Aria (Music For Acoustic Guitar And Double Bass) - Bobo Ferra & Paolino Dall Porta

Advantages: They're beautiful.
Disadvantages: You'll cry if you have to sell it.

...It's difficult to buy a double bass in the simple way you might buy a good quality electric guitar or electric bass . For a guitar you can sort of decide if you're Fender, Gibson, Gretsch etc type of person by seeing what you're favourite players use on the telly and then trying them out in any good guitar store. But for the double bass we're in different territory all together and different rules apply. If you try out the bass in a store or room that is stuffed with other double basses or even other wooden acoustic instruments its going to resonate a little in each of those instruments and lead you into believing you have a lovely sounding bass when you probably haven't. Some spaces can make an unamplified double bass sound great. I like to play mine on the lower landing of my stairwell - always sounded beautiful there. If you... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Great fun
Disadvantages: Very large to store and transport

..., literally in a container on a boat) and arrive with the neck not joined to the body and the bridge not fitted as these are the most fragile parts and could be damaged during shipping. Fortunately there is a local guitar repair man who also does work for the music shop so he put it together for me and put the strings on. A set of Dominant strings (which is one of the better makes) will cost about £120. By contrast I have just bought some Dominant strings for my daughter?s ¾ size violin and they cost about £25. A reasonable quality double bass can be bought from about £500 and there is no upper figure. This is not perhaps the first instrument I would recommend for a child to learn, apart from anything else it is not easy to get it on the school bus and it takes a very large corner of the room to store. If they want something different from... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: very playable
Disadvantages: short sustain

...The Epipiphone Hummingbird is my first Acoustic guitar i have not stolen off my dad. £300 is not a bad deal, seeing as the Gibson acoustics are all around £3000. The looks and finish of this guitar are very nice, i enjoy graphics on my guitar as long as they arent too loud, and this 'mockingbird' illustration is just plain pleasent. The shape of the guitar is perfect so that it can sit on your lap for hours and not ache, partly due to its incredibly light weight. The playability is pretty much perfect, the best you can get for a £300 acoustic, and times I thought I was playing an electric, the fretboard was just so slim, the strings were at perfect distance from the fretboard. The sound is not as good as the playability I must admit, probably because of the lightweight body, it is not hard enough to sustain the notes for a very long... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful