short scale basses

fourmations wrote: »

hi all

long time, no type!....

whats the skinny on short scale basses
(i did a search but not much info)

as a guitarist i like the idea
but know nothing about these or basses in general,
just that i find full scale basses hard to play with the wide fret gaps
and the distance between the strings,

i have b'stardised an old guitar into a six string bass of sorts
and like the speed i can get round it, but its sloppy as you can imagine

this would not gig and would be for home dossing/recording

any pro's and cons welcome

Regards

4

It might take a bit of time to get used to the fret spacing on the regular scale one but it'll be worth it. In the end it might help with your stretching on guitar.

The shortscale won't be as "tight" sounding as a regular scale bass and will probably sound a bit boomy also. This will be a pain when it comes to recording, it'll be harder to fit it into the mix.

The missus has a Japanese Fender Mustang which, I have to admit, surprised me. It's a piece of piss to play and actually has a decent, puncy tone.

All the same, 34" is the only way to go, especially if you're going to be recording. The selection of short scale basses is poor and that's being generous. Get a 34" scale Jazz bass and it'll cover every tone you'll need, you'll adjust to the size soon enough.

Hi,
I´ve owned around 25-30 odd basses in the last few years and a good few have been short or med scale.
The best of the lot were The Fender Mustang (a reissue I think). The Fender Musicmaster (still have that, its a 1976/7) and an Epiphone EB (thats the SG type one) someone painted it blue!
All three have great tones and have a very playable necks. in terms of recordind etc, The Mustang didnt do EXACTLY as promised (sound like a Precision)-it sounded way more trebley/tiney but still had enough bottom end to sound pretty good. The Musicmaster-I still use to record-great punchy, deep sound and nice high end too. The epiphone sounds lovely and warm (did two tracks with that) cause of the humbucker.

Other apparently half-decent ones to try are:
The Squier Bronco. Squier havent had an easy time amongst players for a while, but they genuinely do make good entry-level gear at decent prices (or at least they did before Fender started implementing ridiculous pricing strategies!). The bronco I think is part of the Affinity series and doesnt cost a fortune at all (round 120). Single coil pick up, maple neck and fingerboard, die cast hardware, volume and tone controls. Simple and sounds good.

Tiesco, Kay or EKO basses (old japanese Telecaster shaped basses, Ebay, less than 100 typically)-collectors love em for some reason!

Cort are getting a lot of decent press these days so I would recommend trying one out. They arent ridiculously priced either

Of course, then there are med scale basses- Ric if you are super-rich, Daisy Rock if you arent!:)
Hope that helps

I had an SX and to be honest, not fantastic.
I would reckon get urself a second hand Fender MIM or MIJ on Adverts.ie they go from around 300 up.
As for the Precision or Jazz option... hmm
Depends what kinda sound you´re after. I started with jazz basses and swore id never go down the ´boring´ route and play a precision, but damn, they sound amazingly good!they were the first and in my own opinion, are the best!
U could find one that has a combination of both pickup sets. The japanese ones are great for that-e.g. Jazz special or Precision Lyte or the Mexican Zone bass.
The beauty of those is that they really do give a clear and balanced sound and still put out decent lows.
My weapon of choice at the moment is a 97 American Precison Deluxe. It has P bass pickup and a Musicman stingray Humbucker in the bridge position(couldnt decide which I wanted to bring to a gig, the Stingray or my 70´s pbass- this honestly does the job of both). I got that really cheap (considering the new price) on Adverts.
Sometimes you just get lucky!
All the best man