The Short Scale Bass Appreciation Society!

[three]

On 03/05/2023 at 11:26, Rayman said:

Probably a stupid question, but will an Epiphone Newport fit into a regular lead guitar gig bag? 

I've tried my Newport in a Fusion Urban guitar bag and it fits fine.  There's not a lot of clearance at the headstock but the length of the bass doesn't appear to be an issue.

[Rayman]

Awesome cheers 

[Frostybass]

Thanks for all the great posts. Given me a lot of food for thought. A few bass guitars I hadn't even heard of before. 

I would definitely prefer to get second hand. I don't mind a couple of dings and you get more bass for your money. 

[ezbass]

5 minutes ago, Frostybass said:

Thanks for all the great posts. Given me a lot of food for thought. A few bass guitars I hadn't even heard of before. 

I would definitely prefer to get second hand. I don't mind a couple of dings and you get more bass for your money. 

Where are you based? It’s always extremely likely that someone might be moved to offload one of their collection to a nearby BCer.

[Badscrew]

My daughter:

"Papa, WHY is this so beautiful?"

 

[msb]

Look at the where the bridge is placed. Many shortscales have the bridge set in about 1/3 of the way into the body , and many of those feel more like a longer bass. Those with trapeze bridges might require a longer string despite being a 30 in scale. 
The short scales with the bridge set by the body are the real short shortscales.

[Len_derby]

34 minutes ago, msb said:

Look at the where the bridge is placed. Many shortscales have the bridge set in about 1/3 of the way into the body , and many of those feel more like a longer bass. Those with trapeze bridges might require a longer string despite being a 30 in scale. 
The short scales with the bridge set by the body are the real short shortscales.

This is a very good observation. The new Squier Rascal being a case in point.

[dmc79]

Some early thoughts on the short SBMM Stingray. . . I am still yet to plug it in, so these are just first impressions / observations from playing it on my lap:

 

Firstly, whilst I expected this with the Ray being in a different price range, it just seems like a real quality bass, and a big step up from the only other 2 short scale basses I've tried (Squier VM Jaguar & Squier VM Mustang), and feels like it will be a lot of FUN to play. Let me say that at this moment in time I am considering going short scale more out of necessity than actually wanting to. . . as much as I love my P bass, my back always aches after playing & carting it about, and my left hand aches going from G# to F. So the lighter weight (I mean playing and load in/out too), lesser stretch, and fun factor of short scale is starting to appeal more and more. The Stingray weighs in on my digital luggage scales at a manageable 3.3Kg / 7lbs 8oz, almost a pound lighter than my Player P bass (which itself is light-ish for a P). I just realised that using the weight conversion, the 2 are slightly out of kilter, but that's what the scale read for both after several goes. Always nice to get a sub 8 pounds bass anyway. 

 

I've never had a Stingray before but own a fair bit of music that features one, so have always been curious. I've had it in my head that they are heavy and expensive, also I prefer a passive bass and to my knowledge they are generally active. So I've always passed on them, until now. I wanted to try another shorty for the above reasons, so getting a short Stingray was a 2 birds with 1 stone thing. Visually it's quite a departure for someone who is more used to Fenders. I still need to get used to the sight of the huge banana control plate. I guess this is just part of the quirky nature of a Ray, speaking of which I quite like the 3+1 headstock. I've only ever had 4 inline tuners before, and I like this headstock more than I thought I would. Also the string tree notches are a nice touch, never seen those before. Soon I will actually plug it in and play it, then will have to get my head around the controls - the somewhat bizarre push/push volume boost/cut thing, and the series / single coil / parallel selector knob. I'm normally a tone wide open guy, but I've read where some roll this off a little to take a touch of the zing / brightness off if needed. Interested in thoughts on the different modes. . . 

