Acoustic Bass Guitar: Hollow-Bodied Bass for Unplugged Settings

Overview

The acoustic bass guitar (sometimes shortened to acoustic bass or initialled ABG) is a bass instrument with a hollow wooden body similar to, though usually larger than, a steel-string acoustic guitar (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic_bass_guitar). Like the traditional electric bass guitar and the double bass, the acoustic bass guitar commonly has four strings tuned E-A-D-G, an octave below the lowest four strings of a six-string guitar.

Because it can sometimes be difficult to hear an acoustic bass guitar without an instrument amplifier even alongside other acoustic instruments, most modern acoustic basses are fitted with pickups — magnetic, piezoelectric, or both — so that they can be amplified through a bass amplifier when needed. In Hornbostel-Sachs terms it is a composite chordophone (321.322), structurally analogous to the steel-string acoustic guitar but scaled and tuned for the bass register.

Origin and history

The Bassoguitar built by the Regal Musical Instrument Company is generally regarded as the first mass-produced acoustic bass to make use of a guitar-like body. Harptone began producing its B4 model in 1965 under the name “Supreme”; production continued until 1975, with a small number also made under the Standel logo.

The instrument’s modern form, however, dates from the early 1970s and is largely due to Ernie Ball, the American string and instrument maker. Ball’s stated aim was to provide bass guitarists with a more acoustic-sounding instrument that would match better with the sound of acoustic guitars. He commented that “if there were electric bass guitars to go with electric guitars then you ought to have acoustic basses to go with acoustic guitars.” Looking for a model, Ball noted that “the closest thing to an acoustic bass was the Mexican guitarrón … in mariachi bands, so I bought one down in Tijuana and tinkered with it.”

Ball collaborated with George William Fullerton, a former employee of Fender, to develop the Earthwood acoustic bass guitar, which was introduced in 1972. Production ceased in 1974, resumed a few years later under the direction of Ernie Ball’s employee Dan Norton, and finally ended in 1985. The Earthwood was quite large and deep in contrast to most instruments in current production, which gave it more volume, especially in the low register. The Ernie Ball company describes the original Earthwood as “an idea before its time”: the acoustic bass guitar was little used in mainstream performance until the late 1980s, when MTV Unplugged helped popularise the instrument.

Folk bass player Ashley Hutchings used the acoustic bass guitar with his Etchingham Steam Band in 1974-1975. An early user of the acoustic bass guitar in rock was the English multi-instrumentalist and composer Mike Oldfield, who had one custom-built for him by luthier Tony Zemaitis in the mid-1970s and used it on a number of his recordings, most prominently on his 1975 album Ommadawn.

Traditional Mexican music has long featured several varieties of acoustic bass that pre-date the modern acoustic bass guitar by more than a century: the guitarrón, a very large, deep-bodied six-string acoustic bass played in mariachi bands; the leona, plucked with a pick; and the bajo sexto, with six pairs of strings. The contemporary regional Mexican style known as bajoloche — popularised by Arsenal Effectivo and Herencia de Patrones, and characterised by slap-and-pop technique on a guitarrón-derived acoustic bass — is a direct continuation of this tradition.

Construction and tuning

Like the electric bass and the double bass, the acoustic bass guitar normally has four strings, tuned E1-A1-D2-G2, an octave below the lowest four strings of the six-string guitar. Models with five or more strings exist but are less common, in part because the body of an acoustic bass guitar is too small to produce a resonance of acceptable volume on a low B string. One workaround on five-string acoustic basses is to add an additional high C string (“E-A-D-G-C”) instead of a low B; another is to rely on amplification, or simply to enlarge the body further.

A typical acoustic bass guitar has:

• a hollow wooden body (most often spruce top with mahogany, rosewood or maple back and sides), built like an over-sized steel-string acoustic guitar;
• a long neck with a scale length similar to the standard 34-inch electric bass scale;
• a fretted fingerboard (rosewood or ebony), although fretless acoustic basses are also produced;
• and, in most modern instruments, an on-board pickup and preamp (usually piezo under the saddle, sometimes also a magnetic soundhole pickup).

There are also semi-acoustic bass models, fitted with pickups, where the soundbox is not large enough to amplify the sound on its own but instead produces a distinctive resonant tone when amplified. The thin-body, violin-shaped Höfner bass made famous by Paul McCartney in the early Beatles years and several Fender thin-line models are not normally regarded as acoustic basses at all but as hollow-bodied bass guitars — a separate, more electric-flavoured category. Other semi-acoustic basses, such as Godin Guitars’ “A-Series”, produce, once amplified, a sound that sits between an acoustic bass guitar and an upright double bass, and have been used in professional touring contexts to “simulate” an upright when transporting a full-sized double bass would be impractical.

Saga Musical Instruments also produces a four-string bass resonator guitar under their Regal brand, applying the metal-cone resonator principle to the bass register.

Playing technique

Because the acoustic bass guitar is tuned and laid out identically to the electric bass guitar, players can switch between the two without changing left-hand technique. Right-hand technique is typically fingerstyle — alternating index and middle fingers on the strings — although picks are also used, particularly in country and folk-rock contexts where a brighter, more articulated attack is wanted.

Slapping and popping technique transfers from the electric bass to the acoustic bass guitar but is somewhat less common: the hollow body responds differently than a solid-bodied electric, and percussive slap technique can produce unwanted boominess unless the player damps the body carefully.

Cultural context

The acoustic bass guitar found its commercial niche during the MTV Unplugged era of the late 1980s and early 1990s, when major touring acts began performing stripped-down acoustic versions of their material. The instrument has since become a standard option for singer-songwriter performance, folk music, country, contemporary worship music, and any context where a portable bass instrument with the visual look and partly-acoustic tone of an acoustic guitar is desired. It does not displace the bass guitar in electric ensemble work or the double bass in traditional jazz and bluegrass — its niche is the dedicated acoustic ensemble.

Major manufacturers of acoustic bass guitars today include Tacoma, Taylor, Martin, Guild, Washburn, Ibanez, Dean, Takamine, Ernie Ball/Music Man, Fender and Godin.

Comparison with related instruments

Compared with the electric bass guitar, the acoustic bass guitar trades volume and sustain for the visual and tonal character of an acoustic instrument and the option of unamplified small-room performance. Compared with the double bass, it is far smaller and more portable but cannot match the double bass’s natural acoustic projection, sustain or low-end fundamental.

FAQ

What is the difference between an acoustic bass guitar and an electric bass guitar?
The acoustic bass guitar has a large hollow wooden body, similar to (but bigger than) a steel-string acoustic guitar, and can be played without amplification in small settings. The electric bass guitar has a solid body and is essentially silent without an amplifier.

Who invented the modern acoustic bass guitar?
Earlier acoustic basses existed (Regal’s “Bassoguitar”, Harptone’s B4), but the modern instrument is generally credited to Ernie Ball, who introduced the Earthwood acoustic bass guitar in 1972 in collaboration with George Fullerton.

How is an acoustic bass guitar tuned?
Like the electric bass and the double bass, an acoustic bass guitar is normally tuned to E1-A1-D2-G2 — an octave below the lowest four strings of a six-string guitar.

Why do most acoustic bass guitars have a pickup?
Because the instrument’s hollow body is acoustically smaller than a double bass, it can be hard to hear unplugged when other acoustic instruments are present. Most modern acoustic basses include a piezoelectric or magnetic pickup so that they can be amplified when necessary.

Can you slap an acoustic bass guitar?
Yes — slap-and-pop technique transfers from the electric bass — but the hollow body responds differently and can produce unwanted boom unless the player damps the soundboard carefully with the heel of the picking hand.