Any one here got one? I've been eyeing them for a while.

The small size (I'm a smallish person with short arms and tiny hands) and lack of frets (I play fiddle and find being tethered to frets very frustrating) appeals to me.

I hear their strings break easy.
I haven't a clue what to amplify one with.

It would be my only bass if I do take the plunge. Is that imaginable?

I just discovered them. They look really cool, and it's not like they cost too much. I'd like to get one!

Any bass amp works. Get a climber's bag for chalk. Replace chalk with talc. It helps with sliding on the silicon/rubber strings.
Never played one long enough to speak to string life

My girlfriend and I both play the Ashbory. I'm mainly a bluegrass banjo player and use the Ashbory for multi-track recording. Any bass amp will work fine. These basses have a special active pickup and put out a very strong low end. The silicone strings are prone to breaking unexpectedly, especially the G and D strings. They sometimes break when the bass is just sitting there. There are some more durable strings made of polyurethane available, but I've never tried them. I hear they sound a bit different from the standard strings. It does seem that if the regular G & D strings last long enough to fully stretch out, they'll stabilize and last many, many months. There are some who think that fumes from the lining of the soft case cause the strings to degenerate, so we usually leave the case unzipped.

You can find out a lot about the Ashbory at largesound.org -- a website totally dedicated to these basses.

Edit: Update on the strings. For the last month I've been trying the polyurethane strings available from Roadtoad music. I really like their sound and they solve the string breakage issues with the silicone strings. They also have less of a sticky feel to them.

Edited by - Roll Player on 07/27/2010 15:22:16

I've got a red one and use baby power on the strings don't play it a lot but the strings are about 5 years old now. They make aUke bassnow with some different strings so I'm thinking about playing mine with are Ukulele group