Squire Jaguar - short scale vs long scale

[leroybasslines]

Hello bass comrades.

I currently play a lovely Lakland 5560 which pretty much meets my needs, but of late I've been thinking of getting a nice but cheap backup. My Lakland is great, but I'd like a 4 string to offer a bit of contrast, preferably with a bit of a P feel. Not necessarily a P though. Just something different to the 5 string Jazz vibe, or something I can grab when I've forgotten to change the battery on the Lakland's preamp!

So I saw Brandon Gilliard playing with Janelle Monae--a great player if you haven't heard him. I noticed he was playing a Squire Jaguar bass (albeit with a Squire Bullet neck, and probably a few other mods, as far as I can tell - I'm no expert!). Check it out here: [media]http://youtu.be/ZOb4eNN38no[/media]

I thought, if it's good enough for a player like him to use as a main bass it'll probably be just about alright for a player like me as a back up!

I went into PMT Bristol and terrorized them - played every vaguely P flavoured bass in the shop from bargain bassment to top of the range. They had one of the Squire Jags, but only a short scale one. It was great - really fat, dark P sound. The J pup at the bridge was kind of thin sounding, but offered an alternative and they sounded great mixed together. All in all, I thought it was a great little bass and at only £190 I can't really go wrong. However, they didn't have a long scale one in stock and I would dearly have loved to compare them before I part with some cash earned through wedding band torture. It's only £30 more than the short scale.

Has anyone been able to do a direct comparison? I've very little experience of short scale basses - it felt weird to play at first but I quickly got a hang of the size. In fact, I quite liked how it made me think about what I was playing differently, the ease of getting round the neck, etc. I've heard the sound is darker with more lows. Any other things to bear in mind? I can order a long scale one, but I don't want to buy without doing my homework first!

Any wisdom and guidance is most appreciated!