1990s Amigo/Lotus (Romanian-made) Acoustic Bass Guitar
Above: the unplugged, acoustic sound
Update September: I've added a K&K acoustic pickup to this and some bajo quinto-inspired tortoise pickguards. It's a lot more slick and the plugged-in sound is awesome. K&Ks are passive but high-output and pretty feedback-resistant, too. I played a louder outdoor gig with it and we were gooooood to go...
Right -- what does one say about this? It's late-'80s or early-'90s, made in Romania (the Hora factory), has a solid spruce top with x-bracing, a 16" jumbo body shape, a long neck supporting a 33 7/8" scale length, and way more sound than I was ever expecting. The neck is bolt-on and, unfortunately, won't adjust totally flat with the truss rod but adjusts flat-enough to play just fine after some trickery during leveling and dressing of the frets.
It's not a high-quality instrument but it's endearing and works better than most ABGs with this Martin-like ABG-style body layout and "feel." With a flatpick it's definitely loud enough to play with your buddies in a smaller acoustic jam, though its vibe is a lot more "piano string thwang" than "boom-boom bass." There are a couple of almost-dead cheapish ABGs in the shop for repair that share this same body and neck style so I'm not telling lies when I say it actually works alright. The vast majority of these are simply "plug in or don't play" instruments.
I originally though the back and sides were ply maple but I'm pretty sure they're actually solid maple. The reason for its decent sound is obvious when you peek in its new "soundport" on the side, too -- they're lighter-weight in cut and the flying braces (tonebars, etc.) are all scalloped. Nice going, Hora factory!
Playability is good and action/feel is pretty average for an acoustic bass guitar. It's easy-enough to lower/raise action height as-desired because the neck is bolted-on and so can adjust with shims easily. In addition, the individual "screw saddles" can be turned to jack action up or lower it further.
Repairs included: fret level dress, electronics yank-out, new K&K Twin Spot pickup install, relocated saddle (individual "screw" saddles, now), cleaning, restring with used lighter gauges, setup.
Top wood: solid spruce
Back & sides wood: solid maple
Bracing type: x
Bridge: rosewood-like
Fretboard: rosewood
Neck wood: maple of some sort
Action height at 12th fret: hair over 3/32" bass and 3/32" treble
String gauges: roughly 90w, 75w, 55w, 35w (stick with a lighter set)
Neck shape: medium-bigger C/D
Board radius: flat
Truss rod: adjustable but essentially maxed-out
Neck relief: mild relief
Fret style: medium-wider
Scale length: 33 7/8"
Nut width: 1 3/4"
Body width: 16"
Body depth: 5 1/8"
Condition notes: it's a bit beat-up with some finish chipping/flaking where it's been bumped-around here and there. The original saddle slot is filled and it has replacement, oddball, screw-style saddles now. Stringing is changed to "loads-through-soundboard-rear" and the original electronics have all been hacked-out. The old preamp-panel has been cut to turn it into trim for the new "sideport." Said new "sideport" works great for the player as it's a lot easier to hear your own instrument mixed with other guitars in an acoustic setting.
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