The Short Scale Bass Appreciation Society!

[Frank Blank]

4 hours ago, KateWantsToPlayBass said:

My first thought is to get him a short scale bass as it's easier to handle, especially as he's slightly physically compromised with his leg in a brace. However he's a tall lad and I'm wondering whether he'll be hampered by the short scale neck given that he has big hands (not chunky, but long fingers).

 

Get him to try short and long scales. Whereabouts are you, I have 2=some short scales, he is welcome to try them out. I don't think it is much to do with how tall you are, more just what feels comfortable to play. I played 34" basses for decades before I tried a short scale and realised I should have been playing them all along. Yes, the only way to decode is to try them out.

[ped]

On 05/12/2022 at 10:30, ezbass said:

Nice. Now, video/sound clip 🙏😉

 

Here you go, sorry it's not that good but gives you an idea of what it might sound like with someone skilled playing it!

 

 

[eude]

15 hours ago, ped said:

 

Here you go, sorry it's not that good but gives you an idea of what it might sound like with someone skilled playing it!

 

 

That sounds marvellous!

[MichaelDean]

18 hours ago, Obrienp said:

I can’t remember having a full scale bass that neck dived (somebody will prove me wrong).

I wouldn't want to dissapoint you 😁 I had an Epiphone EB3 that was very neck heavy!

[warwickhunt]

On 27/11/2022 at 14:20, martthebass said:

Just seen a fretless Lionel up for sale and it’s making me nervous.....

 

On 28/11/2022 at 07:22, 3below said:

Very tempting, if it is the blue one on *bay, it did not attract any bids the previous time. Starting price now £100 lower than previous time. I am resisting.

 

I was the weak one!    

[warwickhunt]

 

 

It's actually a 'much' nicer colour in the flesh, a proper green around the edges Roquefort cheese colour.    

 

I don't think the seller pushed the weight thing as much as he could, it weighs less than 7lb and yes it is a solid wood body.  I'm not sure how I'm going o get on with the pan / tone controls(ie no volume) but I rarely use volume in a live situation.  The rear DiMarzio may end up getting an electrician's tape modification as the pole pieces are intrusive.   

[LeftyJ]

Oh! I love that! Great colour, and I love the simplicity of it. 

[BigRedX]

21 hours ago, Frank Blank said:

Get him to try short and long scales. Whereabouts are you, I have 2=some short scales, he is welcome to try them out. I don't think it is much to do with how tall you are, more just what feels comfortable to play. I played 34" basses for decades before I tried a short scale and realised I should have been playing them all along. Yes, the only way to decode is to try them out.

 

I would confirm the fact that scale length has little impact on how easy or not a bass is to play. I'm fairly small for a bloke (just under 5' 6") and for all of the 80s I played a short scale bass, not because it was easier or more comfortable, but because it was the most interesting looking one in the shop when I bought it. In the 90s it was replaced by an Overwater 36" scale 5-string. I knew this bass was a longer scale than the one I'd used before, but I wasn't aware of how much until I bought a set of standard 34" strings and they didn't fit. These days I swap between 34" scale 5-strings and 30" scale Bass VI (6-string bass tuned an octave lower than a guitar) depending on which of my two bands I'm playing with and don't notice any real difference in playability.

Edited December 12, 2022 by BigRedX

[warwickhunt]

7 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

 

I would confirm the fact that scale length has little impact on how easy or not a bass is to play. I'm fairly small for a bloke (just under 5' 6") and for all of the 80s I played a short scale bass, not because it was easier or more comfortable, but because it was the most interesting looking one in the shop when I bought it. In the 90s it was replaced by an Overwater 36" scale 5-string. I knew this bass was a longer scale than the one I'd used before, but I wasn't aware of how much until I bought a set of standard 34" strings and they didn't fit. These days I swap between 34" scale 5-strings and 30" scale Bass VI (6-string bass tuned an octave lower than a guitar) depending on which of my two bands I'm playing with and don't notice any real difference in playability.

 

Likewise I can swap from 30" / 32" / 34" / 35" scale and not miss a beat.  The exception for me has been the acquisition of the shortie fretless... oooops I hadn't realised how much muscle memory I have for 34" scale and I really have to concentrate when playing 30" fretless.    

