The Short Scale Bass Appreciation Society!

[Fuzzbass2000]

On 15/06/2022 at 09:05, fretmeister said:

Who makes good gig bags for shorties?

 

Any ideas?

Love my Guitar sized Mono. Sturdy... maybe a bit prcey these days... and survived 2 unplanned airplane hold immersions. Normally it goes in the overheads as it just meets some airline criteria - or failing that, a second seat.

[BCH]

10 hours ago, Fuzzbass2000 said:

Love my Guitar sized Mono. Sturdy... maybe a bit prcey these days... and survived 2 unplanned airplane hold immersions. Normally it goes in the overheads as it just meets some airline criteria - or failing that, a second seat.

I use a TGI extreme for my 26" & TGI Ultimate for my 30.5" very pleased 

[ots]

On 01/08/2022 at 14:55, fretmeister said:

I have one on order with Sandberg - with Super Light specs. It might even be under 6lb!

 

Are the superlights chambered?

 

 

[grenadillabama]

I got my first Squier. It sounds different than the PJ 'Stang I have. An insect landed on it.

[meterman]

11 minutes ago, grenadillabama said:

I got my first Squier. It sounds different than the PJ 'Stang I have. An insect landed on it.

Nice!

 

I almost went for a Comp stripe Mustang myself, they look great 👍 

[BabyBlueSound]

1 hour ago, grenadillabama said:

I got my first Squier. It sounds different than the PJ 'Stang I have. An insect landed on it.

 

I am really not sure about your gear, man. I mean, I tried that insect once but I just could not grow to like it's sound. I strongly suggest trying ladybugs, 2 of them (one each side of the pickups) gets you the best results IMHO.

[Baloney Balderdash]

17 hours ago, whave said:

 

I am really not sure about your gear, man. I mean, I tried that insect once but I just could not grow to like it's sound. I strongly suggest trying ladybugs, 2 of them (one each side of the pickups) gets you the best results IMHO.

 

Not quite, I think you somewhat misunderstood the famous ladybug bass pickup trick here.

 

The real trick is to find a handful of 2 dot, and this is essential, ladybugs, and then place one on top of each of the pickup poles respectively.

 

After you tried that there is no going back, absolutely magical tone enhancement. 

 

 

Edited August 6, 2022 by Baloney Balderdash

[Clarky]

Rickenbacker getting in on the short scale act after a long absence, albeit it seems a one off custom jobbie

[Obrienp]

51 minutes ago, Clarky said:

Rickenbacker getting in on the short scale act after a long absence, albeit it seems a one off custom jobbie

PMT have a preorder on the 90th Anniversary Ltd short scale bass that seems to use a 330 body. Only 1p under £5,200! I guess somebody can afford it.

[grenadillabama]

On 06/08/2022 at 04:25, Baloney Balderdash said:

 

Not quite, I think you somewhat misunderstood the famous ladybug bass pickup trick here.

 

The real trick is to find a handful of 2 dot, and this is essential, ladybugs, and then place one on top of each of the pickup poles respectively.

 

After you tried that there is no going back, absolutely magical tone enhancement. 

 

 

Or have a trained blue tail fly land on the E string . When it took off the band would start up, playing Free Bird (Free Fly).

[Duarte]

My short scale squier, that I bought in 2016, left in a share house in Sydney in 2017, and hadn't seen since until yesterday! I lived in Thailand and China for 5 years, meanwhile, the Jag hasn't been out of its case. It's great! Thinking of pimping it a bit. Black hardware, some kind of high output pickups, that kind of thing.

 

Edited August 9, 2022 by Duarte

[BabyBlueSound]

17 hours ago, Duarte said:

My short scale squier, that I bought in 2016, left in a share house in Sydney in 2017, and hadn't seen since until yesterday! I lived in Thailand and China for 5 years, meanwhile, the Jag hasn't been out of its case. It's great! Thinking of pimping it a bit. Black hardware, some kind of high output pickups, that kind of thing.

 

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:

 

[molecule]

I am new to short scale basses but about a year ago my curiosity got the better of me and I bought an Epiphone EB0 s/h from a guy in Brighton so I could find out what a short scale was like to play.  Well, I loved playing my EB0 sitting down, I didn't find the short scale at all difficult to adjust to, in fact quite the opposite, but when I played it standing up it was so heavy, and it always wanted to tip away from me so I could not see the frets.  I managed just two short gigs with it, and one of those was sitting down.  During this year I have used the EB0 at home sometimes to rehearse or learn new songs, but it I decided that if I was ever going to play short scale at a gig, it would have to be much lighter.

