in my experience, acoustic guitars feedback horribly in the bass registers, so it stands to reason that an acoustic bass would do no matter.
that said, acoustic basses can vary widely in regards to their performance, in my experience. most sound decent, but don't fill out the low registers properly in an acoustic jam. my dad used to have
an epiphone el capitan, and that thing was the loudest unplugged bass i have had the joy of playing. i would definately check one out if shopping for one.
that said, i've only played a small handful of acoustic basses, and none were by hardcore boutique brands (lowden, larrivee, collings, yadda yadda), just big makers. my experience simply says that i would not have been hesitant to play THAT particular el capitan in an acoustic band at any time. every other one may suck, but that one had some nice boom to it-it was also a large unwieldy instrument.
a properly designed acoustic bass is a cool instrument. an improperly designed one is an electric bass that's not plugged up, which is to say-useless.
