The Short Scale Bass Appreciation Society!

[ezbass]

4 hours ago, Owno said:

New bass day! I acquired this Wilcock Mullarkey yesterday and took it with me to rehearsal - what a lovely and well-built instrument! Dare I say even better than my Serek…

 

 

😍

[JJMotown]

4 hours ago, Owno said:

New bass day! I acquired this Wilcock Mullarkey yesterday and took it with me to rehearsal - what a lovely and well-built instrument! Dare I say even better than my Serek…

 

 

Looks great. Are the pickups single coils or humbuckers?

[fretmeister]

I've just seen that Nordstrand are stopping making "Factory" basses meaning the Cat / Acinonyx shortscale bass is being discontinued in it's current form.

I know they've been working on a 5 string version but now I wonder if that will be a USA made model with a price to match.

 

Presumably the decision is at least partially caused by the Tango Shitgibbon's tariffs plan for just about everywhere.

 

This is annoying as I'd really like one at some point, but ideally not at USA custom shop prices.

[ezbass]

27 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

Tango Shitgibbon

Oh, well played! 👏👏👏

[Lozz196]

LMAO 🤣 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[2pods]

Quote

Tango Shitgibbon

 

Love it !

I'm having that.

[mikebass456]

20 minutes ago, 2pods said:

 

Love it !

I'm having that.

Nearly as good as the Mango Mussolini.....

[RichT]

On 04/12/2024 at 20:34, RichT said:

 

Bargains! I already have two A1H, but I jumped straight over to the Vox site and almost immediately bought the A2S... then like a fool I remembered that the reason I never owned a jazz is that I'm allergic to single coil hum. The Aguilar AG 4J-70's sound great from what I've heard but alas not hum cancelling. Somebody's going to get a great bass though, if jazz pickups are your thing that price is ridiculous. 

 

NBD!  3 and a bit months later, I finally folded! A bass with jazz pickups was the one glaring omission from my collection and it's been quietly nagging at me that if I wanted to try one, I'd likely never again find anything else short scale, of Japanese-made quality, with these sorts of hardware specs, and this light a weight, at this kind of price. 

 

So I finally returned to the Vox website yesterday morning. Found they had one last black A2S left and they'd dropped the price to an insane £299... Grabbed it there and then. It's fate I tells ya.

 

It turned up today and it sounds sooo good, far better than any bass has a right to for £299. At current prices just the Aguilar pickups & preamp would usually come in at more than the cost of the bass on their own! Absolutely crazy bargain. 

Edited March 14 by RichT
clarity

[casapete]

On 20/02/2025 at 15:33, JohnDaBass said:

NBD Fender SS Kingman V2

So a new casual project as a Duo with a Local singer/ guitarist required a new member to join the herd.

It's a very nice Fender SS Kingman V2.

I previously owned a long scale Kingman with a great Jazz neck and huge body but moved it on due to the arthritis.

This short scale is a dream to play, lovely roasted maple, satin block inlaid neck with a 38mm nut wideth.

Plenty of volume for settee noodling and a great range of tones from the Fishman PreSys+. Sounds fantastic through my DIY Fender(?) IMP.

A nice size body but the fret board is a little dry.

  

 

 

I’ve had exactly the same experience as you with the Kingman basses - loved my V1 long scale but just 

too big for my needs. Now got a V2 short scale and find it much better! Use it into a Fender Rumble 100

combo which suits it well.
Incidentally the V2 necks are made of nato with walnut fingerboards. Mine is a bit dry too, so will

be giving it a light oiling to sort things. 😊

 

[Obrienp]

20 hours ago, fretmeister said:

I've just seen that Nordstrand are stopping making "Factory" basses meaning the Cat / Acinonyx shortscale bass is being discontinued in it's current form.

I know they've been working on a 5 string version but now I wonder if that will be a USA made model with a price to match.

 

Presumably the decision is at least partially caused by the Tango Shitgibbon's tariffs plan for just about everywhere.

 

This is annoying as I'd really like one at some point, but ideally not at USA custom shop prices.

I have a V1 Acinonyx and was looking forward to the 5 string because it might be one that I can play: arthritis in the base of my left thumb means the stretch on other fives is too much. A five with say a 42mm nut and similar proportions up the neck might be something I could play. However, a USA made version would be out of my price bracket and TBH perhaps not that well made?
 

The pickups on the V1 Chinese made Acinonyx are meant to be made in USA but my local luthier (who makes pickups himself) reckons they are really poorly designed and manufactured. He has already had to repair a few because the mounting screws just go into a plain (cheap) metal baseplate. The thread soon strips and the pickups drop. Shame because they sound great; so much so that Nordstrand now offer the pickups in their own right.

