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MB Musicians: Opinion on Short Scale Basses
Posted on 11/13/18 at 8:42 am
Posted on 11/13/18 at 8:42 am
I have played guitar for the last 7 or 8 years, and I have just gotten kind of bored with it. I have always had really good timing and rhythm and have wanted to make the transition to playing bass. I have looked at the usual fender MiM basses, but anytime I play one it seems to bulky and awkward. I have started looking at some of the short scale basses, but haven't gotten to play one yet. Whats the board's opinion on short scale basses? Is there really that much of a tonal difference between them and full scale basses? I usually play 90's and 2000's punk/rock, country and the usual songs all cover bands play. Will i be held back by getting a short scale over long scale to cover these genres?
6
Posted on 11/13/18 at 9:08 am to Drunken Crawfish
No one cares about the bass guitar parts in pop/punk. You're fine 
Pop punk is all about drums, simple rhythm guitar power chords, and whiny vocals about the girl who dumped you in high school or your parents' divorce.
ETA: I say this, of course, as a big fan of the genre
Pop punk is all about drums, simple rhythm guitar power chords, and whiny vocals about the girl who dumped you in high school or your parents' divorce.
ETA: I say this, of course, as a big fan of the genre
This post was edited on 11/13/18 at 9:34 am
Posted on 11/13/18 at 9:23 am to Drunken Crawfish
Paul McCartney played short-scale bass. If it's good enough for Sir Paul, it's good enough for you.
ETA: Check out the Ibanez Mikro series.
ETA: Check out the Ibanez Mikro series.
This post was edited on 11/13/18 at 9:25 am
Posted on 11/13/18 at 9:39 am to Tchefuncte Tiger
I was looking at those or the Squier Vintage Jaguar. Both have really good reviews and are sub $200.
Posted on 11/13/18 at 9:41 am to Drunken Crawfish
quote:
I was looking at those or the Squier Vintage Jaguar. Both have really good reviews and are sub $200.
My father in law has one of those. It's no Rickenbacker, but for under $200, it sounds fantastic.
Posted on 11/13/18 at 12:11 pm to kingbob
If bulky and awkward is the only thing keeping you away from a long-scale bass ... maybe a long that's more sleek and ergo friendly than a Fender platform? I'd start with Ibanez Soundgear basses. They play themselves, they hug your body right and balance right, they are available in all quality and price points and the series has run for well over 20 years now, meaning the used market is robust. Seek out used MIJ with active electronics for your best bang for buck.
Shorts typically don't have the rich boom and low resonance of a long but shorts are fun and whippy for sure. Punk is a great place for a short. I don't know if a Hofner violin bass would be ideal for punk due to potential for feedback at high volumes, but they are a blast to play. EB-Os are fun too, the SG shape looks right for punk and they too are available in many price points. Epiphone has an EB series.
Shorts typically don't have the rich boom and low resonance of a long but shorts are fun and whippy for sure. Punk is a great place for a short. I don't know if a Hofner violin bass would be ideal for punk due to potential for feedback at high volumes, but they are a blast to play. EB-Os are fun too, the SG shape looks right for punk and they too are available in many price points. Epiphone has an EB series.
Posted on 11/13/18 at 8:43 pm to TheFretShack
Thanks TFS! I always enjoy your feedback
Posted on 11/13/18 at 9:11 pm to Drunken Crawfish
I am currently playing This...it is a good bit lighter than a Fender Jazz and, to me, a smoother glide up and down the neck.
Just my opinion though.
Just my opinion though.
Posted on 11/13/18 at 10:22 pm to Marco Esquandolas
I had a fender mustang for years that was a really good player. The neck was thick but short. I also have a fender bronco that I got for my daughter. I installed new tuning keys and an emg pick up in it and it sounds pretty good. She quit playing the bronco a couple of years ago so I have it strung and tuned as a piccolo bass. I've been having fun playing on it through a guitar amp. Getting some wild sounds.
