Stagg EDB-3/4

Not sure about what model name to use, since this bass is listed as the "EDB 3/4" on the Stagg website, but the model number printed on the electronics panel clearly says "HDB-200" I'm guessing it was built in 2008. Made in China. Fretless (of course), 4 strings, 42-inch scale with a steeply radiused fingerboard and bridge, like a 3/4 scale upright bass. Takes upright bass strings (you'll never find electric bass strings long enough.) Has a nice heavy-duty endpin with a very stiff sleeve gasket, and a compact wooden tailpiece bolted to the body. Bridge is mounted on threaded posts so action can be adjusted with an allen wrench (included.) Solid body (thin, sort of stew-paddle shaped) with a transparent honey-blonde finish. Bolt-on neck (5 bolts) painted matte black so it looks like it might be graphite, but it's wooden. White position dots on the side of the neck help you find your way around. Neck has a truss rod (but seriously, this neck is massive; it's a 3/4 upright bass neck - is a piece of wood this thick actually going to warp? I have a 1/2 scale acoustic with a thinner neck than this, and it doesn't have a truss rod..) There's a strap button on the back of the neck-heel, and I don't know what it is for. Peghead is a simple open box, 2 tuners on a side, tuners are p-bass style geared tuners with thick barrel capstans instead of tapered-waisted slotted capstans you would see on a standard electric. Comes with two heavy-gauge wire braces that insert into rubber-lined holes on the sides of the instrument: one rests against the player's belly and mimics the feel of the large acoustic box. The other fits on the other side and supposedly takes the place of the shoulder for players who rest their left hand there. A 9v battery powered piezoelectric pickup sits somewhere in or under the bridge. Controls (situated near the body waist) are simple, 2 knobs: Volume and Sub Bass. Has a mini headphones out jack, a mini "mp3 in" jack located on control panel (handy for the student; jam along with favorite recordings, no extra equipment required.) Standard 3/4 inch guitar cable jack on the back of the body, behind the bridge. Jack is recessed and angled like on a Fender Stratocaster. Battery compartment is next to it. Instrument also came with a gig bag, well padded and sturdy-feeling. Instrument seems about as heavy as my 1/2 scale acoustic upright, but is more compact, fits in the car easier .. but even with the endpin all the way in, it stands 5 1/2 feet tall.

It's adequate for any sort of music where you'd want a sound similar to an upright bass without taking up all the space of an upright bass: jazz, rockabilly, latin.. It has the basic timbral properties of an upright bass, maybe brighter and more growly than I like, but that can be corrected with proper equalization. The raw signal from the pickup by itself seems very hot, picks up a lot of handling noise: every tap and bump and scrape. You can EQ some of this out, and some of it will disappear in the mix with other instruments, but listening to it by itself this bass sounds almost too harsh. Running it through a Phil Jones briefcase and tweaking the EQ, it sounds pretty good. Turning up the "sub bass" knob on the bass boosts the low frequencies and darkens the sound quite a bit.. but it also boosts the ground hum (more on that in "action fit & finish" below). I suppose since this is built to feel like a 3/4 upright, if you hated the pickup it came with, you could get a Fishman pickup and stick it on the bridge just like with an acoustic. I might actually try that later. The headphone output works, and is handy for practicing (just plug straight into the instrument, no other equipment needed!) but it has a lot of hiss.

The action is adjustable with the included allen wrench, but it feels fine to me with the factory setup. For players used to an electric, this neck is going to feel HUGE and you'll really need to stretch to reach notes ... it's bigger than my 1/2 scale upright, but not much. Strings are stiffer, but the action is lower. Mine has a dip in the neck just above low C on the A string, buzzes like crap if I hit it, but since it's above where the note is, if I pay attention I won't ever hit it .. plus I anticipate it will become less of a problem over time as the neck wears in. There seems to be a gap between the body and the neck, but the bolts are tight and it feels solid. The rubber sockets that the wire braces fit into are very tight; I recommend rubbing the ends of the braces with a graphite pencil to slick them up a bit first. The left-hand-rest brace doesn't seem to fit right and it felt like it was in the way, so I took it off and stowed it elsewhere. The gig bag doesn't seem to have enough room in it to carry both braces anyway.. The controls are conveniently placed, the battery is easy to change, the LED light showing you that the active electronics are ON is really handy.

But there's a grounding problem: a deep annoying hum that is boosted by the sub-bass knob. I knew what it was right away and confirmed my hunch by touching the headphone jack with my finger: hum went away. Touching the back plate of the control panel also quieted the hum, but you can't touch this surface and play at the same time. Most electric instruments are wired so that the bridge (and by contact, the strings) are connected to the ground side of the circuit, and the player's body (touching the strings) acts as a ground to reduce hum. On piezo/acousic instruments this is hard to accomplish. Fortunately this bass has steel strings, so it was just a matter of getting a ground wire to the strings. I fixed the problem, but in a way that voids the warranty. Don't do this unless you are sure you want to keep the bass:

Unscrew the jack plate and drill a small hole straight through from the jack cavity to the front of the bass (only about 1/2 inch of wood there.) Cut a piece of insulated wire about 6 inches long. Tin one end with a soldering iron. The jack has 3 wires soldered to it: red, white, and silver shielding. (Connecting white & shield will turn on the active preamp and light up the LED.) Solder your tinned wire to the shield contact, keeping the shield wire also soldered to it. Feed the other end of your wire through the hole you drilled. Strip enough wire to separate the strands into a Y that can reach the two middle strings just below the bridge. Tin these wires. Use small bolts and washers to clamp these two ends onto the two middle strings. Now when you touch the A and D string (which you will 95% of the time when playing) the ground hum will go away! Screw the jack plate back on.

This bass seems pretty solidly built. I haven't had it for long, but I feel confident that everything will last, except maybe the rubber sockets that the brackets fit into. I can see them turning all brittle over the years and flaking out of their holes. Also I don't know how well the electronics are going to hold up over time. The body is well built. Electronics can be swapped but a decent body is hard to get at this price. I'm reasonably impressed.

I've been playing bass for 10 years and I've gone through lots of basses, searching for the elusive Perfect One. In addition to this Stagg, I currently own a Hofner Icon, a fretless Regal Resophonic bass, a no-name Czech 1/2 scale upright, and a mutant combination of a J. Reynolds p-bass body with an Epihpone EB-0 neck. I have owned and rejected in the past: a Gold Tone banjo bass, a DeArmond Ashbory, a Danelectro U-1 fretless, a Hohner/Steinberger 5-string, and an Ibanez Artcore semi-hollow long scale. This bass satisfies a yearning for an easily portable upright .. the price could not be beat; nothing else in this range has a full 42-inch scale and an arched bridge for bowing. This feels like a real bass. If the electronics crap out, I'll replace them with something else. I've never been afraid to tinker with my instruments. Overall I feel like this one was a very good deal.