The Short Scale Bass Appreciation Society!

[vates]

1 hour ago, MichaelDean said:

Here you go. I picked it up for £500 on eBay about 15 years ago. It was in a sorry state, so I stripped the paint and refinished it (poorly and not patiently) in a thin layer of white blonde nitro, and added a racing stripe decal. It has been played a lot, so in lockdown I got the frets replaced with stainless steel ones, so I won't have to have it done again, and the old tuners are shot, so replaced them with some Hipshot ultralights. The new hole I drilled would be covered by the old tuners were I ever in the unlikely event of selling it. 

 

All mojo is genuine play wear and it even came with me on a short Japanese tour. 

 

 

I'll bring it along to the SW bass bash! 😁

 

 

A charming little beast!

[Dazed]

May have already been posted but it’s the first time I’ve come across a short scale Gibson Thunderbird. Limited edition run of 400 circa 2011. 
 

[ezbass]

I was watching some of the Belladrum festival coverage yesterday. The sound was mainly thin and favouring the top end. Fatherson (guitar, bass &drum, 3 piece) came on and the bass player was using a P, nothing remarkable during the first song. For the second song, the bass player switched to a Player Mustang PJ and suddenly you could hear the bass. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make out which pickup/s were being used, but it sounded great, whereas the previous P was fairly inaudible. Certainly a win for the short scale in this instance, looked cool too.

Edited July 30, 2023 by ezbass

[Dazed]

That Fatherson gig is on iplayer if anyone wants to hear it. 

[Dazed]

10 hours ago, Dazed said:

May have already been posted but it’s the first time I’ve come across a short scale Gibson Thunderbird. Limited edition run of 400 circa 2011. 
 

 

It isn’t mine but it is for sale @€1899 

 

[msb]

I’d love a more traditional take on a short scale Tbird.

Even a shortscale Epi Pro model.

[Merton]

9 hours ago, ezbass said:

I was watching some of the Belladrum festival coverage yesterday. The sound was mainly thin and favouring the top end. Fatherson (guitar, bass &drum, 3 piece) came on and the bass player was using a P, nothing remarkable during the first song. For the second song, the bass player switched to a Player Mustang PJ and suddenly you could hear the bass. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make out which pickup/s were being used, but it sounded great, whereas the previous P was fairly inaudible. Certainly a win for the short scale in this instance, looked cool too.

We were supposed to be there yesterday but our singer got so ill she could barely speak, let alone sing 😢

I’d have been rocking a medium and short scale collection of basses if we’d made it!

Edited July 30, 2023 by Merton

[Dazed]

Looks like I’ll be rejoining the Short Scale club again, new (to me) shorty bass inbound.
Looks an interesting thing too, never see one before. Details to follow 🙂

Edited July 30, 2023 by Dazed

[ezbass]

24 minutes ago, Dazed said:

Looks like I’ll be rejoining the Short Scale club again, new (to me) shorty bass inbound.
Looks an interesting thing too, never see one before. Details to follow 🙂

Ooh, colour me (and no doubt others) intrigued.

[scrumpymike]

17 hours ago, Dazed said:

May have already been posted but it’s the first time I’ve come across a short scale Gibson Thunderbird. Limited edition run of 400 circa 2011. 
 

 

Gold Medal Winner in the 2012 Olympics Neck Diving Competition - or the Short-Scale Body-building event event? Must surely be one or t'other ☺️

 

Very appealing though.

[Dazed]

According to the blurb it’s a sprightly 3.92 kg’s… and with 4” off the neck it might balance ….. then again 😄

[scrumpymike]

17 minutes ago, Dazed said:

According to the blurb it’s a sprightly 3.92 kg’s… and with 4” off the neck it might balance ….. then again 😄

 

With that 4-inline headstock and bottom strap button presumably somewhere around F15, my guess is it's a diver.

 

Still a lovely looking thing though.

