Acoustic bass guitar

The acoustic bass guitar is a modern musical instrument based on Leo Fender's electric precision bass. See bass guitar.

Eston fretted bass

Like the original Fender precision bass and the double bass, it has four strings, normally tuned to E-A-D-G, making it an octave below the lowest four strings of the 6-string guitar. Unlike the electric bass, five string models have not appeared, possibly due to the difficulty of producing adequate volume on the lower B string.

There are three main varieties. Some are fully fretted, others are fretless, both similar to electric bass guitars. The third possibility, which is much less common, is to have the first four or five frets only. This allows greater volume and ease of playing in the first position. Partly fretted instruments are popular with players who sing themselves or who accompany singers, who can then use the frets for accompaniment playing and the fretless upper fingerboard for solo playing.

Many but by no means all acoustic bass guitars are fitted with internal pickups, either magnetic or piezoelectric or both, and can optionally be used with an amplifier.

There are also semi-acoustic models fitted with pickups and intended to be always used with an amplifier. The box of these is principally designed to produce a distinctive tone when amplified, similarly to semi-acoustic electric guitars. Thin-body semi-acoustic basses such as the violin-shaped Hohner made famous by the early Beatles and several Fender models are not normally regarded as acoustic basses at all, but rather as hollow-bodied electric basses. As with semi-acoustic electric guitars, the line between acoustic instruments fitted with pickups and electric instruments with tone-enhancing bodies is sometimes hard to draw.

Manufacturers include Gibson, Eston and Maton.