Best Choice Products Acoustic Electric Bass Guitar, Full Size 4 String, Fretted Bass Guitar w/Padded Gig Bag - Blue

Surprisingly solid in the hands. Tone is okay, resonates perfectly fine, nothing earth shattering but fun. Haven’t tried the electric pick up yet. Good string action and intonation right out of the box. What a bargain! The white is nice and muted.

First off, let me note that this is a $70 AE bass (the lowest price I've ever seen for an acoustic-electric), so I'm not going to compare it to the $500 Michael Kelly Club Custom sitting next to me or the $600+ Kelly Dragonfly basses I've played recently. Instead, I'm going to compare it to my realistic expectations. You don't buy a $2,000 used econobox at the car lot and then expect to drive off of the lot in a new $70,000 Mercedes. You just hope that it will reliably get you from Point A to Point B.Shipping/Packaging: I ordered it on a Thursday; it arrived Tuesday morning. The packaging was well-done with no damage.Color and Finish: The color (which some have complained about) is exactly as it appears in the picture, and I love it! Much to my surprise, the finish is flawless, even in bright, outdoor sunlight. Not a single chip, ding, or scratch. The details and the bridge are pretty cheap-looking, but what do you expect at this price? For the bridge (which was pretty rough in spots), I lightly sanded it and applied some walnut stain - after protecting the body with blue painter's tape. It was a minor detail perhaps, but the bridge went from looking cheap to looking pretty sharp. I also polished the fretboard with lemon oil (it seemed a bit dry), and that added a gorgeous luster.Size and Shape: Be aware that this is a short scale (30") bass - most likely just mass-produced and also used as a guitar body. That's probably why it has an annoying pickguard, something not typically found on an acoustic bass. However, it blends in with the color well, and I don't dare to try removing it. The bass is very, very light in weight compared to most AE basses, almost feeling like it's made from balsa wood. In fact, this "bass" is actually much more like a guitar than a true acoustic bass.Setup and Strings: You don't absolutely have to, but it's a good idea to replace the strings if you want a better sound. I put a $20 set of D'Addario Phosphor Bronze strings (long-scale) on it, and they make a world of difference. When I changed the strings, I also went through a pretty standard setup/checkout on it, and it did need some work, some of which I described above, but it's just a bit of detailing and fine-tuning anyone can do with a little bit of study. [See the comment section of this review for some additional advice.]There was no fret buzz, however, I did make a minor adjustment to the truss rod. adding 1/4 turn clockwise to lower the strings slightly, improving the "playability", but this is simply a matter of preference, not necessity.You may not have to deal with this, but one problem I did have is that the intonation was noticeably off - sharp at the 12th fret. After pulling the strings off, I noticed that the saddle sits in its notch with a little bit of slop. As the strings are tightened, it angles just a bit forward (toward the top).What I did to fix this problem was to fill the front with a thin strip of metal (I used an extra 0.55mm feeler gauge that was perfect when cut down), and between pushing the saddle backwards and more vertical, I gained about 1.0mm at the top of the saddle which was enough to correct the minor intonation problem. I could have just as easily used a strip from a soup can lid.To check the intonation, you can use an inexpensive tuner like the Snark SN-8, or if you have a good "ear", you can simply tune the 12th fret pressed down to the same pitch as the 12th fret harmonic. Another option which would probably improve the tone somewhat is to replace the plastic saddle with a bone saddle. It's not very expensive or difficult to do that, but it seemed a bit like overkill for this bass, so I didn't bother.Hardware and Electronics: The frets were good (no roughness), the tuning machines/pegs and electronics/EQ work fine (although they are cheap - the E string is underamped, and you tend to get feedback easily). All of the various screws/bolts/nuts were tight. Some people pull them and then reinstall them with Loctite, but I didn't see the need for that at this time. I've seen a few complaints here that this bass goes out of tune, but that's probably just due to the strings stretching, something that is normal for any bass and new strings, regardless of price. For a strap nut at the headstock, I just added an inexpensive separate wrap-around headstock strap with a strap button.To sum up, it exceeded my expectations (which were admittedly low), and I added these five items to complete the package:- D'Addario EPBB170 Phosphor Bronze Acoustic Bass Strings, Long Scale, 45-100- Ernie Ball 4037 Black Polypro Strap- Acoustic Guitar Strap Button (Black)- World Tour BG20D Deluxe 20mm Bass Guitar Gig Bag- Snark SN-8 Super Tight All Instrument TunerI certainly wouldn't recommend it as a professional/gigging axe or for serious study, but for a beginner, a child, or a bass to take camping, it's a great bargain. Also, it looks nice hanging on the wall next to my other basses, and I'll admit that one of the reasons I went through the "detailing" that I did was so that I could say to my musical friends, "You are not going to *believe* what I paid for this!".For what it purports to be, I'm more than satisfied, and I absolutely give it five stars.-TJ

