Tacoma CB10E4 Fretless Acoustic/Electric Bass

I recently purchased a 2002 CB10F E3 (fretless with l.r. baggs ribbon transducer electronics). As for features, I have 2 points to make: the rather simplistic appearance, and the sound quality. Personally, My decision to purchase the tacome was greatly influenced by the simplistic appearance. In my opinion, if im not going to get an abalone rosette (in which case this bass doesnt even have a standard sound hole, but you get the idea) or binding.. or some other type of unique material in such places(koa, such as in taylors 7 series), then id rather not have any binding or rosette design at all. and being fretless, i eliminate the visual distraction of the dot markers and frets as well, which is a plus to me. So despite literally lacking tons of "features," at least in design, i give this section a 10.

I play with a friend and its just vocal, acoustic guitar, and acoustic bass.. style: a deviation of acoustic john mayer/jason mraz type stuff. different sound/chord structures, but i dont really know what to call that style of music. a typical answer to our style these days is what we like to call.. "a little bit of metal, blended with country and rock, and a dab of christian." anyhow, until now i used a cheap electric bass and now i fit in both visually and sound-wise much better. the sound of the guitar is next to none.. okay maybe taylor/martin. and im giving martin benefit of the doubt because ive never actually played one. but truly, you've got your 1-600 ABGs, that usually either shine in appearance and lack in sound, or give decent results in both areas.. and then you have taylor running in at around 3000 bones, giving you stunning appearance, as you would xpect from that price range from taylor, as well as a well thought out design giving the sound you would xpect from taylor.. but see .. whats in between this? where you get a quality instrument that will last (given that you take proper care).. well the only thing that my eyes caught onto was the tacoma CB10.. running in at 1000 bones (of course you can get'em cheaper but we're rounding here) it is the only guitar in its price range that i know of. therefore the decision was easy, i wasnt going to buy another 500 guitar that i later regretted not spending a few hundred more to get the quality, and i was definitely in no position to spend 3 grand. I haven't had it too long yet so we'll see how things go. oh yeah, sounds great.

action may be a little high but not a problem.. ill adjust rather than adjust it. at least for now. i like the satin finish.. less likely to show minor dings.. again, keeps the appearance simplistic

reliability is a subject that i have little to say on right now.. i expect it to be reliable, considering i just spent what i did. durability: just like everyone else says.. its an ABG. key word being acoustic, therefore it requires care.. the only thing durable that i know can take a beating is the headstock and mine better stay dingless for at least a week or im gonna be pissed at myself.. dropped my cellphone on my taylor the second day and put a ding about the size of 2 bb's on the top.. only reason im not giving it a 10 is because beside 10 it says "rock solid" this isnt the case so 9 will have to do.

heard it sucks.. haven't had to deal with'em and hope i dont.. if i do.. i hope they are good. give'em good rating as to bring my new bass a good rating

overall i love it. ive been playing since i was 14 and im 19 so .. mostly guitars but bass from 14-15 and then ive been playing it a lot more the past year. i appreciate quality and i appreciate this bass.

My Tacoma bass has a solid spruce top with a solid mahogany back and laminated mahogany sides. It has a mahogany neck with a fretless rosewood fingerboard. The electronics consists of an L.R. Baggs preamp with high, mid, and low eq settings and a phase shifting switch. The finish on the guitar is a satin finish. A hard shell case came with the guitar when it was purchased new and was passed on to me.

I am using the guitar in my home studio to demo my original songs. I try not to limit myself to any one particular style, but I suppose that most of my songs have a southern flavor centered around southern rock with a strong bluegrass mix...kinda like "corn fed rock". When I want a big bass sound with lots of bottom I use the Tacoma straight in the board...WOW! This baby really delivers! It has round wound Elixers that came on it new, so I can get the punch I want by tweaking up the higher frequency. I am considering some flat wound tape stings, because by being fretless I think I may be able to approach an upright sound. I have an upright but I am having trouble getting a decent recorded sound from it due to lack of the right equipment. The Tacoma unplugged? WOW, again! I compared it to a Martin in a music store. I didn't have to listen twice. The Tacoma was an easy choice for the big bottomy sound I was after. I also own a Dean Performer fretted a/e bass. With the laminated top amd smaller body of the Dean I would guess it reaches about 70% of the sound the Tacoma produces.

The action on the bass suits me to a tee. I wouldn't touch it. I was a little skeptical about the bolt on neck, but I don't know enough about it to really make a judgement in that respect. so far so good.

I haven't done any live playing in a few years, but it looks to be sturdy enough. I have only had it a month now, but I wouldn't hesitate to take it on a gig without a back-up. It does have a small ping on the top. The previous owner informed me that he let the lid of the case fall down on it. Just one less ping for me to create.

Never dealt with the issue.

I have been playing for 38 years now. I also own 5 other basses...an Ibanez 4-string electric, Rogue 4-string fretless electric, Rogue 5-string electric, Dean 4-string fretted A/E, and a 4/4 size upright bass. I have 3 acoustic guitars, a steel guitar, mandolin, banjo, electric lead guitar, a couple of resonator guitars, and two classical guitars. The Tacoma has been my fantasy bass guitar ever since the first time I played one, so I would be heart broken if something happened to it. I would get another one as soon as I could afford it, because I have never played an acoustic electic bass that sounds close to it. I would recommend the Tacoma to anyone. If a deal on one passes your way like it did me ($500.00) JUMP ON IT, but it is well worth the $950.00 plus that you can pick one up for on most of the web sights I have browsed.

This a newly made (2000 AD)4-string fretless Acoustic/Electric Bass Guitar. It uses a Fishman Prefix Plus built-in pickup (see the Fishman website for a great manual on the pickup). This has a notch filter, volume, bass, contour (semi-parametric filter), treble, brilliance controls and a phase switch to cancel feedback. The body is spruce top, mahogany back, and rosewood neck, in a single cutaway design. The neck is quite narrow and a dream to play.

I play mostly acoustic jazz and some older R&B. I use it with an SWR
Baby Blue II or a Walter Woods with a EA vl-110, and it sounds deep and pure, with a rich-full sound. Goes beautifully with acoustic guitar and piano.

The bass is flawless; when you first see it you will not believe how beautiful it is, and how sensual to the touch. The neck is smooth as silk and the body is big and comfortable. Forgive me if I am too enthusiastic.

It feels like a fine instrument should; you must treat it carefully, not because it is flimsy, but because it is designed to be treated well.

Great e-mail response, informative website. Have not used the warranty.

I consider this a top-of-the-line instrument. I bought it especially to use in an unamplified way and it puts out plenty of volume - enough to compete with a steel string guitar. I found no other ABG that could
do that for less than $1K.