Short/medium scale basses with humbuckers that don't cost the earth, what is it there

[shoulderpet]

4 hours ago, Ricky Rioli said:

 

Sound great in this demo

 

 

Yeah there is some nice growl in the mids there

[Paul S]

What about a Gibson Les Paul Jnr DC?  Short scale, the pickup is placed more centrally, gives a great growl, can do a series or parallel on the coil, too, via a pull switch.  lightweight.  Poss a little over your budget but they are great little basses.

[shoulderpet]

Just now, Paul S said:

What about a Gibson Les Paul Jnr DC?  Short scale, the pickup is placed more centrally, gives a great growl, can do a series or parallel on the coil, too, via a pull switch.  lightweight.  Poss a little over your budget but they are great little basses.

Funny you mention that, I have had gas for one of those since they came out, they look great and in the videos ive seen they sound great too

[Paul S]

They do - I have one.  Actually the sound isn't a million miles away from a Thunderbird - I had both at the same time for a while and both have 'that' Gibson sound.  They were cheap to buy new, as Gibsons went, and secondhand seem to go for not much considering it is a bone fide Gibson.

Edited September 13, 2021 by Paul S

[Pea Turgh]

This is in the classifieds at the moment;

 

 

[shoulderpet]

Just now, Paul S said:

They do - I have one.  Actually the sound isn't a million miles away from a Thunderbird - I had both at the same time for a while and both have 'that' Gibson sound.  They were cheap to buy new, as Gibsons went, and secondhand seem to go for not much considering it is a bone fide Gibson.

I saw a Youtube video where someone looked at what was under the pickup cover on the Les paul Jr and interestingly enough it looked like two single coil p bass pickups with oversized polepieces

[fretmeister]

As it happens I'm planning on modding my Mezzo 5 string to be sort of a stingray.

 

Going to remove all the existing pickups / preamp etc and have an Aguilar DCB MM style put in with probably an Aguilar preamp too.

 

I get the idea that upgrading your Mezzo would cost as much as the bass, but if you love the way it plays then that's not such a silly idea.

I have a 4 string as well that I got for £199 - and I've put £350 of EMG pickups and Preamp in it, and now it's spectacular!

[Stub Mandrel]

18 hours ago, shoulderpet said:

The Epiphone EB3 is long scale and the Gibson is more than I can afford to spend unfortunately

 

There's a 30.5" Epiphone EB3 on Reverb for £300. Looks lush.

 

https://reverb.com/item/35140541-epiphone-eb3-white-short-scale-30-5

 

 

 

 

[Lfalex v1.1]

Given that the balance of any given bass is ok, can you tolerate a detuned long-scale bass with a capo?

 

I've recently bought a G&L SB-2 and found the strings too heavy (50-110), so I thought I'd tune it down to D standard. 

This worked fine....

But it made some songs that use the open E heavily difficult to play. As an experiment, I thought to try a capo at the second fret.

One of the lovely chaps on here sent me one for free (!) And I've been using it since. 

It reduces the scale length to ~30"

Whether or not the tone is right, I can't say, as I've no basis for comparison with a true short scale.

Issues? Only that the harmonics are displaced.

Benefits? Take the capo off and there's a bass in D standard lurking in there. 

 

Maybe not the compromise you're looking for,  but it does item up a lot of instrument choices that might otherwise be closed to you.

[shoulderpet]

On 13/09/2021 at 14:30, neepheid said:

 

As a previous Tribute L-2000 and current L-1000 owner, I can confirm that

Have you played the Fender pj Mustang (the one that goes for about £550 new) ? Any idea how the Fallout tribute stacks up against that bass in terms of fit,finish, build quality etc?

I have played one of the pj Mustang basses and was impressed with the build quality, it felt solid and had a good resonance to it.

[ezbass]

5 minutes ago, shoulderpet said:

Have you played the Fender pj Mustang (the one that goes for about £550 new) ? Any idea how the Fallout tribute stacks up against that bass in terms of fit,finish, build quality etc?

