Legacy B60CE Electro-Acoustic Bass

For the money this bass is ridiculous. I have been a bass player for over twenty years, Precision, String Bass and acoustic. This is the second acoustic I have owned, the first was another cheap Chinese guitar (Academy I think) that really didn't cut the mustard and as such I was a little apprehensive about buying this one...........But hey, a solid pine top, solid mahagony back and sides, maghogony neck, rosewood fingerboard and bridge.....AND D'Addario strings as standard! All this for £170 and then the guy in the shop said it came with a hard case. Too good to be true, I thought so I picked it up and played. It was superb....a good deep bass, singing trebles, great sustain and the neck played very nicely indeed! I was willing to pay up to about £800 for my bass and for a long time had considered the Guild B4 but that doesn't have solid woods and quite frankly doesn't sound as good as the Legacy.

I have had it now for about a year and have had to tweak the truss rod once, which is normal for a new instrument but other than that I've made no adjustments to the saddle or nut. On removing the strings the other week for cleaning the fingerboard I noticed the glue on the nut had dried out (I live in Africa) and it had come loose but a little superglue soon sorted it out.

Acoustically this bass is great and the Shadow pickup does a decent job through any amp or direct to a desk, it gives an honest reproduction and enough sound shaping from the three band eq.

If you want to spend a lot more money and get a bass with fancy inlays around the soundhole and bindings then do (the Legacy has transfers) but don't expect them to make it sound any better than this bass, I really think you would have to go to a Martin to get any improvement in tone, this is a players bass and is a true bargain. I also played the black finish model in the shop which wasn't so lively so I opted for the natural finish and I have no regrets whatsoever but as with any factory instrument I would advise playing two or three and choose the one you like best, I did and I truly believe I got a bargain!

I am not a bass player and just wanted a cheap bass guitar to feed into Garageband on my Mac'. The range of cheap, solid-body bass guitars is very wide but finding anything worth looking at in the acoustic bass range is quite difficult. In fact, it would be just as easy to play in bass lines using a keyboard controller but not quite as much fun.

The Legacy Acoustic Bass seems to be exclusive to SoundControl shops. The guitar is built by Epiphone in China and comes with a very decent case all for £169.00! The design is a cut-away style and the pick up has volume and tone controls. As a guitar player rather than a bass player I find the fingerboard a little intimidating but still very playable.

The choice of finishes includes a natural, a black and a sunburst. My choice was the natural finish and the whole thing is very clean with good machines heads too. Plugged into Garageband the bass performs well and allows me to have a little more feel and control than with a keyboard.

All things considered I think it is a great value instrument for home use.