Sandra,

I too would steer away from an acoustic guitar-style bass. There's quite a bit of tension needed for the box of the bass to handle and I have yet to hear one that I liked either the acoustic sound or the amplified sound (piezo providing too much 'plastic' sound in every case).

I think what might be an ideal setup for you would be a fretless electric mated with a Behringer Bass V-Amp simulator.

I don't know if you can buy these in Austria, but the SX line of basses from www.rondomusic.net offers high value for the performance and quality.

With the Behringer Bass V-Amp, you should be able to dial in a jazzy tone, with the fretless providing the kind of hand-movement voicing that would be more suited to your style than a fretted bass.

I don't know if SX are sold in Austria. The parent company in China that makes these guitars is called Team International Corporation. Perhaps they can tell you an Austrian dealer. In the US, the Precision bass copy that they sell starts at about $130.

http://www.teamintlco.com/

They say on their website that they distribute to Austria, but no dealers are given.

In the US, their products are exclusively distributed through www.rondomusic.net

On that site, this is the bass I would recommend to you: http://www.rondomusic.com/spb62fretls3ts.html $110 - can you believe it for a solid alder bodied bass!

They also make one with a maple fretboard. The fretlines are merely painted in for reference. Probably could be sanded off if that looks bad to you.

Also, you can get a model with both a precision type split pickup, and a fender jazz single coil type pickup in the tail pup position. It's not for sale right now because Rondo just lists what they have in stock. Contact Kurt at Rondo and he can tell you when they might be getting in a 'custom' P-bass fretless.

Make sure to check out the other basses there. I own a fretted custom P-bass copy from there and have been delighted with it as have many friends who have borrowed it over the past couple years.

With the Bass V-Amp Pro, you have a huge assortment of amp simulators that will help you dial in the tone you are looking for. Don't want to bother the neighbors, plug in some in-ear monitor headphones into the front panel and jam away.

Preset 1E is an acoustic bass simulation. I would find a dealer that carries this or the lesser priced Bass V-Amp and give it a try with an electric bass. I think you would be much much happier with the sound and comfort of playing than with an acoustic bass.

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