[martthebass]

2 hours ago, warwickhunt said:

 

 

I was the weak one!    

I snoozed, I lost.....

[warwickhunt]

15 minutes ago, martthebass said:

I snoozed, I lost.....

 

Well it's now in the BC collective so you never know!  LOL

 

[martthebass]

35 minutes ago, warwickhunt said:

 

Well it's now in the BC collective so you never know!  LOL

 

Well if you grow tired drop me a pm....

[ezbass]

1 hour ago, warwickhunt said:

 

Likewise I can swap from 30" / 32" / 34" / 35" scale and not miss a beat.  The exception for me has been the acquisition of the shortie fretless... oooops I hadn't realised how much muscle memory I have for 34" scale and I really have to concentrate when playing 30" fretless.    

When I play my 33” and 35” basses, I don’t suffer much from misalignment after extensive 30” shenanigans, even on the fretless ones. However, I’m about to find out what it feels like to go up to 42” (or thereabouts) from those various scales and I’m hoping that the totally different ergonomics will make it like a new instrument rather than just a different scale, which, with such a big jump, could definitely cause some issues. 😬

[scrumpymike]

5 hours ago, MichaelDean said:

I wouldn't want to dissapoint you 😁 I had an Epiphone EB3 that was very neck heavy!

 

IIRC, it won an Olympic gold medal for diving.

[fretmeister]

23 hours ago, Obrienp said:

@KateWantsToPlayBassI agree with everything previous contributors have said but I am wondering about the problem of neck dive with short scale basses. If your nephew has a leg brace, I guess he is going to be sitting to play a lot of the time.  Neck dive can make some shorties awkward to play when sitting. A full size bass tends to balance pretty well when played sitting down. I can’t remember having a full scale bass that neck dived (somebody will prove me wrong).

 

 

I've had about a dozen full scale basses that have neck dived!

[BigRedX]

6 hours ago, MichaelDean said:

I wouldn't want to dissapoint you 😁 I had an Epiphone EB3 that was very neck heavy!

 

Unsurprising really, it's a bass designed for a short scale neck fitted with a long scale one.

[3below]

On 11/12/2022 at 15:05, Obrienp said:

...... I can’t remember having a full scale bass that neck dived (somebody will prove me wrong).

If you ever visit Mid Wales you are most welcome to experience neck dive with my Kramer DMZ 4001.  A great bass but best used sitting down these days for me, neck dive and weight were easier to manage in my younger days 

Edited December 12, 2022 by 3below

[ezbass]

My two worst neck diving basses were both 34" scale P Basses. Both wonderfully lightweight, but there was a price to pay for that.

[Obrienp]

1 hour ago, ezbass said:

My two worst neck diving basses were both 34" scale P Basses. Both wonderfully lightweight, but there was a price to pay for that.

Oh, well. Maybe I have been lucky with my 34”  scale basses then. Three Fenders and three Ibanez all very well balanced. 

[SamIAm]

How has this topic slipped by me till now! D'oh!

 

Many (many!) years ago I started to learn to play the guitar ... I was persistent, but never any good beyond strumming a few chords along to John Denver lol.

About 10 year ago I discovered the ukulele and fell in love, suffered from UAS (Similar to GAS), had a stable of uke's, but favoured tenor versions.  Played a lot, did some open mics, went to uke jams and joined a uke band.

 

And then about 4 years ago I bought ... a bass ukulele and OMG ... loved it.  I'm not sure I could even pick out more than a few simple uke chords now as I became the bass played in the band ... and then the dark times of covid hit and little playing happened.  A year or so ago, as we started to crank things up again and I started to become  ... frustrated ... by the intonation challenges of the UBASS (With the thick rubberlike strings that go out of tune almost every other song and no adjustment for speaking length).  After some hunting around I bought my first real bass - a Samick MCR1 BK Greg Bennett Corsair, 4 string 24.6 inch scale length.

