1999 Taylor/Klein Imbuia AB-2 Acoustic Bass Guitar

Posted on September 22, 2019 by Scott French

I picked this up recently after about 20 years of wanting one. It's absolutely the nicest acoustic bass guitar I have played... but after owning it for a few weeks I think it is actually a little too nice for me. Oddly enough after so long waiting I lucked into a good deal on an another one of these (AB-1) that needs some work. I am going to let this one go and keep the one that needs some work as I am more of a tweaker.

Specification wise, this bass has Imbuia for the top, back, and sides. The neck is mahogany and the 24 fret fingerboard is ebony. The internal bracing is a very uncommon fan style with flying supports and a huge access panel.

This bass is in really nice shape for being twenty years old. It does have a few finish bumps and bruises here and there, but overall it looks really clean. I have two of these now (and have seen sales listings for many) and a lot of them have small cracks on either the far bass or treble sides of the imbuia back. Both of mine have them and I can highlight them in more photos if you'd like.

These are actually more rare than I originally thought. I played a few of these when they were new in the late 90s but haven't seen a ton for sale since then. I reached out to Taylor recently and found they only made 372 of these over the entire seven year production run (1996-2002). I guess that explains when you don't see many for sale!

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