The Short Scale Bass Appreciation Society!

[meterman]

12 minutes ago, dmc79 said:

Ideally I’d have preferred a black one but I only recently even knew this model ever existed after doing some of my own research into Mustangs. It seems there was a FSR Candy Apple Red of this too.
 

I guess they don’t come up for sale often due to a combination of relatively not many being made before being discontinued, and people liking them so much they hang onto them

 

I saw a few black ones around s/h but eventually got one stupidly cheap on eBay. Then bought a Mikey Way signature model and put the r/w neck from that on the black one. Should have kept both!

 

It does surprise me that Squier haven’t done another run of sunburst or black Mustang basses though. I’m sure there’s demand for them now?

[dmc79]

3 minutes ago, meterman said:

I saw a few black ones around s/h but eventually got one stupidly cheap on eBay. Then bought a Mikey Way signature model and put the r/w neck from that on the black one. Should have kept both!

 

It does surprise me that Squier haven’t done another run of sunburst or black Mustang basses though. I’m sure there’s demand for them now?

I guess the CV line eventually replaced them. I quite like the look of the Oly White CV but couln’t deal with that heavy glossed neck. 
 

The Mikey Way model intrigues me with the Humbucker, metallic sparkle & satin finish neck, I’m not a fan of the comp stripe though. Is there a ballpark used price they go for? I can only find a £430 (best offer accepted) in eBay sold items

 

[ezbass]

54 minutes ago, dmc79 said:

Don’t know if anyone saw this on eBay but they don’t come up often so I had to grab this - Squier Vintage Modified Mustang, the ones that were only made from around 2011-2013. 

 

It’s on its way now and I’m stupidly refreshing the tracking like my life depends on it. I’ve never played a Mustang and never like Sunburst but think this looks pretty nice with satin maple neck & string thru’ bridge, and figured if I don’t like it, I can easily move it on. 

 

 

[msb]

A Dano Longhorn was my first shortscale , and at first I did not care for the short scale . It eventually became my preference. Danos are weird little things , they were by design about as cheap as could possibly be made at the time. But they were playable , and many of the cheaper instruments of the time were not. They have the wooden popsicle stick bridge. And most people that are accustomed to Fender style instruments simply don’t get it. Truth is the wooden bridge sounds better , it gives things a nice woody thump , and there is a sweet spot for it where the intonation and action is fine. The body is made from Masonite , a space age tone wood. The pickups were simply a bar magnet wrapped in wire and shoved into a lipstick tube. Genius! My first Dano was a Longhorn , and now , almost twenty four years later I still can’t decide if it’s cool as heck , or butt ugly. I’m ok with that. 
For the first time the DC bass was finally available as a short scale and I immediately ordered one. Took forever to arrive. I wish it had the traditional wooden bridge , but I like it!

[ezbass]

8 minutes ago, msb said:

A Dano Longhorn was my first shortscale , and at first I did not care for the short scale . It eventually became my preference. Danos are weird little things , they were by design about as cheap as could possibly be made at the time. But they were playable , and many of the cheaper instruments of the time were not. They have the wooden popsicle stick bridge. And most people that are accustomed to Fender style instruments simply don’t get it. Truth is the wooden bridge sounds better , it gives things a nice woody thump , and there is a sweet spot for it where the intonation and action is fine. The body is made from Masonite , a space age tone wood. The pickups were simply a bar magnet wrapped in wire and shoved into a lipstick tube. Genius! My first Dano was a Longhorn , and now , almost twenty four years later I still can’t decide if it’s cool as heck , or butt ugly. I’m ok with that. 
For the first time the DC bass was finally available as a short scale and I immediately ordered one. Took forever to arrive. I wish it had the traditional wooden bridge , but I like it!

Love the look of the DC in both the bass and guitar versions. Good enough for Jimmy Page, good enough for me (if I had one that is). Very cool stacked pots. Hardboard, that well documented tonew… er… composite.

