In this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUpyid6ChB4, Josh discussed the Bonk Thumbrest. He described it as a “non-adhesive, no-drill thumbrest that tightens securely onto the edge of your acoustic bass soundhole, providing a place to rest your thumb.”
I’ve checked Thomann, Reverb, and Amazon, but I can’t find it anywhere.
Do you have any suggestions on where to find it in Europe?
Thanks!
There’s always the DIY method 
Thanks …
Yeah I took a look around and couldn’t find anything. There was a site purporting to make them called bonkguitar.com but my antivirus leapt on it when it simply tried to redirect me to some obscure and dodgy different address!
However I like the idea and it looks simple enough to make so I might have a go for my acoustic. One of the problems I have with my acoustic is that having no anchor my plucking position wanders all around the place and if it wanders very far from the sound hole I get little volume and almost no sustain (unless it’s plugged in).
Not the bonk, but an alternative that might fit the bill:
Check this out.
The problem with an acoustic is that the stick on or sucker thumb rests must be mounted outside the soundhole and that will put it too far away to be of much use as you still want to be plucking over the sound hole.
You can make one that spans the soundhole which might work with a sucker on either end. Similar to the one below but using those suckers instead of double sided tape (as was used in this one).
Gold Tone thumb rest for their microbass, no drilling or damage to bass (supposedly)
On sale at the Gold Tone online store for $19.99
Amazon Price $24.99
That looks similar to the Bonk one but still, in my view, rather a long way from the strings. Certainly much farther than the top of the pups as used by most solid body basses.
OK…
How about this:
Buy a 5 string acoustic bass guitar and use the 5th string as a thumb rest?
Perfect accept I wouldn’t be able to resist playing as well!
To be fair I mostly attempt to play classical pieces on the acoustic and then I have to pluck with the thumb as well. Much closer to guitar finger picking style.
But still it’s not rocket science I reckon I’ll have a crack at it when \i find the time!
Aha. In that case you might like this to add to your repertoire?
Intriguing and actually sounds quite good. But not quite the direction I’m planning on going. I just enjoy playing the occasional classic piece. It’s not what I originally got the acoustic bass for but it’s what it’s mostly used for now. They often seem to sound better. I think the long sustain on electrical music doesn’t work so well in classical work, at least not for me.
That makes sense. Is your acoustic a classical guitar?
No not classical it’s a Fender “electro acoustic” (has piezo pickups) so it can be plugged in, when it then has better volume and sustain but still retains a lot of that acoustic sound. However I mostly use it unplugged. The down side to that is that it tends to be quite quiet, a lot quieter than an acoustic guitar, as the lower frequencies need a bit more volume to compete. Consequently if you’re not plucking right over the sound hole it really does get very quiet.
Still, I do prefer the sound for playing classical stuff. Of Course there aren’t really many (any?) pieces actually written for bass guitar but if you search the internet there are loads of transcriptions knocking around of varying levels of difficulty.