This is a really cool and inexpensive bass.It sounds well.I changed the strings to Earnie Ball Slinky with a good gauge.Sounded deep, resonated well.The appearance is outstanding.A very well done exterior.The piping is excellent.The paint work exceptional.The feetboard a little cheap but there's no chatter no buzzing good clearances.Lugs are good, everything about this guitar is worth the money spent.Well worth it, if only to throw up on a wall as decoration as a beautiful conversation piece or as a steady player unbelievable deal and you'll be very happy I am sure .

It is simply amazing how far these instruments have come. I bought this product years ago and i honestly thought it was garbage. Decided to try it again and am so glad I did. Got mine in the aged natural finish as can be seen in the photos. Was an even sweeter deal than the others at 99 bucks. This bass barely even required a set up being that all I had to do was adjust the truss rod slightly cause I was getting a little bit of string buzz but other than that it is perfect and the sound is incredible. This thing is an unbeatable deal. Even came with a nice lightly padded case and far exceeded my expectations. The only thing I can think that may be able to be improved upon is that there is a very slight vibration from the 9 volt battery (if you install one) while playing the strings. Besides that this instrument is a gem that can easily compete with or surpass entry level instruments at any major music store.

I'm a professional guitarist with a home recording studio who often finds that my self-recorded songs could use some additional bottom end, especially when I record solo demos to present to my cello partner. Of course, once my partner and I agree that a piece is best played as a duo, the cello takes care of the bottom. However, I sometimes record other musicians and produce their demo tracks. Again, while I usually serve as the session guitarist / fretted instrument sideman for these recordings, I have often thought I should have a bass guitar to round out my recording arsenal and add some clear bottom to these home recordings.I've been working on a project where that was exactly the case. I was going to borrow a bass from a student when I found this guitar. I figured for less than $100 I can experiment a bit by running the bass directly through the board and get some sonic feedback as to whether a bass addition works on a recording or not without breaking the bank. Either way, I figured it MIGHT be a handy piece of recording "equipment".Boy, was I right! For this specific purpose this bass guitar fits that bill perfectly! Oh sure, the fit and finish is not perfect and it's unplugged tone is not great and is certainly not loud enough. But, recording directly through a board sounds fantastic. I am both shocked and pleased.To be clear, I am NOT a bass player and thus I would never use this thing as a piece of performance gear. And if I were a bass player, I'd probably looking for other options. But, as said, as a piece of recording gear this instrument would be hard to beat for the price.With these specific caveats, buy with confidence.UPDATE: Continuing to experiment with this bass in a "direct to recording board" way, I notice a significant hum. I put a Baggs Venue in the chain so that I could use a balanced XLR into the board and the hum remains. I think it's a grounding issue. I can greatly reduce the hum by knocking back the gain quite a bit and then restoring the volume in post. I'll keep updating as I experiment further.Final update:I'm saying good goodbye to this one. I never did find the source of the hum but suspect it's a ground shield problem. I could probably work around it but my original thought was to keep things very simple and simple means direct-to-board recording. This, I cannot do. We're it not for that reason, I would be rating the bass highly for its size and scale length, its easy-ish action, etc. Instead it's on its way to a player that doesn't have my specific requirements.