I recently picked up a craigslist/used Oscar Schmidt "entry level" Acoustic/electric. It is sort of reminiscent of an old upright bass in sound when plucked...kinda hard to describe...sort of a "muted" or "soft" sound, I suppose. It has been awhile since I have played an A/E bass;
The last one I was fooling around with was an Epiphone, but I don't remember it sounding like this. It had a bright/warm tone, boomy, like you would expect to hear from an acoustic guitar.
I am wondering if a new set of strings would help, or is this just the inherent sound that this instrument gives? Funny thing is...in a way, I kinda like the sound...although I feel I have to pluck it rather hard to get the sound out of it.
Here is the model - The OB100 on the left.
Nice bass. Congrats!
Surely you will get a different tone with a new set of strings. On the other hand, are the current strings flatwounds? They produce softer tone than the roundwounds. Some people uses them in acoustic basses because the sound is more similar to the upright basses.
The strings was my first thought re. the sound quality as well.
Likely flatwounds on this bass and round on the Epi you played before.
:)
Don
These are roundwounds; the seller said that he thought it needed new strings as these are the originals, so I am guessing they are just dead at this point. At some point I would like to pick up a higher end 5 string A/E, but the funds aren't avail. at the moment, so this will have to do for now.
Guess I am in the market for new strings...any suggestions/favorites? I was actually thinking of going with flatwounds to minimize fret wear...oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the action is way high on this thing, so I need to address that as well.
I am using the originals on my bass (more than two years and I was playing it several periods two or three hours a day). I bought a set of Ernie Ball in summer but I didn't change them (practically I am not playing the bass lately). Sorry, no experience on flatwounds.
On the action. David recommended to me I kept the action some time, usually basses have a higher action than the guitars and when you switch from guitars some time is needed to get used to, and if you have been playing guitars lately... But it is a matter of taste! :D
