The Short Scale Bass Appreciation Society!

[Merton]

I was just getting pics of my 32” scales for that thread and decided I needed an updated family shot for my shorties. Left to right:

ACG Mule fretless

ACG TKO Classic

Conway Instruments Taranis fretless 5

 

Edited December 29, 2022 by Merton

[Obrienp]

I still think I would go for two stacked vol/tone pots but appreciate that CTS pots, orange drop caps and decent stacked knobs would cost a fair proportion of the original price of the bass.

[scrumpymike]

Here's my new baby, bought from Bernard (BCH) on here complete with John East 3-band active mod 😊

 

 

[ezbass]

25 minutes ago, scrumpymike said:

Here's my new baby, bought from Bernard (BCH) on here complete with John East 3-band active mod 😊

 

 

You are a bad, bad man! Great score; congrats.

[msb]

That’s one gorgeous little bass! 

[SamIAm]

Stunning!

[scrumpymike]

18 hours ago, scrumpymike said:

Here's my new baby, bought from Bernard (BCH) on here complete with John East 3-band active mod 😊

 

Should have credited BCH with the fine pic's he took and copied to me - thanks Bernard. Here's one of the East engine room:

 

 

[Adee]

18 hours ago, scrumpymike said:

Here's my new baby, bought from Bernard (BCH) on here complete with John East 3-band active mod 😊

 

Sooooo how’s it sound, passive vs active? I’m happy with my passive version but that mod does look easy and very tempting!

[MoonBassAlpha]

19 hours ago, scrumpymike said:

Here's my new baby, bought from Bernard (BCH) on here complete with John East 3-band active mod 😊

 

 

Nice grain on the body,  any idea what the wood is?

[scrumpymike]

38 minutes ago, Adee said:

Sooooo how’s it sound, passive vs active? I’m happy with my passive version but that mod does look easy and very tempting!

 

Very promising but still finding my way round it. Did my quick basic set-up yesterday but still not happy with the action up at the dusty end.

 

For now, I'll just throw out a few random things.

 

    My knowledge of 'Rays is limited to: playing a used standard-scale passive MM FS in a shop a few years back and quickly finding a tonal sweet spot that was to die for; buying a SBMM s-s when they first came out and being very impressed - but not enough to keep it; liking Gail Ann Dorsey's 'Ray sounds in Bowie's band.

 

    Mine is fitted with round-wound strings (not EB Slinkies) and I have opted for flats on all my basses for a while now.

 

    I've not had a fat lot of experience with active basses.

 

    When I've decided where to go string-wise, I may need to play around a bit with the pick-up height as the E & A strings are dominating the D & G (could be the existing strings).

 

    I'm getting some great sounds but am a bit concerned at how dramatically the volume level responds to changes on the 3-band EQ. I want to make full use of the East tonal palette without faffing around with volume control.

 

More later 🙂 

[scrumpymike]

21 minutes ago, MoonBassAlpha said:

Nice grain on the body,  any idea what the wood is?

 

Ash IIRC

[MoonBassAlpha]

7 hours ago, scrumpymike said:

 

Ash IIRC

A very nice piece!

[slojo]

@scrumpymike That little Stingray is gorgeous!

Is the pickup connected in parallel humbucker mode?

I fitted the same preamp to my Mensinger Cazpar (with big MM like humbucker) but swapped the volume control out for one with a push-pull switch. This lets you switch between single coil or humbucker mode by routing the pickup wiring through the switch. It’s a cheap way of giving it a much wider range of tones, just a thought. The single coil gives a nice vintage tone compared to the more aggressive humbucker tone. I didn’t bother with series mode as it’s just a louder version of single coil and you get a massive volume change between modes.

Here’s a pic of the wiring and controls.

 

[Obrienp]

I have two basses with single MM pickups: one with series/parallel switching and one I have modded to series/single coil/parallel switching. I can’t speak for the Cazpar (would love to be able to) but I find there is a big difference in tone between parallel and series modes on my basses (ceramic magnets). Parallel has significantly scooped mids with prominent highs, whereas series has strong mids and slightly compressed highs. Both have plenty of bass, with series sounding darker overall and as you mentioned, louder (perhaps emphasised by the strong mids). The humbucking options sound quite different to single coil mode, which is more like a Jazz bass neck pickup.  

