[quote name='janmaat' post='916129' date='Aug 5 2010, 04:03 PM']Hi
I just started playing in this new formation, originally was asked to dep for the bass player. Now she's a newbee on bass, playing a strat style Squire short scale. Now it looks like it's going to become a two-bass project (yes seriously we like odd stuff down here), her playing the short scale and me the long scale (Yamaha with a DiMarzio passive P pickup and Rotos through Markbass). Sounds interesting already as the two instruments really sound words apart.
Now I start wondering about short scale basses. My suspicion is that where the A on the long scale is at 110Hz, the short scale centers around 220Hz? does the short scale actually relate to the long scale like a cello to a double bass?
I am posting this since I can't find much on short scale basses here (maybe I've been missing a thread)?. What do you play, how do you string them?
And then the question for us is of course how to make an interesting sound combination with a long scale and a short scale bass. We'll be trying some odd effect things out, like routing the short scale through an envelope filter while the long scale plays sub. Ideas? Experiences?
Cheers![/quote]
A short scale bass is only around 4" difference in scale length to a standard scale bass. The pitch is the same, they are tuned the same, the strings are shorter, in my limited experience of them I have found that string tension seems a bit less, but I have got some nice sounds out of them (I have used a Squier Bronco and an Epiphone EB-0) with some changes in pickups/hardware (strat lipstick pickup in the Bronco, DiMarzio Model One in the EB-0) (modified 4 saddle bridge for Bronco, Hipshot Supertone for EB-0).