Customer Reviews

Dean Acoustic-Electric Bass Cutaway Satin Finish

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This acoustic-electric bass guitar was a gift for my son. He tested some others and in his opinion the Dean had the best sound. He wanted to use it in the evenings and didn't want to have to use his electric bass when the kids were asleep. This guitar is just what he wanted and he is very happy with it.

I'm a guitar player, not a bass player. I bought this for around the house use, so I could accompany my wife while she plays guitar and sings. The bass buzzes a little bit when I don't press down really hard on the strings, especially on the first three frets or so. Apparently, getting flat strings will fix this problem. But as it isn't really a big deal for my purposes, I'll wait until the standard strings get worn out before replacing them. The tone sounds very good to me, though I confess to not having a comparison sound in mind as I've never played or heard an acoustic bass before. My wife complains that she has a hard time hearing my playing while she is singing and playing guitar, though from my perspective--the person playing the bass--it is plenty loud. Hopefully I will get louder as my string-plucking fingers get stronger and more calloused. If not, then I'll either have to plug the thing into something (which I don't want to do), or start using a pick (which also doesn't appeal to me).

All in all, with the price point in mind and my limited expectations, I'm very happy with this purchase. I would order it again today without hesitation, knowing what I know now.

UPDATE: After playing it for a week or so, I noticed that the A string, 9th fret, doesn't play so well. It looks like the string rubs the 10 fret. I might decide eventually to tweak the action a bit or, again, perhaps switching to flat-wound strings will improve it. This is a minor problem from my perspective, and so doesn't change my overall rating or cause buyer's remorse.

Enjoying the bass very much. changed to flat string because they were recommended by a couple of other reviewers. much less string buzz on the frets now. Wish it had second peg for strap. May have to drill a hole in it for one. Nice sound. Will be a good portable for those evenings around the campfire.

I'm giving this 4 stars for two reasons: I really like playing it, and it was such a great price (about 1/3 the retail price) when I got it.

The instrument is made in China, and at least the one I got was certainly not a 4 star product.

I tore it down, adjusted the neck rod (because of buzzing), replaced the saddle (with Tusq - taller to remove the buzzing also), cleaned up glue on the top (with alcohol), cleaned up the bridge a bit (drill holes were splintered a bit), replaced one of the machine heads (was stripped), replaced the strings, and replaced the pins (with bright white, for cosmetic purpose). (Still may have to do the nut, cause not all buzzing is gone yet.) Also, frets are sticking up on the sides so will be filing those down as well. At the very least I've learned a lot of skills from this process!

Sure, coulda returned it, but decided to take on the improvement project instead. You could get lucky, and get one manufactured a little more consistently.

The body on this is pretty BIG, and the neck is longer than anything I own, so it's fairly unique. It's a great looking bass though, nice wood, and very nice sound out of it (acoustically). Put on an acoustic guitar strap - tied to the neck - and it's certainly a big instrument hanging off you.

I'm mainly a guitar player but have an electric bass just to mess with. Decided to pick this up to expand the repertoire, and overall am happy I did.

The pickup leaves a LOT to be desired. I have a 25 W Fender Frontman and had to turn it all the way up to get any sound out of it (whereas for my electrics, I run it at 2 or 3). From what I've read, this is common with acoustic basses - they're very strong on acoustic sound, but they really don't have the umph in their amplification. Might be another project to replace the pickup at some point.

Yeah, overall, it's a project, still very fun to play.