Ashbory Bass

So, I know zero about bass guitars, never owned one and rarely played one. Have an opportunity to pick up a Guild Ashbory bass. Anyone have any experience with these? Any comments, positive or negative??? Not sure if there are multiple models or not.

There are Guild Ashborys, and Dearmond by Guild Ashborys. When they first came out, one of the bass players at school got one. He used it after a heavy gig the night before to let his fingers recover. Later, we got a Dearmond one for our bass players here at school.

First, if it's a Dearmond, just walk away!

They are very small scale fretless basses that use thick rubber band-like cords for strings.They sound somewhat like an upright acoustic bass. Because of the extreme small scale, you need to have excellent ears, since they are fretless, although they do give you marker fret lines on the fingerboard. Make sure you know where to find strings, when they break, you can't just go down to GC for them.

Looks like Aquila has started making afte market sets. I'd trust those rather than NOS silicone ones.

Only had one in my hands for about five minutes. Couldn't really figure out what I was supposed to do with it.

You should probably step back and ask why you might be doing this?

The first time I ever saw one was a David Sylvian show in 1988 with Ian Maidman on bass. I can't find any images from that tour but here's a live audio clip.

Well fronobulax, your suggestion/comment is probably something I could apply to most everything I do in my life. A lot of what I do just doesn't make a lot of sense truthfully. But, it makes life kinda fun I think. I just thought it might be fun to try to learn a few bass lines and see where it takes me. I know I'm not a real good guitar player so maybe I'd find I can do this a bit better. I'm applying that same logic to Harmonica and other tools as well.

fronobulax said:

Only had one in my hands for about five minutes. Couldn't really figure out what I was supposed to do with it.

You should probably step back and ask why you might be doing this?

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It will definitely, IMO, be an adventure. But that may be what you are looking for in which case note AcornHouse's comments which summarize what I remember other folks saying ;-)

Richard, there is nothing cooler than a Guild bass, definetly get one! however, I would recommend a Starfire or JS (short scale) or something from the B-301/302 or SB series (long scale).

The Ashborys can be fun I would guess. I was interested in one like you a while ago (then instead i got a JS followed by a few others). The Kala U-bass seems like a better option then the Ashbory.

I use a Kala uBass quite a bit. It has similar strings (Pahoehoe) and scale (20" vs the Ashbory's 18", although it is fretted. It really sounds great, and, with the right phrasing, very much like an upright. I've never had the chance to play live with an Ashbory, but I've become quite a big fan of these "rubber band" strings.