Ibanez AVNB1FE-BV Fretless Brown Violin Semi-Gloss

I am delighted with this guitar - lovely rich and mellow sound, for what it is. Very playable. Tunes easily. Once amplified, it produces a sound well beyond it's small size. Perfect for me as a complete beginner to bass, who just needed the instrument as a supplement to my acoustic guitar sounds. My 12 year old son is now likely to become a bass player - he loves it!

Delivery was delayed; however DHL kept me well-informed. I particularly appreciated being given a precise, one-hour window for delivery, which was met.

With the same 25-inch scale length as a guitar this fretless acoustic bass is perfect for me. Although there are no obvious fret lines there are darker inlays where the fingers should go, plus there are dot markers on the side of the fretboard to help with positioning. For the small parlour sized body it sounds great acoustically. OK, it's never going to compete with a larger bodied guitar or a double bass but it sounds great plugged in too. I can easily get that characteristic 'mwaaah' sound on the top strings and it's easy to play as the scale length means the strings are slightly thinner and there's a lot less string tension compared to a normal bass. All-in-all, perfect for me and practice will get my intonation up to scratch. The icing on the cake is that it was delivered by DPD so I knew exactly when the driver was going to turn up. This is how it should be (take note large American delivery company! ... Don't start me off!). Recommended.