A while back, I bought a $94 acoustic bass off of Amazon so I could have a bass guitar to practice with (translation: noodle around with while zoning out watching TV) that didn’t require me dragging a small amp and my nice guitars into the danger zone with my very young children and new puppy (pictures of puppy will be provided upon request).
Now, I didn’t expect much when it came to the guitar. Admittedly, I was pleasantly surprised at how decent it was considering the price. It’s not a Martin or Fender by any drunken, acid fueled stretch of any imagination, mind you.
Still it sounded good enough, especially when I swapped out the laughably crummy factory strings. One thing that bothers me more than anything else, however, is that they left the dang fret edges sharp as hell. At first I was like “meh, I’ll work around it” but as I’m playing more and more and also playing more complex songs, those sharp edges are REALLY starting to shred my hand.
So I bought some fret files, watched a metric butt-ton of YouTube videos (and that’s a metric butt-ton which is like 3 times as much as an Imperial butt-ton) and I will be attempting to remove some of those edges.
If it works, hey the cheap guitar got better. If I screw things up, hey, it was a cheap guitar. As long as it’s still playable when I get done I’ll call it a win.
Wish me luck, my fellow four-stringed loving friends.
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You got this. It’s actually quite easy and the improvement is great.
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The good news is most mistakes you’d make you’d make only once. My personal quick tip is if you make a mistake stay away from any quick fix you may think, take the pill and chase it the old fashion way or redo it. I’m a Yoda when it comes to quick fix, that’s how I know so much about quick fixes, lol.
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So, i looked at this acoustic on Amazon. It’s in my cart. I wanted to ask you, other than the cheap strings and sharp frets was there anything else off-putting about it?
I guess I’m just wondering if there are any playabiltity issues or obvious build flaws, and also if it has a decent tone when amplified?
Any input you have on this would be greatly appreciated. I want an A/E i can haul around and plunk on. If this is decent for that money, I’m in.
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To be honest, I don’t use it plugged in very often but it seems…fine? The EQ on the top of it lets me correct some of the string clicks and such.
Beyond that, the action is quite high (don’t know if that’s normal for an acoustic bass but still) but, considering what I use it for I like that because it’s helping to build finger strength and such.
My biggest gripe is the tuners. They don’t hold the tune very well. I typically check the tune when I pick it up and it holds it well enough for my practice/noodling and what have you but when it sits overnight it drops down a bit. The low E is the worst offender on mine.
When I looked at their reviews, the overall feeling is “it’s good enough for what it is”. Being as cheap as it is, the quality control may be a bit lacking and/or inconsistent. Did I luck out? No clue.
In the end, I’m happy with it and would recommend it.
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I appreciate your input. Thank you, sir.
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–== UPDATE ==–
Spent some time filing the frets. Took me a bit to both build some confidence and figure out the right angle for the various sharp edges I was dealing with. There’s still a couple of spots I need to go back and whittle down some more. I think I may need to break out my nylon hammer and knock them back in a bit as well. Still debating on that one. Feels like my finger is getting caught under it. Don’t know how else to describe it.
The work I did so far made a HUUUUGE difference. Much more comfortable to play it now.
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I bought an inexpensive semi-hollow electric a few years ago thinking that I could fix pretty much any problems it might have… the fretwork was so bad, i would have had to do a complete re-fret (which i didn’t want to do) so i sent it back 
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