 

It was great fun and addressed (with some careful setting up) the intonation challenges I'd had on the UBASS.  with a scale length of only about 4 inches more than the UBASS, it felt familiar under my left hand.  And then after some playing of it and trying out longer instruments I came to the conclusion that I wanted a 5er short scale ... so I built one, she was made out of a 2x4 I had lying around so I called her Twiggy.  She ended up as a 29 inch scale (or so) headless fretless with home grown tuners and much to my surprise (and delight) sounded pretty darn good with some Rotosound TruBass tapewounds and an EMG pup.  I was gigging with her and so enjoyed the scale length, the fretlessness and her feather weightedness that I thought I'd have another go and bought a lovely chunk of Maple to build my next one, aiming a bit higher in terms of asthetic! lol

 

As someone said,  'If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.' ... the day after the photo above a fire broke out in my flat and ... woosh, everything went up in smoke.

 

The lovely luthier gave me a replacement chunk of wood and one of these days I will get started on the new build, but at present my back is really bad so standing and doing woodwork is not an option.  A few weeks ago a very kind person gifted me a 5er fretless ubass, which is a 23.5 inch scale and I am playing that mostly as it is comfortable and light.  I do however want to try to get hold of a 5 string fretted short scale, certainly no more than 30 inches.  The two that seem to be about are the Ibanez GSRM25 or TMB35-MGR, tho leaning more towards the first as it is that wee bit shorter and I really do not love the colour of the TMB35-MGR ... however, I'd love to hear the experience of any here who have one or the other (or both) about how they are to play?  Also are there any other short scale 5ers worth considering?  (In the same sort of price range ... I've seen some stunning instruments such as those by AGC but ... well out of my financial reach)

 

S'manth x

And perhaps a little cheeky, but please have a look at my sig  

 

Edited December 13, 2022 by Smanth

[Obrienp]

@SmanthHi S’manth. I had the TMB35. It is a really nice bass for the money but it does have a pretty chunky neck, which doesn’t suit everybody and my example (at least) was quite heavy for a shorty. It was also quite noisy out of the box but a bit of copper tape shielding sorted that out pretty easily. On the plus side the stock precision pickup was OK  (the bridge Jazz was a bit weak) and the B string was useable right down to open B.

 

Just corrected typos!

Edited December 13, 2022 by Obrienp

[SamIAm]

13 hours ago, Obrienp said:

@SmanthHi S’manth. I had the TMB35. It is a really nice bass for the money but it does have a pretty chunky neck, which doesn’t suit everybody and my example (at least) was quite heavy for a shorty. It was also quite noisy out of the box but a bit of copper tape shielding sorted that out pretty easily. On the plus side the stock precision pickup was OK  (the bridge Jazz was a bit weak) and the B string was useable right down to open B.

 

Just corrected typos!

I did wonder about the D string! lol  I had to copper tape shield my Corsair too. Chunky neck is my preference, but it being heavy-ish is a downside,  thanks for sharing your experience!

S'manth x

[Woodinblack]

I still have a TMB35. Haven't done much with it apart from fixing the electronics (which came prebuggered) which for a sub £200 bass was good. I did get some foil to shield the internals, but tbh it is only the jazz pickup that is noisy and it doesn't really bring much to the party.

It is great fun to play, the string spacing is a bit wide for my preference, and the neck chunkier than I am used to, although getting used to it with the spectors.

I have played it live quite a few times, it sounds good - or at least the P pickup does. I wouldn't call it particularly heavy, but it is head heavy, and could do with losing its ugly headstock (I think someone on here modded it to be headless).

But it is a great bass to have around, there aren't that many short production 5 strings (I am picking up a ibanez AGB205 next week that I picked up in an auction) around, especially not at that price, which also puts it in the 'not worth selling' category which is ideal!

[Obrienp]

2 hours ago, Smanth said:

I did wonder about the D string! lol  I had to copper tape shield my Corsair too. Chunky neck is my preference, but it being heavy-ish is a downside,  thanks for sharing your experience!

S'manth x

Yes, I can’t even pretend that B and D are close together on the keyboard! Old age I am afraid.  

 

Weight wise: it seems both peoples’ perception and actual weight varies. I would have thought that the bodies are knocked out cookie cutter style but perhaps the wood blanks vary in density. Might be worth trying a few. Definitely worth putting on the short list.

[scrumpymike]

Hi Smanth! Can't bring anything to the 5-er party, but good to hear from you again 🙂