[dmckee]

23 hours ago, ezbass said:

I was watching some of the Belladrum festival coverage yesterday. The sound was mainly thin and favouring the top end. Fatherson (guitar, bass &drum, 3 piece) came on and the bass player was using a P, nothing remarkable during the first song. For the second song, the bass player switched to a Player Mustang PJ and suddenly you could hear the bass. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make out which pickup/s were being used, but it sounded great, whereas the previous P was fairly inaudible. Certainly a win for the short scale in this instance, looked cool too.

 I was at (and played) at Belladrum. Surprisingly, one of the best sounding basses I heard was a Westone Thunder 1A, by a band in the Seedlings tent (Nani maybe?). And worst were the 2 basses, especially the semi acoustic, played by KT Tunstall’s bass player (the bloke from Gorillaz apparently). All thump and no note….

[Tee]

Been meaning to add this here for a while, in its Root Beer Sparkle glory.

 

Powerful pickups, versatile, fat, woody tone from the set neck korina body/neck, rosewood fretboard. Lightweight too.

I love the neck which is based on Watt's "Dan Bass" ('65 Gibson EB-0)

 

[Joebethell]

On 30/07/2023 at 11:17, Dazed said:

 

It isn’t mine but it is for sale @€1899 

 

That's really interesting I never seen a Shortscale one. Tempting.....

[scrumpymike]

3 hours ago, Joebethell said:

That's really interesting I never seen a Shortscale one. Tempting.....

Certainly is, not least for the bragging rights ☺️

[Dazed]

I have the link to it if anyone wants it 😄

23 hours ago, Tee said:

Been meaning to add this here for a while, in its Root Beer Sparkle glory.

 

Powerful pickups, versatile, fat, woody tone from the set neck korina body/neck, rosewood fretboard. Lightweight too.

I love the neck which is based on Watt's "Dan Bass" ('65 Gibson EB-0)

 

That’s an interesting one, are the pickups stock? 

[ezbass]

1 minute ago, Dazed said:

I have the link to it if anyone wants it 😄

The problem being that it's €1899, so they'll be another 25%ish on top of that  

[Dazed]

Yep another B***** win 🤦🏻‍♂️

[scrumpymike]

4 hours ago, Dazed said:

Yep another B***** win 🤦🏻‍♂️

Another? You mean the first! 🤐

[Tee]

5 hours ago, Dazed said:

That’s an interesting one, are the pickups stock? 

 Yes, all stock. A Rio Grande Pitbull in the neck and P-Blade (Joe Naylor) in the middle/bridge.

[Baloney Balderdash]

On 25/07/2023 at 19:15, Baloney Balderdash said:

I just tuned my main, an 28.6" Ibanez Mikro Bass with an EMG Geezer Butler P pickup installed, from F# standard tuning, as I otherwise has it tuned to (that is 2 half steps above regular 4 string bass E standard tuning), to B standard tuning, uninstalling the low F# string and moving the others up a nudge, and then adding a thinner high D string.

 

Let's see how this works out...

 

Definitely better articulation and definition (which was a bit lacking on the low F# string, due to the increased stiffness of the strings as you move up the fretboard that comes with the shorter scale), and great for chord work, as well as that extra upper range sounds beautiful for melodic stuff, which I do like a lot, but not sure about how I feel about loosing those additional low notes.

 

For how I use my bass, as a solo and mainly bass and drums duo sort of thing, it does kind of makes sense though.

 

But if I end up liking it this way I will most likely restring it with a set of strings suited for A standard tuning, so called "tenor bass" tuning (that among others Stanley Clarke is famous for utilizing a lot), a full step down from the current B standard tuning (I just didn't have reasonable fresh strings of the correct gauge to tune it to A standard tuning).

 

Eventual I might get an EHX Bass9, which is capable of pitching down you signal with an impressive low latency and great tracking while sounding remarkably authentic to a real bass, for if I need to go lower.

 

Now I know the obvious reply as a question to that would be to why not just use the 5 string Mikro Bass, which I do own, but first of all that would require a pickup upgrade to get it to sound like I want to, plus I really like both the feel and idea of the just 4 strings.