 

I have been lucky so far with the pickups; ditto with the switches that other people have had fail on them. The Hipshot bridge has also caused people problems: dropping bridge saddles and you have to be careful where the ball ends sit when you change strings. I can’t see these things improving just through US manufacture, unless there are some design changes along the way.

 

I don’t say this to put people off the Acinonyx because I still think they are great little basses, with an amazing sound (obviously personal taste) and these kind of issues are by no means unique in Chinese made products. It only takes a little bit of sorting to deal with the issues mentioned. I am even considering having a custom pickguard made so I can replace the pickup selector buttons with a strat style 5 way switch and the tone buttons with a rotary varitone control. 

[scrumpymike]

22 hours ago, RichT said:

 

NBD!  3 and a bit months later, I finally folded! A bass with jazz pickups was the one glaring omission from my collection and it's been quietly nagging at me that if I wanted to try one, I'd likely never again find anything else short scale, of Japanese-made quality, with these sorts of hardware specs, and this light a weight, at this kind of price. 

 

So I finally returned to the Vox website yesterday morning. Found they had one last black A2S left and they'd dropped the price to an insane £299... Grabbed it there and then. It's fate I tells ya.

 

It turned up today and it sounds sooo good, far better than any bass has a right to for £299. At current prices just the Aguilar pickups & preamp would usually come in at more than the cost of the bass on their own! Absolutely crazy bargain. 

RRP for these was over £1300. Paid £799 for mine and thought that was a helluva bargain (still do). The Aguilar AG 4J-70 pickups and OBP-2 pre-amp deliver the closest I've found to that magical 'bass tone in my head' sound.

[Manwithvan]

I agree pretty much with all the positive comments on the A2S.

 

BUT - I miss having a tone control in passive mode.

[RichT]

11 hours ago, Manwithvan said:

I agree pretty much with all the positive comments on the A2S.

 

BUT - I miss having a tone control in passive mode.

 

Yeah that's the one thing with the Starstreams. The passive tone on my A1H (with the single Aguilar MM style pickup) is easily altered by just reducing the volume slightly. You can get quite a decent range of tone darkening with barely any perceived drop in volume. Not sure whether the A2S behaves in a similar way, albeit slightly more of a faff having 2 volume controls to balance. But active basses are my comfort zone so I run mine active all the time anyway.

[msb]

On 13/03/2025 at 19:52, RichT said:

 

NBD!  3 and a bit months later, I finally folded! A bass with jazz pickups was the one glaring omission from my collection and it's been quietly nagging at me that if I wanted to try one, I'd likely never again find anything else short scale, of Japanese-made quality, with these sorts of hardware specs, and this light a weight, at this kind of price. 

 

So I finally returned to the Vox website yesterday morning. Found they had one last black A2S left and they'd dropped the price to an insane £299... Grabbed it there and then. It's fate I tells ya.

 

It turned up today and it sounds sooo good, far better than any bass has a right to for £299. At current prices just the Aguilar pickups & preamp would usually come in at more than the cost of the bass on their own! Absolutely crazy bargain. 

I called Vox about those earlier but it was for the UK only. 

[RichT]

1 hour ago, msb said:

I called Vox about those earlier but it was for the UK only. 

 

Unfortunately I think they're all gone, I'm pretty sure mine was the last one available (for now anyway). Worth keeping an eye open to see if any come up 2nd hand. I paid £700 each for my two refurbished A1H basses and don't regret spending that amount on them for a second, they're really worth that much and more. The A2S at £299 was almost like they were giving the last ones away. 

 

Talking of Starstreams, I saw this on the Vox website. They're no longer available and were ridiculously expensive, but oh how I'd love a short scale version!

 

Edited March 16 by RichT

[miikebass]

Looking for a short scale semi hollow.

I’ve narrowed it down to a Hofner Contemporary Club bass and Hagstrom Swede bass. Love the look of both and that’s the type of body shape I want.
Considered a Hofner Verythin and Guild Starfire but prefer the smaller bodies of the other two. 
 

Are there any others I should consider?
We’re a rock/country rock band. 

 

Please help me decide. 

[Baloney Balderdash]

1 hour ago, miikebass said:

Looking for a short scale semi hollow.

I’ve narrowed it down to a Hofner Contemporary Club bass and Hagstrom Swede bass. Love the look of both and that’s the type of body shape I want.
Considered a Hofner Verythin and Guild Starfire but prefer the smaller bodies of the other two. 
 

Are there any others I should consider?
We’re a rock/country rock band. 

 

Please help me decide. 

I would definitely be partial to the Hagtröm Swede bass, I think that is more versatile, and honestly in my opinion sounds better.

 

So unless you really love that specific thuddy Höfner hollowbody sound, I would without hesitation go for the Hagström.

 

Edited March 17 by Baloney Balderdash

[scrumpymike]

1 hour ago, miikebass said:

Looking for a short scale semi hollow.

