At several of the festival venues here in Florida, no electric instruments are allowed, but the South Florida Folk Festival allows electric bass as the only electric instrument. My acoustic bass guitar, falls to the acoustic category. I just play it through a microphone at venues that are acoustic only. Both of the acoustic basses I play have a very nice sound through a microphone. The Taylor also has enough volume to play in jams with no amplifier support. I have actually beaten out upright basses in the Florida Old Time Music Championships, so think it's not necessarily the instrument that you play that is important, it is the sound, quality and style of how you play it. Kristi