 

On 27/07/2023 at 15:05, Baloney Balderdash said:

By now I have grown quite fond of having it tuned like this.

 

Don't miss the lower range much, and love the added upper range.

 

Obviously it does change the voicing of the bass, but as said I really do like the change.

 

Though actually the stuff I composed for my bass and drums sort of duo project still work perfectly well.

 

However it is no doubt going to change the way I compose on it going forward, with more regular chord work incorporated than what was the case previously.

 

Ordered a standard D'Addario XL custom set made from individual guitar strings of the gauges .068 - .052 - .038 - .028, very close to a perfectly tension balanced set, strung them on my Mikro Bass and tuned it to A standard tuning, that is like the 4 upper strings of a 6 string bass in regular B standard tuning, also known as tenor bass tuning, which among others Stanley Clarke makes wide use of. 

 

And yeah this is better, significantly more low end than the previous 2 half steps higher B standard tuning that I experimented with (as mentioned in my previous post, quoted above, the only reason I didn't chose to tune it A standard tuning right away, was that I had no reasonably fresh strings that would work for that tuning), but without loosing the gained clarity and articulation, or being great for chord work.

 

And also the D'Addario XL strings has much more character and are much more lively sounding that the Elixir Nanoweb guitar strings I had on before, tuned to B standard tuning.

 

Like more depth to them and more complex harmonic content.

 

I do realize that this eventually will wear off, and that the Elixir overall would be acceptable a lot longer to keep on, and in that aspect also end up being cheaper and save me for the inconvenience of having to perform string swaps as often, but the D'Addario are just so more rich sounding, and also feels better, less stiff.

 

So yeah all in all really satisfied with deciding to tune my Ibanez Mikro bass to tenor bass, A standard, tuning.

 

This tuning really does seem perfect for it's just 28.6" scale length.

 

Edited August 3, 2023 by Baloney Balderdash

[Dazed]

17 hours ago, scrumpymike said:

Another? You mean the first! 🤐

Fair point. 

[Dazed]

On 30/07/2023 at 15:31, Dazed said:

Looks like I’ll be rejoining the Short Scale club again, new (to me) shorty bass inbound.
Looks an interesting thing too, never see one before. Details to follow 🙂

 This waiting lark is no fun, I’ve got two incoming, one hasn’t hit customs yet and the other was supposedly 48hr delivery with parcelfarce….. collection was on the 1st and estimated delivery is the 4th.

How’s that 48 hours?

Edited August 2, 2023 by Dazed

[fretmeister]

That's a nice looking thing

 

 

 

 

https://valiantguitars.com/collections/mini-bass

 

Really mini - 27 inch scale

 

Wood: Hard-rock maple, quarter-sawn, titanium-reinforced

Profile: C profile

1st fret - Depth: 21 mm/0.82" Width: 38 mm/1.49"

12th fret - Depth: 23.5 mm/0.92" Width: 50 mm/1.96"

22nd fret - Width: 54 mm/2.12"

Scale length: 27"/685.8 mm

Fretboard: Roasted hornbeam

Radius: 12" radius/305 mm

Frets: 22 Nickel silver frets, extra-hard, Jumbo, width: 2.8 mm/0.110", height: 1.65 mm/0.064"

Truss-rod: Easy-access, stainless steel truss-rod wheel

Electronics

Neck pickup: Valiant Guitars B-system single-coil

Bridge pickup: Valiant Guitars B-system single-coil

Controls: 2 volumes, 1 tone  

Jack: Pure Tone

Hardware

Bridge: Valiant Guitars duralumin Swift-RS-bass, quick-release, with bell-bronze saddles

Nut: GraphTech, 38 mm/1.49"

Tuners: Valiant Guitars proprietary

Other features

"Trinity" ebony inlays

Duralumin enhanced-grip knobs with wooden pointer

Full shielding

Duralumin cavity covers

Valiant Guitars hard-shell case included

Edited August 3, 2023 by fretmeister