32 to 34

[Biglump]

So, silly question probably.
I have a 32 scale beaten up practice bass in the van at work, for lunchtimes.
Then I come home to 34s.
Should I be flattening the licks by a semitone, or more on the 32 so my fingers land in the right place on the 34s?
IE playing A position on 34 and in Aflat on 32?
I keep trying to by beaten up 34s and instead end up spending too much on stuff I daren't take to work and expanding the home collection.

[Dad3353]

I would have thought that it was the notes that mattered more than the position. I'm assuming these are fretted basses..? I don't think it's [i]that [/i]big a deal practising and playing on differing scale lengths. many bassists also play guitar, some play baritones, and if one goes to db or eub, all bets are off, anyway. Having some adaptability 'built-in' to the practise proceedings is not, imo, a bad thing. It's your ears that determine where the fingers go, not the (supposed...) muscle memory.
Subject to completion, correction and/or contradiction from others, just my tuppence-worth.

[Guest bassman7755]

[quote name='Biglump' timestamp='1432759820' post='2784781']
Should I be flattening the licks by a semitone, or more on the 32 so my fingers land in the right place on the 34s?
[/quote]

I would think you will seriously mess up your playing by doing that.

[tedmanzie]

It's the string spacing and neck dimension differences that are the slight problem in my experience, but not really a big deal.
I had a 32 P-Bass and a 34 P-Bass. Basically if I played the small one for ages then the 34 would feel massive. If I played the 34 for ages the 32 would then feel like a guitar.
What 32 is it?

[scalpy]

As an aside, I've got an old takamine semi acoustic at work. Really useful if I get chance to play it!

[EssentialTension]

I've never found this kind of change a problem. In fact 34" to short scale 30" on a Bass VI or up to 41" upright bass, it's just a different instrument. Same goes for 1.5" or 1.75" nut width. I think you'll cause more confusion by playing differently than by playing the same.

However, you are right to think it's about a semitone diference because on a 34" scale bass the first fret is at 32.1"

[louisthebass]

In my experience there shouldn't be a problem switching how you play on a 32" scale to playing on a 34" scale...

I've got a Crafter ABG that's a 32" scale and my two main electrics are 35" scale, and don't notice the difference at all?

[Biglump]

Thanks for the views, I'm still at that newbie stage where I have to think quite a lot of the time, so often find it trips me up.
The work bass is an Ashton, acoustic with pickup and tuner, The pride of the fleet is an American special Jazz.
So there is a large difference in the playing of these two.

[Heket]

Don't alter what you're playing according to what scale length you're using. You may feel like you're tripping up now but that will very soon pass, especially with such a small difference of 2".

I've just had 2 months of exclusively playing a 21" scale bass, whereas usually I play 34". Think about that for a change in size! I'm just making the transition back to 34" but it's not much to think about, my hands still know where to go, my only issue was with new songs learned totally on the ukulele and realising I can't stretch quite so much on the bigger bass. Now, changing the key of a song (which is ultimately what you are suggesting) every time you change bass [i]is[/i] something to think about, especially if you ever wanted to improvise something.

I'm pretty sure buying a cheap 34" should be easy, if you feel you'd be better with both the same scale length, heck you can get new ones from Thomann for ~£100.