[meterman]

1 hour ago, dmc79 said:

I guess the CV line eventually replaced them. I quite like the look of the Oly White CV but couln’t deal with that heavy glossed neck. 
 

The Mikey Way model intrigues me with the Humbucker, metallic sparkle & satin finish neck, I’m not a fan of the comp stripe though. Is there a ballpark used price they go for? I can only find a £430 (best offer accepted) in eBay sold items

 

I’ve got an Oly White CV Mustang bass now, and it’s my #1, I love it, although heavily glossed necks are defo my thing (phwoar).

 

In retrospect, I should have kept the pickguard with the Mikey Way humbucker on it, and transferred it to my bitsa Mustang bass because it sounded superb, to me at least. Those

Mikey Way Mustangs seem to go for crazy money now but if I could score one for £400 I definitely would. The pickup + ‘guard would be perfect on my CV.

[barrycreed]

@msb I definitely prefer the 59 look v the Longhorn, but the LH sounds really nice. I have been tempted by the long scale 59 bass. The few demos out there, it sounds ok, and looks unique. I had a few of their guitars. Supposed to be "stinky poo", but great fun and great sounding. Hopeing to get a 59 guitar again.

[msb]

The Longhorn sounds a little deeper, the DC sounds slightly thinner, something that can easily be touched up at the amp. The shortscale DC has a two octave neck , the earlier long scale DCs did not. Between the bridge placement and number of frets is easy to tell them apart. I also have a short scale single cutaway U2 “Dolphin Nose”. It isn’t as deep as the Longhorn either.
My Longhorn is one of the early reissues from the Shinko factory in Korea. They began making them in 98 . My Dolphin is a later Chinese model , and the DC is recent Korean. They say the first reissues were the best made , but my Chinese bass seems fine. 

Both the Dolphin and the DC have the bridge placement about 1/3 of the way in , so they’re considerably longer than the Longhorn 

[msb]

6 minutes ago, barrycreed said:

@msb I definitely prefer the 59 look v the Longhorn, but the LH sounds really nice. I have been tempted by the long scale 59 bass. The few demos out there, it sounds ok, and looks unique. I had a few of their guitars. Supposed to be "stinky poo", but great fun and great sounding. Hopeing to get a 59 guitar again.

I like their short scales. Danos , due to the Masonite construction , are seriously lightweight. They sound great , and they’re really fun to play. They do have that single coil hum. And some have a little neck dive. While they’re not expensive prices have risen , and used prices around here reflect that. 
There were not many original Danos that made it to Nova Scotia other than the ones branded Silvertone. But there are tons of reissues around here. 
And a ton of Longhorn players around.

[dmc79]

It’s here. A bit lighter than I expected at 3.2Kg/7.2lbs, which is good. There are an absurd amount of wraps around the tuning posts, it’s almost like the previous owner put long scale strings on. I’ve never played flats before. Interesting to try, they feel so nice and smooth, but not really my thing as I prefer the brighter zing of rounds. Got some D’Addario XL nickel rounds on the way. 
 

This may be a silly question, but should the pickups be high in the middle of the fretboard, sloping to low on the outer edges, following the radius, like on a P bass? This doesn’t look quite right . . . 
 

 

Fun to play on my lap as expected, I’ll have to see what’s it’s like to strap on, stand up and play. Love the satin almost unfinished neck look 

 

[msb]

Many people slope their pickups like that for a more even response . Rather than following the fretboard radius , the G string in considerably thinner , so the signal is weaker , and the E is much thicker , so some drop pickup under the E and raise the G .

That’s a lot of extra winding !

Edited August 23, 2022 by msb

[ezbass]

1 hour ago, dmc79 said:

 

This may be a silly question, but should the pickups be high in the middle of the fretboard, sloping to low on the outer edges, following the radius, like on a P bass? This doesn’t look quite right . . . 
 

