RAINSONG ACOUSTIC BASS

  • Rainsong Acoustic Bass (custom)
  • Rainsong Acoustic Bass, carbon fibre single cutaway acoustic bass
    Rainsong Acoustic Bass

Overview

Brand name: 

Product: 

  • bass guitars

Dates of manufacture: 

1998

The Rainsong Acoustic Bass is a single cutaway carbon fiber acoustic bass, available fretless or fretted. These were available from around 1998, probably less than ten were made in total before Rainsong discontinued the model This model was endorsed by John Entwistle and Dean Felber. According to Dean Felber:

"I judge a bass by how it sounds, not how it looks. This Rainsong had the sound.

We lined it up with four other basses for sound check at the (MTV) Unplugged show and this RainSong was the only one that really worked. You could really hear the difference. Everyone was surprised by it because it did LOOK real good. But everybody, I mean everybody, commented on how good it sounded. All the sound guys kept telling me how great it was to work with. You could get the sound out so much faster. It really does have the definition.

I also liked it because it rained that night of the MTV show and it was the only guitar that stayed in tune. Graphite is a good medium to have, because it rains a lot in the Carolinas."

Specifications (17)

Body

Body back materialcarbon fiber body back
Body shape featuressingle cutaway
Body sides materialcarbon fiber body sides
Body top materialcarbon fiber body top
Hollow bodyhollow body
Soundhole rosetteabalone rosette
Soundholeround soundhole

Fretboard

Fingerboard position markersdot fingerboard position markers

General

Finish colorsblack finish
Made inUSA
Number of strings4 strings
Scale length33.25 inches scale length

Hardware

Hardware colorblack hardware
TunersSchaller tuners

Neck

Neck width1.625 inches wide at nut
Tuner layouttwo-each-side

Electronics

Pickups brand and modelFishman Prefix pickup(s)

Prices (2)

DatePriceConditionNameComments
1998$4000newguitar-listRainsong 1998 list price
2002$2000excellent

Reviews (1)

RAINSONG ACOUSTIC BASS reviewed by Anonymous

3
Average: 3 (1 vote)
I bought one of these sight unseen, and of course un-played. It's pretty amazing BUT there are issues that a Rainsong rep at a NAMM show verified as part of why they quit making them. #1, they redesigned the tops from a linear graphite to the quilted style seen today. They decided there wasn't a big enough market to re-tool for basses. #2, intonation above 12th fret is OFF and he confirmed it was a manufacturing issue. Can't be fixed so keep your fingers lower than 12th fret. #3 - left it in a car that got hot - the glue on the neck softened a little and the neck pulled up a tad - still playable but was noticeable. He told me that was a known issue and they use better glue now. Also that there really was no solution for it. The bridge is not adjustable except for removing and sanding, but there isn't much to remove to make the action any lower. OTOH - it does sound amazing. Acoustically it's louder than most regular guitars so for campfires etc it's great. I can't say the ones here have any of these issues as I've only ever played the one I have. Serial #75 made in Hawaii.

Gallery (0)

Players (2)

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