I roll off all the highs to try to imitate a string bass. Nobody's fooled, but it doesn't annoy, either. The tone controls cover a wide range and it took a bit to dial in the sound, but I know that if I wanted to change it up the sound's probably in there somewhere. It's very quiet, as long as the treble's turned down. I have the bass all the way up, the mid about halfway, the hi all the way down, and the "shape" all the way up. This gives a bottomy, fat sound, and it works quite well for our gigs, which tend to not be very loud (we have played some without amplification, except for the bass). I don't know that I'll use it in the studio, as my solid body fills that niche. On the other hand, I expect to use this one a lot, live, due to its lightness and convenience. Being the type it is, I would not care to run it at high gain since it'll feed back. The 5th string is tuned to B, and it sounds pretty even across the strings. I don't play real low notes, but it's nice to have a lower one up near where I'm playing on the other strings. For example, One song we do has 2 low Fs at the end, which on the 4 string are played at the first fret; on the 5 I can play them at the sixth. One caveat is appropriate for persons who have not played an "acoustic": they don't sound good without being plugged in. There just ain't no way you can get real bass sounds out of a dreadnought-sized body. If you realize that it's an electric in sheep's clothing, you'll be all right.

Your nicely made modern CDC instrument. Everything fits well; the finish, while not flashy, looks good, with no flaws I have found. Action out of the box was "bass-standard": a little high for a guitar but well setup for the heavy B (5th) string. The neck is straight and it is playable up around the 15th fret (as high as I have gone so far). I have played other Ibanez instruments and they have all been well-constructed. No surprises, here.

So far this bass has caused me no anxiety. I play a lot of Dobro and acoustic guitar, live, and it's mostly a matter of not slamming them around. One nice touch is that the output jack in on the treble side of the lower bout, so you can set it on a stand on stage, unlike others that have a jack in the tailpin. Since I trade out instruments a lot I need something that is stand-friendly. I have gigged without a backup, and I don't feel the need.

No experience.

I've been playing bass for 22 years (34, overall), and I always have played solid body jazz basses or derivations. I currently have a Carvin LB20 and a noname Jazz copy (both 4-strings). This is my first 5-string, and I like it a lot...even with the wider neck. Other people who have played it were guitarists, and the B tuning confused them (they wanted to do runs up the neck that used the [non-existent] high B string), but being a Dobro player I'm used to alternate tunings. If it went away I'd get another...maybe look at other brands, but not because I'm unhappy with this one. I enjoy its light weight (we recently played a prison where we carried our gear for about a mile and I was very aware of the weight of my solid body!), its good looks and its user-friendliness. The 5th string has been very well implemented with this. Just plug in and play. Everyone seems to think it's pretty good looking, too. When I was shopping I compared all the features and checked out reviews here and finally I couldn't find anything that looked better. For the price I expect quite a few years of gigging and playing. Its only flaw, in my opinion, is that it doesn't have a full 34" scale, but it's still better than some very expensive models with 30" necks. But it does everything I need an acoustic bass to do: if it doesn't, I pull out the solid body.