 

My JMJ slopes away on the E string but the D & G are pretty level. Whatever produces a fairly even output is the name of the game for me.

[ped]

Just to join the thread with my recent modded '66 'stang. I'll be hoovering up all the posts here later as a recent Short Scale pilot. To be honest, I love the Mustang but I don't really notice the different scale that much - I've always used light strings so the tension is familiar, and the bass sounds very similar to my full scale P. The size is really convenient and I love miniaturisation so I love it to bits, but it feels completely natural and not that different practically to a full scale.

 

I'm changing the controls (vol/vol) to balance/tone soon. I think the shorter scale does accentuate the different hand positions and pickup blends - small change shave a big effect. I didn't expect one of my fave sounds being to use the top thumb rest and play on the end of the neck. Fave overall though is P pickup with 50% of the Jazz, digging in and letting the notes rasp - it sounds really fruity.

 

I've been playing it and looking at it so much these last few days that the shape just seems 'right' to me visually. 'Normal' basses look awkward now. Before, I thought Mustangs looked awkward. Weird.

[barrycreed]

2 hours ago, msb said:

I like their short scales. Danos , due to the Masonite construction , are seriously lightweight. They sound great , and they’re really fun to play. They do have that single coil hum. And some have a little neck dive. While they’re not expensive prices have risen , and used prices around here reflect that. 
There were not many original Danos that made it to Nova Scotia other than the ones branded Silvertone. But there are tons of reissues around here. 
And a ton of Longhorn players around.

I would guess the longscale bass would have some neck dive. Fat Mike of NOFX plays a long scale, which is a bass I wouldn't associate with punk music. Yeah, I have noticed prices have risen on Danos in the last few years.

Edited August 23, 2022 by barrycreed

[Stub Mandrel]

On 09/08/2022 at 17:37, whave said:

 

It's beautiful and I can only recommend pimping it black. I love my black volume knobs, black schallers, and I replaced the pickguard with a matt single ply too, who needs that white edge! In time, I'll get a black bridge too, the problematic part on my talman is the metallic plate around the output, these are shaped uniquely... it's "embedded" or "sunken", not even sure what's the right word for this jack output:

 

 

Wouldn't cost a lot to get it powder coated black.

[Adee]

New batch of EBMM Stingray Shorties released, 25 of each, some nice colour combos ... and some a bit iffy ...

 

 

[msb]

The basses from San Luis Obispo might well be the finest production instruments made in the US today. They’ve been doing more and more quick limited runs at premium prices. As have Rickenbacker. 
Nice to see Ernie Ball recognize the growing short scale market. These will sell out quickly. 

[ezbass]

That silver finish is rather fetching with the roasted maple.

[dmc79]

25 of each? Won’t they be sold out within minutes of going on sale?

[ezbass]

I see that price of new Sterling SS ‘Rays has gone up, they’re plainly popular and I understand why, I’ve fallen even more in love with mine recently.

[BabyBlueSound]

23 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

Wouldn't cost a lot to get it powder coated black.

 

Well I just ordered one from the US!

 

Thanks again @Woodinblack   Now only the bridge needs to be replaced and then I'm done!

 

[Clarky]

My pair of short scales, Serek Midwestern in capri orange and Gibson SG Standard in ebony (with upgraded Hipshot bridge)

 

 

Edited August 24, 2022 by Clarky

[msb]

Are you happy with the Hipshot? 

I’ve been on the fence for a couple of years now.

[Clarky]

Just now, msb said:

Are you happy with the Hipshot? 

I’ve been on the fence for a couple of years now.

Yep, properly adjustable without collapsing like the 3 point bridge always did with me! Plus, being fully clamped to the top of the body makes me think (rightly or wrongly) that it has better sustain. Might be confirmation bias but that's my take

[msb]

I’m a sucker for them simply because they look so good. I’ve got four basses with the 3 point , always been able to set them just where I want , but I like the Hipshot. 
The DC Jr would probably get the first one.