I have played one of the pj Mustang basses and was impressed with the build quality, it felt solid and had a good resonance to it.

Ed Friedland reckons they’re a bit good.

 

 

[shoulderpet]

8 minutes ago, ezbass said:

Ed Friedland reckons they’re a bit good.

 

 

Thanks, a quick look on basschat and I found someones impressions of the bass stating that the neck finish was a little off which is a bit disappointing to hear as to me the feel of the neck on a bass can make or break it and ime is usually what makes a (decent) Fender feel better than a Squier, maybe I will have to try one of these in person

[ezbass]

6 minutes ago, shoulderpet said:

Thanks, a quick look on basschat and I found someones impressions of the bass stating that the neck finish was a little off which is a bit disappointing to hear as to me the feel of the neck on a bass can make or break it and ime is usually what makes a (decent) Fender feel better than a Squier, maybe I will have to try one of these in person

Always best. I’d like to try one myself.

[martthebass]

Mikey Way Mustang? Passive humbucker right in the sweet spot. Shouldn’t be too expensive but becoming rare as rocking horse poo. Reverb has one up in the states at an extremely ambitious $1050 ish. 

[miles'tone]

Epiphone Embassy could be what you're looking for as they actually have the Thunderbird humbuckers. 

They are long scale but feel like a medium scale due to the bridge being located right at the bottom of the body which means the nut feels less far away if that makes sense..

They also have a wider neck than a Thunderbird as you like. Lightweight too. 

Worth a look I reckon!

 

 

Edited September 20, 2021 by miles'tone

[miles'tone]

 

[shoulderpet]

33 minutes ago, martthebass said:

Mikey Way Mustang? Passive humbucker right in the sweet spot. Shouldn’t be too expensive but becoming rare as rocking horse poo. Reverb has one up in the states at an extremely ambitious $1050 ish. 

I had one of those several years ago and stupidly ended up moving it on, big mistake as the stock pickup had a great Tone

[barrycreed]

Was there a short scale version of the Embassy a few years ago with bridge issues ?

[neepheid]

15 minutes ago, barrycreed said:

Was there a short scale version of the Embassy a few years ago with bridge issues ?

 

No, there was a regular scale version of the Embassy with alleged bridge issues.

[barrycreed]

14 hours ago, neepheid said:

 

No, there was a regular scale version of the Embassy with alleged bridge issues.

Apologies, alleged bridge issues, though more often than not when I have seen videos of people going on about "issues" with instruments, I have often found nothing wrong with them when I played them. Case in point. Epiphone EB0. I have a stock one which is perfectly fine.

[shoulderpet]

4 hours ago, barrycreed said:

Apologies, alleged bridge issues, though more often than not when I have seen videos of people going on about "issues" with instruments, I have often found nothing wrong with them when I played them. Case in point. Epiphone EB0. I have a stock one which is perfectly fine.

I had an Epiphone EB0 that had "interesting" intonation, fun bass to play though

[shoulderpet]

Ok so to throw a wildcard into the mix another option I am considering is getting a Fender pj Mustang and putting a split coil j pickup in, technically a split coil is a humbucker albeit a J shaped one. I remember a while ago when I had a Mustang pj which I sadly no longer own I really liked it

[Stub Mandrel]

20 hours ago, barrycreed said:

Was there a short scale version of the Embassy a few years ago with bridge issues ?

 

I've just ordered a 'new' Embassy. It has a 'claw' tailpiece and tune-o-matic bridge which seems pretty bulletproof to me. Did the old version have the three-point bridge?

[neepheid]

2 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

I've just ordered a 'new' Embassy. It has a 'claw' tailpiece and tune-o-matic bridge which seems pretty bulletproof to me. Did the old version have the three-point bridge?

 

No, same bridge/tailpiece.  Some people said that they thought the bridge was mounted too far forward, making intonation impossible.  I would be very surprised if this was the case and if it was then there should have been a recall.  Sounds like user error to me.

[jd56hawk]

Play the same old, same old...or dare to be different?

Italia Cavo

 

 

Edited September 21, 2021 by jd56hawk