I will confess to having quite a history with these. I have learnt a few things.
1. In my experience, eventually the flobbadob (copyrigh HJ above) strings settle down and are ok.
2. The solid body ones do not cut it as a DB-alike. You need that acoustic body to give the thud.
3. Fretless ones do make it even easier to DB.
4. For me, the scale length thing ceased to be and issue within about 90 seconds.
Give me a second and I will dig out the proof of my love for the concept.