The above is a long winded way of saying that I wouldn’t dismiss the series wiring option. I think it has its own sound and having the series/single coil/parallel switching gives you a great tone pallet to play with. Obviously how it works for you will depend on your pickup’s construction.

[dmckee]

Agree with @Obrienp. I have a parallel/series/single coil 3-way switch fitted to my regular Stingray and mostly now use the series setting. Less of the typical Stingray sound than parallel obvs, but I like the fullness of it. (I also have the John East MMSR preamp in there btw, and a Nordy MM 4.2). 

 

Nice bass btw! Would love to try one. 

Edited January 1, 2023 by dmckee

[scrumpymike]

3 hours ago, slojo said:

I fitted the same preamp to my Mensinger Cazpar...

 

I love the Cazzie! Had a few in the last 10 years and they're exquisite. They're the sister brand of Maruszczyk and although made at the same workshop they are far superior in terms of build quality IMHO.

[slojo]

Thanks Mike, it is a brilliant bass, plays like butter, feels so soft and smooth to the touch. It’s also the lightest and best balanced bass I’ve owned, just under 7lbs. You can wear it for a couple of hours and not feel a thing when you take it off. The preamp transformed it IMO, the passive tone control was poor previously but now sounds great. The East preamp is so quiet and natural sounding with no hiss at all. Actually it’s not getting a lot of use as I’ve went back to 4 strings for now.

Edited January 1, 2023 by slojo

[SamIAm]

Oh my ... the lengths required to achieve the length desired

 

I've been chasing my tail recently to try to get a short scale 5 string ... something someone posted the other day got me thinking and I've done some playing and I am now strumming on a prototype 28 inch scale length 5 string fretless.

 

How?

 

I took

• A Harley Benton 5 string fretless (A gorgeous instrument donated to me to help recover from my post fire lack of groove) with flatwounds on it.
• A capo and a small length of wire (the wire is playing the role of a zero fret)
• Some masking tape, a ruler and a sharpie.

And did this ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The fingerboard is unlined and the sidedots are now hidden by the masking tape markers so it is not confusing to locate positions.

It is tuned BEADG and the low B (0.135) sounds pretty good, tho it does grumble a bit if I pluck it hard ... I think I need a slightly thicker wire and some adjustment to the saddle height ... but all in all it is pretty good and a very comfortable finger stretch for me.

 

I'm now trying to figure out how to get a headless neck setup in this configuration.

 

S'manth x

Edited January 1, 2023 by Smanth

[slojo]

Here’s a couple of photos of my Mensinger Cazpar 30” scale 5 string. I’ve decided to put it in the classifieds as it’s not getting much use and it’s a shame to be just sitting here so these might whet someone’s appetite 🥰

 

 

Edited January 2, 2023 by slojo

[msb]

Ordered a UniVox High Flier , this will be short scale #11. 

[Obrienp]

5 hours ago, slojo said:

Here’s a couple of photos of my Mensinger Cazpar 30” scale 5 string. I’ve decided to put it in the classifieds as it’s not getting much use and it’s a shame to be just sitting here so these might whet someone’s appetite 🥰

 

 

Didn’t think that would stay unsold for long. Congratulations!

[slojo]

Thanks, no it didn’t hang around. It’s a lovely wee thing.

[Obrienp]

Different but related subject: I just became aware of the Cort Action Junior bass. Another 30” scale bass. There is very little information about it on the Cort website. It doesn’t even give the nut width but the design looks pretty good. The long top horn looks as though the bass might balance well on a strap and at £169 it might make a good modding platform. I am not in the market for another bass but I just wondered if anybody had tried one? 

[scrumpymike]

16 hours ago, slojo said:

Thanks, no it didn’t hang around. It’s a lovely wee thing.

 

Not surprised, very similar look to my first Cazpar 4 (see below with the other 2 I've had). They're wee gems and generally under-rated it seems to me.

[fretmeister]

I'm now into the delivery year for my Lionel Superlight.

 

ETA March to April.

 

Not that I'm watching the clock or anything!  

I should really buy some strings before they go up again. I really don't like the stock Sandberg strings. And there's a really good chance the pickup will be swapped for an Aguilar.