Acoustic B20

The B20 is a 20 watt bass practice combo put out by Acoustic. Acoustic is Guitar Center's latest house brand. It is sort of a 'throwback' to the Acoustic Control Corp. from the 1970s that bassists like Jaco Pastorius and John Paul Jones used.

The amp is black covered in black tolex. The grille clothe is edged with white piping and the pilot light is a cool neon blue.

I went to Guitar Center looking for a cheap practice amp that would sound great at a low volume while practicing late at night. Out of all the other amps this one did what I needed and I scored it for $90 on one of their Holiday Sales.

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It's simple to use. Basically a plug and play amp. The knobs on the amp are; Master Volume 4-band EQ Bass, Low-Mid, Hi-Mid, and Treble. Features and Active and Passive input. This amp features 1/8' jacks for an MP3 player out and a Headphone jack.

Unlike most budget practice amps the Acoustic has 12' speaker. That gives it a little bigger sound than a practice amp with a smaller driver would.

I can just barely not gig with this amp. The 12' speaker puts out a big sound, but the power is lacking. If this was a 50 watt amp, it'd be unstoppable.

The amp feels very solid. It's feels like wood and not cheap plastic. The amp is fairly easily to carry. The handle is very secure.

Bottom Line if you need a practice amp, go out today and pick one of these up. I've done my homework and you aren't getting features like this in a practice amp unless you want to shell out 2 or 3 times the price.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

The Acoustic B20 is an inexpensive bass combo amplifier that is best suited for practicing and live shows. It’s got a single speaker in it, the exact size of which I’m not sure, although it’s pretty large. In general, isn’t the biggest bass amp in the world, but also isn’t the smallest. It’s easily transported to gigs or rehearsals if needed however. It’s got two ¼” inputs in the front of it for your instrument, as well as two 1/8” mini plug inputs for headphones and a line in.


UTILIZATION

Using the Acoustic B20 is really a simple task. It’s about as easy as you can find a bass amp while still having a bit of control over your sound. The parameters that are found on the front panel of the B20 include those for volume and a four band equalizer, which is split up into low, low-mid, high-mid, and high frequency bands. All of this is pretty self explanatory, even for a beginner, so I don’t believe that users will require a manual for the B20.


SOUNDS

The sound of the Acoustic B20 is about average, as it’s nothing special but also isn’t awful. It isn’t very versatile, but for practicing on it definitely gets the job done. I’ve never played a show with this or recorded with it and have only used it a few times to practice on with a Fender Jazz Bass. It’s definitely lacking a fullness that you’ll find with higher end bass combo amps, but again for practicing the amp does the trick.


OVERALL OPINION

While the Acoustic B20 wouldn’t be my first recommendation for a cheap bass combo amp, at the price it’s being offered up for, it isn’t a bad deal. It certainly doesn’t have the fullest sound by a long shot, but if you are a beginner looking to get something cheap to get started with for practicing and maybe gigging, I don’t see too much of a problem with it. Having said this, the B20 should definitely be treated as a practice amp, so don’t expect too much from it at this price. If you’re an above average player I’d stay away from this amp, but for those just getting started it’s definitely not a bad choice at this cheap price…