MusicRadar

• Review

Most bass players have a healthy regard for well-built guitars, particularly when it comes to acoustic instruments. We admire the weight, portability, sounds and looks, and naturally desire something similar in our own field.

But even when some of the best manufacturers tackle this issue, the results can often be disappointing. The designs can suffer from ungainly size, disproportionate appearances and a simple lack of practicality, added to which there is an inherent problem with amplifying these beasts.

Larrivée is one of the most highly regarded manufacturers of acoustic guitars today and one of the latest additions to its Recording Series is this B-03RE 'acoustic' bass.

First impressions

It's modelled on the existing D-03 guitar and first impressions are positive: a shapely design with a small and simply styled headstock and no cutaway to the body – super clean and very easy on the eye.

A light-coloured Sitka spruce top with subtle concentric-line soundhole decoration is married to dark rosewood back and sides – all solid woods at this price, of course.

The neck is mahogany and attaches to the body with a traditional glued dovetail, the fingerboard is ebony, bound and adorned with tiny pearl dots. Ebony is also used for the headstock face, while the bridge features a compensated Tusq saddle and keyhole-shaped slots to anchor the ball ends of the strings.

Acoustic bass guitars can be unwieldy, but with its diminutive headstock, sealed gear tuners and manageable proportions, the playing experience is extremely positive.

Onboard electrics

The looks may be considered understated but for the on-board electronics, Larrivée has chosen to use the LR Baggs Element Notch System, which features the Element undersaddle transducer connected to the preamp.

This unit offers a great deal more than the standard bass, treble and volume sliders (although it has those too, of course) by way of a feedback-busting phase switch and a narrow-band notch filter, plus a mid-range 'tune' rotary that lets you select a particular frequency to cut or boost.

It also has an LED that lets you know when a battery change is required. To do this you simply press on the preamp unit and the module pops out to make the batteries easily accessible.

Sounds

For those unfamiliar with amplifying acoustic basses, let us explain the feedback problem. The resonant qualities of a large, hollow-bodied instrument produce a lot of vibration in use, and this excites the pickup transducer.

The better the acoustic properties are, the more unwieldy the instrument can become at high volumes. At worst it can produce a runaway feedback problem that's tricky with guitars but – due to their larger proportions – can be a nightmare with basses.

To combat this problem, LR Baggs has produced its Element Notch System and it's a brilliant tool that greatly reduces the chances of feedback. Simply hit the phase switch, which should cure most of your problems, then rotate the notch control until the offending frequency is isolated and effectively dealt with.

As this is operating on a very narrow band, the system is able to keep things under control without dramatically altering your whole sound.

As with any acoustic instrument fitted with electronics, this has two very distinct and different voices available. In order for it to be a truly worthy contender it has to sound great in both modes.