Ibanez Artcore AFB200 Hollowbody Electric Bass Guitar  

i saw this on sale and knew i had to buy it or i would be forever longing. this is by no means the most versitile bass out there. i put some flat wounds on it and it sounds perfect for any rootsy dub, rock, blues or jazz. dont expect to shred 80's metal or break into a flea slap solo on this, it isnt what its made for. if you want a smooth low end that sounds like Paul McCartney, Paul Chambers and Aston "Family Man" Barrett, this is your bass. when recording, set a second mic next to the bass itself, so there is an acoustic track in the mix also... get it right and you can get a great upright tone. also, this baby will certainly draws some eyes away from your guitarist's axe

This is a great bass.  Period.  With it being a hollow body, I was amazed at the power and low end sound it produced when I played thru an SWR rig.  I love the retro look and it can be used for acoustic settings as well.  Great value great sound.

I've been on a serious hollowbody bass quest for years to find a bass with great acoustic sound where you actually hear the string move the top. You can always effect a bass to be more electric sounding, but you can't get the rich fat string-to-top almost stand-up sound I'm after from a solid body bass. (I should say here that I am a lifetime acoustic guitar player with some great guitars and have agonized over the tonal differences between plastic pins, bone, ebony, fossil walrus ivory etc, so I have some sense of  tone. I am probably one of very few who use  Fender Blackface bass amps for playing bass (guitarists go nuts for them) but I like the old style tone. I've tried many hollowbody basses;  Gibson 335 style bass (way too muddy and not acoustic sounding), several 1970s Japan basses, which were  close but not enough to end the quest. I owned and sold  Ibanez AB140 bass, with 1 pick-up,  sound was limited, tone control was non-existant; (imagine a tone control with no wires hooked up!) but was impressed with the build quality. Owned and sold a pretty nice 70s Conrad Japan that was close but not it. I own an Epi Jack Cassidy which is fine and close to what I wanted to hear but I kept  looking, so I guess not close enough. I own a Yamaha BEX hollow that I like alot, shorter scale and is active; close but not IT. I own a Washburn AB 90i (This is a killer bass!) but STILL  kept looking for something I just couldn't find; that wooden archtop sound. Finally  saw the Ibanez AGB 200, and read it was a short scale with TWO pick-ups, which I figured would fix the less than great sound of the AB 140 I'd owned. Another AFB200 plus was the wooden bridge making direct contact with the top; the 140 bridge is metal. Well, fellow hollowbody freaks, this is the one I've been hearing in my head, very acoustic, string to top sound, round sounding with the second PU adding the option of some beef and top end string sound. The tone control pot (as on the 140) is still minimal, but this bass has THE hollowbody sound that took years obsessing and several thousand bucks to find.  Looks A+, has THE sound, and also the short scale that's easy on my guitar playin' hands. You can  layer on effects, plug-ins etc. and get a solidbody, more WHOMPIN' sound, but this bass really shines with that almost stand-up sound that I nearly gave up on finding. For a recent studio recording I played it through an inexpensive ART Tube Pac tube pre/compressor, and was thrilled again. Hollowbody AND tubes...now, that'll get you there! I haven't even put any decent strings on it yet, but when I get around to some flats or tapewounds, I'll probably freak...this is a killer bass, and I'm home.