Gear Review- Stagg EDB ¾ Electric Upright Bass
Stagg EDB ¾ Electric Upright Bass
Years ago I owned a proper upright bass. It was huge, both in sound and size. I ended up parting with it as I just didn’t have the space for it anymore. I’ve always regretting selling it and lately have had the bug to get back into upright, so I started looking around. I came close to buying one, but once again decided that I just don’t have the space for it. I then started thinking about an electric upright. First off, most retail for over $1000 and let’s face it, I’m an electric bass player first and foremost, if I’m going to shell out $1000+, it’s going to for a nice electric, not a low end electric upright. There are a few options for EUB’s under the $1000 price point, but one must wonder about quality. After researching 2 or 3 in this price range I settled upon the Stagg EDB ¾ Electric Upright Bass.
List price $849.99
Street Price $599.99
Solid maple construction
State of the art active electronics specially designed for natural double bass sound
Volume and bass controls
1/4 inch output jack
1/8 inch stereo mini-jack input for CD/MP3 player
1/8 inch stereo mini-jack output for headphones
Includes heavy duty gig bag with two inner compartments for accessories and an outer compartment for bow
Lifetime Warranty
Design and Features
Made in China, the Stagg EDB ¾ is a 42” scale electric upright bass with a maple body, bolt on neck with P-Bass style tuners, an adjustable bridge and a piezo pickup system. One of the big selling points for me was its active electronics which include volume and bass controls as well as a headphone output jack and auxiliary input. This combination allows you to plug a set of headphones directly into the bass along with your MP3 player and jam along, silently. No need to hook up to an amp for practice, it’s built in. A bright blue LED light lets you know that it is powered up and ready to go and reminds you to unplug when not playing in order to conserve the 9V battery. The beefy neck has an adjustable truss rod, plus dot side markers to help you find your way on the “ebonized” fretboard. A sturdy adjustable endpin allows you to set it to the height of your preference. The bass itself looks a bit like a paddle, and includes an attachable hip brace to help mimic the playing position of an upright. An upper bout attachment is included as well, to give the upright player a point of reference, but for me it just gets in the way if I want to play anything above the 7fret. To complete the package a fully padded gig bag is included with pockets for both body attachments as well as for a bow.
Out of the box a good amount of setup was needed. The action was quite high; luckily the bridge is fully adjustable (with included hex wrench) enabling you to bring things down to a more playable area. I did find that going to low results in substantial fretboard buzz, so you kind of have to find a happy medium. The fretboard is actually curved, like an upright, to allow for playing with a bow, however a bow is not included in the package so I have no idea how well it works in this regard. The piezo pickups are very sensitive, even picking up tapping sounds on the body of the bass. The plastic ¼” output jack seems cheap and will probably need to be replaced at some point. The stock strings aren’t great, but they are good enough to get you started.
Sound
Okay, so how does it sound? Very good, actually! Obviously being an electric instrument one cannot expect it to sound like an acoustic upright bass, but the Stagg does an amazingly good job of mimicking the upright sound. Running through my GK MB200 Head & GK 115MBE cab I was able to dial in several different sounds, going from a nice hollow/nasally sound to a fat/thumpy sound with sustain for days. With the right settings and a little bit of digging in this thing really growls. The onboard electronics provide a lot of tonal variety with a strong, clean signal with no noticeable hiss or buzz.
Conclusion
The thick neck and curved fretboard of the Stagg EDB truly have an upright feel, and it sounds very close to one. It is certainly easier to transport and store. At this price point you definitely sacrifice some quality, but if you are looking to get into playing upright cheaply, and don’t have the space for a proper upright, the Stagg is not a bad choice. With the onboard electronics you can practice pretty much anywhere. For me it seems like a great instrument to learn upright on and even take out for the occasional gig. With it’s sleek look and feel, it is sure to get you noticed.
Stanton Lawrence([email protected])
[...] a week off from the TMBG lessons before starting lesson 12, and spend a good week just playing my Stagg EUB. I haven’t been playing the Stagg much lately so I want to devote a few days to it and try [...]