I have now found the answer to the weight problem, without radically departing from the SG shape of the EB0.  It is a Mike Watt signature Wattplower, made by Reverend .  It weighs just over 3 kgs. and although passive, the tone control offers a huge range of sounds from muddy thud to outrageous twang, with lots of usable tones in between the two extremes.  I am not ready to give up my 34" basses yet, but I am looking forward to finding out where this bass will fit in to the range of music I play.

 

[bassist_lewis]

17 minutes ago, molecule said:

I am new to short scale basses but about a year ago my curiosity got the better of me and I bought an Epiphone EB0 s/h from a guy in Brighton so I could find out what a short scale was like to play.  Well, I loved playing my EB0 sitting down, I didn't find the short scale at all difficult to adjust to, in fact quite the opposite, but when I played it standing up it was so heavy, and it always wanted to tip away from me so I could not see the frets.  I managed just two short gigs with it, and one of those was sitting down.  During this year I have used the EB0 at home sometimes to rehearse or learn new songs, but it I decided that if I was ever going to play short scale at a gig, it would have to be much lighter.

I have now found the answer to the weight problem, without radically departing from the SG shape of the EB0.  It is a Mike Watt signature Wattplower, made by Reverend .  It weighs just over 3 kgs. and although passive, the tone control offers a huge range of sounds from muddy thud to outrageous twang, with lots of usable tones in between the two extremes.  I am not ready to give up my 34" basses yet, but I am looking forward to finding out where this bass will fit in to the range of music I play.

 

I remember playing one of these when I was shopping for my JMJ Mustang and it was a lovely instrument. Like you say, lightweight and real easy to play. I will be googling them imminently...

[Obrienp]

1 hour ago, molecule said:

I am new to short scale basses but about a year ago my curiosity got the better of me and I bought an Epiphone EB0 s/h from a guy in Brighton so I could find out what a short scale was like to play.  Well, I loved playing my EB0 sitting down, I didn't find the short scale at all difficult to adjust to, in fact quite the opposite, but when I played it standing up it was so heavy, and it always wanted to tip away from me so I could not see the frets.  I managed just two short gigs with it, and one of those was sitting down.  During this year I have used the EB0 at home sometimes to rehearse or learn new songs, but it I decided that if I was ever going to play short scale at a gig, it would have to be much lighter.

I have now found the answer to the weight problem, without radically departing from the SG shape of the EB0.  It is a Mike Watt signature Wattplower, made by Reverend .  It weighs just over 3 kgs. and although passive, the tone control offers a huge range of sounds from muddy thud to outrageous twang, with lots of usable tones in between the two extremes.  I am not ready to give up my 34" basses yet, but I am looking forward to finding out where this bass will fit in to the range of music I play.

 

Nice looking bass. Interesting to hear it is lightweight. I am sure I have seen posts from others that said they are heavy but  they were referring specifically to the  Wattplower 2.

[Duarte]

7 hours ago, 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:

 

 

Very nice! I'm a fan of single ply black too. I thought about doing the Jag with a black anodised, including control plate - jazzmaster style.

Edited August 10, 2022 by Duarte

[Woodinblack]

14 hours ago, whave said:

it's "embedded" or "sunken", not even sure what's the right word for this jack output:

 

A jack output plate, or a jack-plate. imaginatively enough

This any good? From here https://www.guitarpartsresource.com/jackplates_aftfender.htm

 

[Baloney Balderdash]

On 14/01/2021 at 14:46, Maude said:

Hofners have very narrow string spacing. 

Spacing at the nut and the bridge are two different things and can make the playing experience drastically different. In general people quote nut width but not bridge width. 

Stadard Fender spacing at the bridge is, I think, 19mm (between each string). The Squier Bronco is 17mm. Hofners are 14mm from memory, with parallel strings, as in they don't get any further apart from nut to bridge and as such feel very different to play. 

 

 

Danelectro, like for example the Longhorn bass is 16.5mm string spacing at the bridge.

 

And I think, but not 100% sure either, that Höfner is 15mm, not 14mm, as said though I might be wrong.

 

The most common string spacing at bridge for 4 string basses, including short scale basses, is 19mm.

 

 

(Edit!!!: *Doh!* That message was ages old, but I guess at least then we got that settled)

 

Edited August 10, 2022 by Baloney Balderdash
*Doh!* That message was ages old, but I guess at least then we got that settled

[fretmeister]

On 03/08/2022 at 13:56, ots said:

Are the superlights chambered?

 

 

 

 

No.

 

They use paulownia for the bodies and Norwegian maple for the necks and their hardware is extremely light.

