Is longer scale length more forgiving for poor intonation?

[Ajoten]

I'm a bass guitar playing musing on getting an EUB for a jazz band I'm in. I'm currently using an unlined fretless and I'm pretty ropey. 

 

Obviously there are 34" EUBs that probably sound more like a fretless bass than DB, but I wondered if a proper size actually made it easier to get closer to a correct note, as being a few mm out is proportionally less wrong...

[chrkelly]

Unfortunately not, out of tune is out of tune on any instrument.

[Happy Jack]

Not sure I agree. The point made by the OP is arithmtically correct; yes, you're still out of tune but - for a given finger placement - you're less out of tune on a longer-scale instrument (which helps).

 

Unfortunately there's a quid pro quo in that the movement required to go from being badly intonated to hitting exacty the right note will be correspondingly larger. There's no such thing as a free lunch.

 

[Beedster]

Yes, the shorter the scale the greater the impact on pitch if the same mms of incorrect finger placement 

[NickD]

I assume so.

 

I'm generally in tune in the money zone, getting a bit worse as I start doing big shifts or getting up the dusty end. On a 34" scale fretless I'm a disaster.

[Beedster]

My intonation is so poor I'm having a 68" scale built  

[Bonin-in-the boneyard]

I've had a NS full size EUB

And moved it on as I mainly play fretless 

I ended up ordering a NS Omni bass 34 scale and I find it's easier to play and switch between both 

Good technique will help get better intonation 

[NickA]

Like happy jack says .... You're more in tune per mm error but more likely to be more mm out.  It's all about learning good left hand technique.

[tinyd]

On 29/03/2025 at 18:58, Beedster said:

My intonation is so poor I'm having a 68" scale built  

Ultimately I need a scale length that's so long that the full reach of my arm only varies the pitch by ~1%