 

It feels well balanced, and the very cool looking quality bridge is very close to the end of the body, the 1st fret does not feel far away at all. The body doesn't feel particularly small resting on my knee, but it does look it in the mirror when standing. The cutaway seems to offer decent reach to the upper frets, though I doubt I'll be going above the 15th anyway. Not sure I've ever had 2 full octaves before - the shortest bass ever but with the most frets! It's a real joy to play on my lap, and nice to have a good body contour, which I missed when trying a Mustang. 

 

I must say that white on white isn't my first choice of colours, but the creamy white finish is very nice indeed. For sure looks better in person than in photos. Also I like that white doesn't show up every scratch & bit of dust that black does. I can live with the white pickguard for now, but may look into other options. That said, I'm not sure there are many outside of importing from the USA. Has anyone here got a replacement 7 hole guard for their short Ray, and if so where was it from? I do like some contrast, so quite fancy a black or black pearloid plate, I think those would look better against the white body. This may sound odd, but I've always like the pickups to be 'hidden' against a darker plate rather than standing out on a white one. That said, the big fat humbucker with its large pole pieces does look rather badass! 

 

Also I'm normally a maple guy, but when I saw this, GAS got the better of me. It's a lovely dark rosewood board, a world away from the indian laurel board that was on the short Jaguar I had briefly, and the 'dry cardboard' Pau Ferro boards I've seen. I like the big dot inlays too. The neck is an absolute delight - fast, smooth, looks & feels great. It seems a tad chunkier than what I'm used to, but the slim nut & obviously shorter finger stretches make it so easy and fun to play. It came to me with Ernie Ball Super Slinky 40-100 nickel rounds on - they feel & sound good enough to me acoustically anyway. I don't think I will be fiddling about with setup - there's no buzz or rattle, it just feels great. 

 

It came with a well padded matching gig bag, which was a lot better than I'd expected. From reading a ton about these basses on TB, it seems pot luck whether a gig bag was sent out with these, so I guess it's good to have one anyway, especially if I want to shed even more load in/out weight. But I'd already ordered a Gator ELEC XL hard case, which is awesome, and a perfect fit for the short Ray. The combined weight of bass & case is 1.5Kg down from the cased P bass. A bonus is that the hard case fits in the boot of the car, a long scale case never did. Now, I just need to plug it in, get my head around the controls, and get over the 'big guy/small bass' / 'this is a toy' / 'this is not a proper instrument' thing in my head. Given how much fun this is to play, that shouldn't be too hard. 

Edited May 5, 2023 by dmc79

[ezbass]

5 minutes ago, dmc79 said:

then will have to get my head around the controls - the somewhat bizarre push/push volume boost/cut thing, and the series / single coil / parallel selector knob.

To my mind, this is to balance the output of the series setting against the single/parallel settings. If you decide you prefer the latter two, engage the boost and adjust the knob height so that the lower output can’t be selected.

[Baloney Balderdash]

6 hours ago, dmc79 said:

Now, I just need to plug it in, get my head around the controls, and get over the 'big guy/small bass' / 'this is a toy' / 'this is not a proper instrument' thing in my head. 

If Stanley Clarke, a very tall man with huge hands, and a highly skilled, accomplished and acclaimed bass player might I add, with some serious acoustic upright bass chops as well, can have a short scale bass as his main instrument of choice, then I am sure it will be good enough for you too.

 

Edited May 5, 2023 by Baloney Balderdash

[Frostybass]

8 hours ago, ezbass said:

Where are you based? It’s always extremely likely that someone might be moved to offload one of their collection to a nearby BCer.

Nearest city would be Inverness. I'm between there and Aberdeen. Have checked out the websites of the guitar shops in both places. Nothing appealing. 

[ezbass]

2 hours ago, Frostybass said:

Nearest city would be Inverness. I'm between there and Aberdeen. Have checked out the websites of the guitar shops in both places. Nothing appealing. 

If a shorty ‘Ray appeals, there might be one available  .

[Baloney Balderdash]

18 hours ago, ezbass said:

To my mind, this is to balance the output of the series setting against the single/parallel settings. If you decide you prefer the latter two, engage the boost and adjust the knob height so that the lower output can’t be selected.