[Woodinblack]

1 hour ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

The most common string spacing at bridge for 4 string basses, including short scale basses, is 19mm

 

What does most common mean? Most common in that fender P and Jazz have that and they are the most common basses? I wondered as I have no basses with that spacing.

[Baloney Balderdash]

30 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

 

What does most common mean? Most common in that fender P and Jazz have that and they are the most common basses? I wondered as I have no basses with that spacing.

It means exactly what it says.

 

By far most of all 4 string bass models on the market, including short scale models, will have 19mm string spacing at the bridge.

 

It has simply more or less become a standard (though yes, there are plenty of exceptions, they just don't make up the majority).

 

I suppose that could possibly, at least partially, be explained by how it will fit with most common standard pickups and after market/3rd party bridges, and also I guess it is just what most people are familiar with.

 

And if your bass collection doesn't happen to reflect that then that just means it is not statistically representative.

 

If you don't believe me then try to look up the specs of 100 (to get a reasonably actual statistically valid number) random current production 4 string bass models, distributed about equally over different brands/manufactures, without deliberately going for those you already know got a different string spacing than 19mm at the bridge (to avoid coloring the statistics subjectively), and do the statistics yourself.

 

Edited August 10, 2022 by Baloney Balderdash

[Guest gazzatriumph]

19mm is the standard but you can get different spacing.

[Baloney Balderdash]

11 minutes ago, gazzatriumph said:

19mm is the standard but you can get different spacing.

 

I actually pointed that out specifically in both my recent posts on that subject in this thread.

 

But yes, you are of course perfectly right.

 

 

Edited August 10, 2022 by Baloney Balderdash

[Woodinblack]

29 minutes ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

It means exactly what it says.

 

ok, so it means nothing then. I thought you might specify.

 

29 minutes ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

By far most of all 4 string bass models on the market, including short scale models, will have 19mm string spacing at the bridge.

 

I suppose because it is what fits with most common pickups.

 

So the bass came after the pickup?

 

I realise my bass collection isn't statisticaly significant, but what I means is this seems 'perceieved wisdom' and as I have or can see no facts to back it up (and you won't say what most common is), I can't check.

 

I assume 'most common' as most basses are copies of a P or a J bass, and that is what they have, so Fender Full scale basses, Musicman basses, G&L basses and 'full scale basses that mr fender made'. so clones and near clones such as yamahas and the like

Ricks are about 17.5

Gibsons are about 17..5 (but vary)

Ibanezes are about 16.5

Hofners are something crazy small (less than 16?)

Fender short scales broncos and jags are 17.5-18 depending on issues (some at 19)

 

So yes, you are probably right as most basses on the market are basically fender clones or derivitives they are going to be 19 the same as the P.

 

But I don't have any data to back that up so I can't really check.

 

[Baloney Balderdash]

32 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

 

ok, so it means nothing then. I thought you might specify.

 

 

So the bass came after the pickup?

 

I realise my bass collection isn't statisticaly significant, but what I means is this seems 'perceieved wisdom' and as I have or can see no facts to back it up (and you won't say what most common is), I can't check.

 

I assume 'most common' as most basses are copies of a P or a J bass, and that is what they have, so Fender Full scale basses, Musicman basses, G&L basses and 'full scale basses that mr fender made'. so clones and near clones such as yamahas and the like

Ricks are about 17.5

Gibsons are about 17..5 (but vary)

Ibanezes are about 16.5

Hofners are something crazy small (less than 16?)

Fender short scales broncos and jags are 17.5-18 depending on issues (some at 19)

 

So yes, you are probably right as most basses on the market are basically fender clones or derivitives they are going to be 19 the same as the P.

 

But I don't have any data to back that up so I can't really check.

 

 

Yes, as I specifically pointed out in the post you quote me for you are pointing out the basses that are not statistically representative, the exceptions, that doesn't proof anything and not how statistics work, as I wrote:

 

"If you don't believe me then try to look up the specs of 100 (to get a reasonably actual statistically valid number) random current production 4 string bass models, distributed about equally over different brands/manufactures, without deliberately going for those you already know got a different string spacing than 19mm at the bridge (to avoid coloring the statistics subjectively), and do the statistics yourself."

 

Those you pointed out doesn't even make up a very high percentage compared to the entire market, especially not when some of the models by some of those brands you mention even actually does also feature 19mm string spacing at bridge.

 

And that Ibanez number is even just totally made up, all their current production short scale 4 string bass models features 19mm string spacing at bridge, including the Mikro Bass (the other 2 models being the Talman TMB30 and the EHB1000S), and non of those are even just remotely Fender clones.

 

You forgot Danelectro by the way with 16.5mm string spacing at bridge.

 

 

Edited August 10, 2022 by Baloney Balderdash