Thoughts on short scale basses?

[Rumple]

There is THIS short scale Fender Jazz on Ebay at the moment, it's a rare thing.

[ubit]

I have sausage fingers, so long scale is all I can handle. Funnily enough, I can find my way round a guitar ok. Fancy that! 

[Teebs]

Gretsch Junior Jet II is good for the money. I've got one in black, but they do loads of colours now.

Good bass, easy to play & looks great (to me).

I believe the Ibanez Talman shortie basses are good too - I've never tried one though.

Good luck!

[bassbiscuits]

I can vouch for the Fender Mustang basses. 

Im a lifelong P bass player but last year also started to use an MIJ Mustang bass. Very much in the same sonic territory and doesn't feel at all cramped. 

And they look v cool and distinctive while still being vintage styled (I'm not really into modern looking basses). 

Well worth a try. 

[oldslapper]

Try some out (stating the obvious).

I say this out of experience as I used a 30" scale on 2 successive gigs & ended up with terrible cramp in my left hand by end of 1st set. Went away when I went back to 34" next gigs.

Possibly no connection of course.

[burno70]

I have a Marusz.. short scale Elwood and it's awesome. It's now my main home practice bass. I'm tempted to get another to leave in the band's rehearsal room so I can gig with it.

[kevvo66]

Thanks folks always appreciated 😁

[ubit]

When I was fourteen, I went to a school dance. I saw the bands guitars standing on stage before they came on. The long neck of the bass just turned me on. That was me hooked. I knew that bass was what I wanted to play. 

[kevvo66]

👍

[BigRedX]

7 hours ago, Monkey Steve said:

I'm a bit similar to the OP in that the one's I've tried haven't done it for me, not for sound, but I can't get on with the lack of tension in the strings, they just din't feel right to play.  But that's me, YMMV

However, it always occurred to me that for short scale guitars that is solved by putting on heavier strings - I have 12's on all of my electric guitars, but those guitar playing mates with less robust hands than mine will play 8's or 9's on Fender scale lengths, and 10's on Gibsons.

Is that a thing with short scale basses?

For some reason the "standard" gauge of a set of short scale strings tends to be a bit lighter than the equivalent 34" scale set. For example I recently bought a set of Rotosound short scale things for my Burns Sonic, the gauges were 40, 50, 75, 90 whereas the equivalent 34" scale set is 40, 60, 80, 100. I found I was back to the problems I had in the 80s when I had great difficulty getting a decent note out of the E string on that bass.

If the scale length is shorter than you need a heavier string to achieve a comparable tension when tuned to the same pitch.

I have a set of Axion Custom Works strings on my Burns Barracuda Bass VI the heavier gauges give a much more comparable feel to a 34" scale set, although IMO the E string could still benefit with being a bit heavier.

[mikel]

7 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

For some reason the "standard" gauge of a set of short scale strings tends to be a bit lighter than the equivalent 34" scale set. For example I recently bought a set of Rotosound short scale things for my Burns Sonic, the gauges were 40, 50, 75, 90 whereas the equivalent 34" scale set is 40, 60, 80, 100. I found I was back to the problems I had in the 80s when I had great difficulty getting a decent note out of the E string on that bass.

If the scale length is shorter than you need a heavier string to achieve a comparable tension when tuned to the same pitch.

I have a set of Axion Custom Works strings on my Burns Barracuda Bass VI the heavier gauges give a much more comparable feel to a 34" scale set, although IMO the E string could still benefit with being a bit heavier.

It seems to be a problem with Rotosound short scale strings. Poor intonation, more so on the E string. I use D'Addario, problem solved.

[kevvo66]

So when I get one change the strings , probably the ones I've tried in the past the strings could of been letting it down

[BigRedX]

41 minutes ago, mikel said:

It seems to be a problem with Rotosound short scale strings. Poor intonation, more so on the E string. I use D'Addario, problem solved.

I'm not much of a fan of D'Addario bass strings, so I'm getting Newtone to make me a 4-string set of the Axion Strings with standard Bass ball ends. That should sort it out.

On the whole I find that Rotosound are pretty much incapable of making anything other than 34" 4-string sets.

[pete.young]

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

If the scale length is shorter than you need a heavier string to achieve a comparable tension when tuned to the same pitch.

 

Heavier (as in larger diameter?) or higher tension? Sometimes heavier means higher tension, but it isn't always the case. 

Edited January 25, 2019 by pete.young

[jezzaboy]

52 minutes ago, kevvo66 said:

So when I get one change the strings , probably the ones I've tried in the past the strings could of been letting it down

I have a set of DAddario`s and they are 50, 70, 85, 105, EXL160s. No floppy problems here, oohh errr Mrs!

[tubbybloke68]

I have these on my swb standard Chowny bass and definitely make the bass sound tighter and punchier to my ears.i upgraded to damarzio pickups aswell.great little bass.in fact I prefer it to the swb pro I brought on here too! 

[Dem Jolie-blues]

So, into the fray,  I'm a die hard shrt-scaler, these are my two for gigging, the Landing is a custom built by Jimmy Wilson, there's one on flea-bay as we speak, the Gretsch  has a massive E string, and it's still a bit limp (boys !),  Notice how much bigger the Gretsch  is ,  I've laid them down to get the bridges and nuts aligned, they are quite different to  play !  I also have two 32 inch scale basses, can I point out that they are as easy to play because  the headstock  isn't two inches further away, the bridges are two inches nearer the end of the guitar body, backwards as it were, and yes, I have arthritis too but have never coped with 34 inch scale .

[AndyTravis]

38 minutes ago, jezzaboy said:

I have a set of DAddario`s and they are 50, 70, 85, 105, EXL160s. No floppy problems here, oohh errr Mrs!

Viagra for shot scale basses

[Chiliwailer]

2 minutes ago, AndyTravis said:

Viagra for shot scale basses

Will that work on 30 inches? 

[Bluewine]

My German made Hofner Limited Edition Club Bass.

Blue

[AndyTravis]

10 minutes ago, Chiliwailer said:

Will that work on 30 inches? 

Dunno, my smallest is 34” 😂

[Frank Blank]

2 hours ago, mikel said:

It seems to be a problem with Rotosound short scale strings. Poor intonation, more so on the E string. I use D'Addario, problem solved.

I always use D’Addarios on short scales, as you so rightly say, problem solved.

[Bluewine]

1 hour ago, Frank Blank said:

I always use D’Addarios on short scales, as you so rightly say, problem solved.

So, when I go to have the strings replaced on my Hofner, I'll ask them to use D'Addarios and I'm good?

Blue

Edited January 25, 2019 by Bluewine

[Frank Blank]

1 hour ago, Bluewine said:

So, when I go to have the strings replaced on my Hofner, I'll ask them to use D'Addarios and I'm good?

Blue

Ah, now, I’m no expert on Hofners, from what I can glean they are a law unto themselves. I expect someone who knows them better than I might answer this.

[Dad3353]

2 hours ago, Bluewine said:

So, when I go to have the strings replaced on my Hofner, I'll ask them to use D'Addarios and I'm good?

Blue

There's a good chance that BC member @D'Addario UK will know the answer to that. Try a PM, maybe..?