Maybe it's in place to point out that it is not actually a volume boost, as it is a fully passive circuit, but that it rather cuts volume in normal mode, and the boost function is really the "non cut volume" setting.

 

But I think you are absolutely right, it's most likely a feature that was added as a way to easily balance the much higher output series mode with the single coil/parallel modes.

 

Edited May 6, 2023 by Baloney Balderdash

[dmc79]

So let me get this right, you want the button out for parallel & series mode, and in for single coil? 

[ezbass]

1 hour ago, dmc79 said:

So let me get this right, you want the button out for parallel & series mode, and in for single coil? 

Down for series, up for the other 2. 

[scrumpymike]

Just a brief update on my Vox Starstream A2S.

 

My last posts showed the mods I did to change the strap-button mounts to accept Schaller locks. I also mentioned that I was considering moving the top button to the F12 'sweet spot' to optimise the strap balance. I've now got round to doing that and realise that the 'sweet spot' for this bass is actually F11.

 

So the clumsy first-off alu extension bracket pictured below will be replaced by a slightly longer final version (probably in the form of a plate extending the top blade) that will also incorporate the 'star-stream' theme in its design to make a feature of it. If it ends up making the bass look naff, everything is quickly reversible as the two original mounting points are used. In that case, I'll happily live with the very slight neck-dive.

 

If you haven't already fallen asleep, watch this space! 😊

 

Btw, now I've lived with this bass for a while, I can absolutely confirm my first impressions that it is of exceptionally high quality in every respect. My mods are by no means essential, I just can't resist the temptation to tweak stuff.

[Manwithvan]

I’ve also had more opportunity to assess the non active cheapo starstream 2s. With the neck nearly dead straight I’ve got some lowish action with a slight choke that I like. Some cheap basses fail to sound like a bass in the higher reaches, but the Vox doesn’t suffer this at all. The sound palette isn’t huge but it’s all useful. I played it with a big band/ small orchestra and I had lots of positive comments. Staccato notes were particularly effective. Id love to try an active version.

Edited May 14, 2023 by Manwithvan
Sp

[barrycreed]

It’s been asked a lot but maybe not this one: lightweight tuners for an Epi EB0 bass, with string through the tuner hole and then tune? Doesn’t have to be lollipop necessarily…

[ezbass]

Bruce Thomas gets an awful lot of love, quite rightly, here and is always associated with the P bass. However, I just found this image, whilst searching for info on another player.

 

 

Good on yer, Bruce.

[ped]

2 hours ago, ezbass said:

Bruce Thomas gets an awful lot of love, quite rightly, here and is always associated with the P bass. However, I just found this image, whilst searching for info on another player.

 

 

Good on yer, Bruce.

 

So he's been copying me too

[martthebass]

1 hour ago, ped said:

 

So he's been copying me too

You’re a legend in your own lunchtime Ped😂

[JohnDaBass]

1 hour ago, ped said:

 

So he's been copying me too

Mud buckers R Us😂

[Baloney Balderdash]

11 minutes ago, JohnDaBass said:

Mud buckers R Us😂

Uhm?

 

That's not Mud Buckers though (regular humbuckers), neither is the one in Ped's Mustang (Thunder Bird humbucker).

 

HümbÅgg3r5 I5 ThÅ53!

 

Edited May 17, 2023 by Baloney Balderdash

[JohnDaBass]

28 minutes ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

Uhm?

 

That's not Mud Buckers though (regular humbuckers), neither is the one in Ped's Mustang (Thunder Bird humbucker).

 

HümbÅgg3r5 I5 ThÅ53!

 

I apologise for my ignorance and intruding on the thread.

[Baloney Balderdash]

9 minutes ago, JohnDaBass said:

I apologise for my ignorance and intruding on the thread.

No need to apologize, just it, as said, isn't really mud buckers.

 

That's just a fact that neither you being factual wrong or me pointing it out really changes.

 

I don't think you ruined anything, except for your own joke perhaps.

 

   

Edited May 17, 2023 by Baloney Balderdash