I’ve narrowed it down to a Hofner Contemporary Club bass and Hagstrom Swede bass. Love the look of both and that’s the type of body shape I want.
Considered a Hofner Verythin and Guild Starfire but prefer the smaller bodies of the other two. 
 

Are there any others I should consider?
We’re a rock/country rock band. 

 

Please help me decide. 

If you like black (which I do) and it's within your budget, the Bass Gallery have got a new Lakland Skyline at £950. I really like the look and it has a Plek'd neck too.

 

Lakland Skyline at the Bass Galley

[miikebass]

48 minutes ago, scrumpymike said:

If you like black (which I do) and it's within your budget, the Bass Gallery have got a new Lakland Skyline at £950. I really like the look and it has a Plek'd neck too.

 

Lakland Skyline at the Bass Galley

Hmm. I find the Laklands kinda funny lookin’

[Obrienp]

2 hours ago, miikebass said:

Looking for a short scale semi hollow.

I’ve narrowed it down to a Hofner Contemporary Club bass and Hagstrom Swede bass. Love the look of both and that’s the type of body shape I want.
Considered a Hofner Verythin and Guild Starfire but prefer the smaller bodies of the other two. 
 

Are there any others I should consider?
We’re a rock/country rock band. 

 

Please help me decide. 

I agree with the comments about the Hofner Club. Bit of a one trick pony IMO.

 

I have a Starfire 1 (with the P pickup). Great bass but it is a big instrument both in body width and in length. In fact it is as long as my full scale P bass, so I can see why you would want something smaller bodied. It does look like a “proper” bass on stage though, whereas some SS look like toys.

[ajkula66]

20 hours ago, miikebass said:

Looking for a short scale semi hollow.

I’ve narrowed it down to a Hofner Contemporary Club bass and Hagstrom Swede bass. Love the look of both and that’s the type of body shape I want.

Swede is a solid body instrument, shape similar to Les Paul. Are you thinking of Hagstrom Viking ?

Edited March 18 by ajkula66

[LeftyJ]

On 13/03/2025 at 12:24, Owno said:

New bass day! I acquired this Wilcock Mullarkey yesterday and took it with me to rehearsal - what a lovely and well-built instrument! Dare I say even better than my Serek…

 

It only just struck me that "Owno" and "Owjeej" are in fact the same guy. Hi Tim 

Edited March 18 by LeftyJ

[Count Bassie]

Greetings all. I haven't been through the entire thread, but I'm the house bass player for a local open mic once a week run by a band mate. We'll open the night with four or five tunes, and when there's no guitar player I inherit the guitar solos. I've been doing a lot of string bending, and have considered looking for one of those Squire Bass VI things. Jack Bruce, one of my formative mentors, had a stint with one. Anyone here have an experience to share?...

Thanks!

[Stub Mandrel]

On 17/03/2025 at 09:26, miikebass said:

Looking for a short scale semi hollow.

I’ve narrowed it down to a Hofner Contemporary Club bass and Hagstrom Swede bass. Love the look of both and that’s the type of body shape I want.
Considered a Hofner Verythin and Guild Starfire but prefer the smaller bodies of the other two. 
 

Are there any others I should consider?
We’re a rock/country rock band. 

 

Please help me decide. 

 

Country? Just cut 4" off your broomstick.

 

 

[Baloney Balderdash]

39 minutes ago, Count Bassie said:

Greetings all. I haven't been through the entire thread, but I'm the house bass player for a local open mic once a week run by a band mate. We'll open the night with four or five tunes, and when there's no guitar player I inherit the guitar solos. I've been doing a lot of string bending, and have considered looking for one of those Squire Bass VI things. Jack Bruce, one of my formative mentors, had a stint with one. Anyone here have an experience to share?...

Thanks!

They are great, and very fun, instruments, for sure.

 

If you are going cheap Harley Benton's take on it, the GuitarBass, is pretty freaking awesome, I got one, though while the stock Strat style pickups do sound genuinely great, they are way too noisy, so expect a pickup upgrade being necessary.

 

Otherwise mine was pretty much perfect from stock, even with perfectly leveled frets right from factory.

 

One thing you need to be aware of though, regardless of which Bass VI like instrument you end up buying, the really narrow, guitar like, string spacing will take some practice to get used to, to not stumble over the strings, both on your fretting and picking hand, constantly.

 

Using a pick does make it a bit easier to handle though.

 

Also be aware that the stock low E string is crap on most of these instruments, usually gauge .084, which is way too floppy to work properly, I would recommend a set with a gauge .095 low E string. 

 

Newtone makes amazing affordable custom sets: https://newtonestrings.com/

 

They do sell a readymade custom Bass VI set, but personally I prefer to put together my own, with my own preference in gauges, via their custom string set creator/specificator (or whatever such a thing is called, online app?). 

 

Edited March 18 by Baloney Balderdash