For a smaller bass with a full sized neck the steinberger design cant be beat. I have one that is fretless and super easy to play.
For a smaller bass with a full sized neck the steinberger design cant be beat. I have one that is fretless and super easy to play.
Posted on 11/14/18 at 7:14 am to TheFretShack
quote:
I'd start with Ibanez Soundgear basses.
Yeah, I'm pretty much going this way. Once I get the music room set up - I'm adding a bass - probably a SR500.
My son started on an entry level Ibanez bass and I was shocked at the quality of a $200 bass from them.
Posted on 11/14/18 at 9:26 am to Drunken Crawfish
Short scale basses will have a different tone and different intonation as opposed to say a 36" scale. I've stayed away from short scale because once you play a regular scale it's going to be easy to transition to a short scale if you ever want to. My recommendation (as an actively gigging part time musician in 2 bands) is the Ernie Ball SUB Bass. It's $299 and is by far the finest entry model bass I've ever played. I had one with rosewood neck that was as easy to play as a jazz bass neck. That was an amazing bass. I now play an Ernie Ball Musicman Stingray 4 but that SUB bass is what made me buy the Stingray.
This post was edited on 11/14/18 at 9:28 am
Posted on 11/14/18 at 9:40 am to Broke
quote:
Ernie Ball SUB Bass
Good choice. I got the mint green one and keep it at home as my practice bass. It has a good feel to it.
I don't see a need for the short scale unless you are just really a small person. You will get used to it. Coming from guitar, it is like going from driving a Porsche to a Yukon.
Posted on 11/14/18 at 9:51 am to wareaglepete
quote:
Good choice. I got the mint green one and keep it at home as my practice bass.
My main bass serves as my practice bass. It is with me at practice and in gigs. I just have a main bass and a backup bass. My backup is a 55 reissue single coil Fender Precision MIJ
Posted on 11/14/18 at 9:54 am to Drunken Crawfish
does anyone have experience playing a bass 6?
Posted on 11/14/18 at 10:07 am to yesyesyall
I can barely play 4 strings much less 6.
Posted on 11/14/18 at 10:20 am to Broke
Bass VI ... I'm actually bringing a '64 Hofner Model 188 back to life right now. Cut and paste from my shop's Facebook site ...
Another rare bird restoration project needing a rabbit's foot for good luck. A cleanup volunteer fished this from a muddy debris pile somewhere here in town during the massive city-wide floods in 2016. The flooded out, sludged guitar then sat in the volunteer's open garage in St. Bernard Parish for the last two years, baking, festering and warping ... until a couple weeks ago when it was gifted to yours truly. It is spit-shine clean compared to how it looked when it walked in - there were live spiders under the pickguard. Oddly enough, the electronics still work and the pickups meter strong at about 8.9K each. Anyway, 99 percent of the Western guitar playing world would see this is as a hopeless heap. Fans of Hofner Guitars of Germany, however, see it as an insanely rare 1964 Hofner Model 188 28" scale six-string BASS. Pot codes date 44th week of '63. Yes, a mid-60s tremolo-equipped and baritone scale response to Fender's rare-in-its-own-right Bass VI, by Europe's equivalent of Fender and Gibson in that era. It's fair to say not many of these were made nor sold worldwide in the eight years they were shown in the Hofner product catalog. These things are so rare, I had to make up a "set" of mixed bass and guitar strings just to get proper tension on the neck. On that note, we've completed the hardest part of the job - a week-long steaming and clamping out of the worst neck warp I've seen in three decades of working on guitars. The neck was as bent as a long bow, backwards, and I'm still working on it. But it appears this thing is going to come back to life.
Since this post/photos, I've straightened out and cleaned up the neck (and refretted it with jumbos). Body is undergoing facelift as I type this. It's not getting refinned with red croc vinyl, I have another idea. So stay tuned. :)
Another rare bird restoration project needing a rabbit's foot for good luck. A cleanup volunteer fished this from a muddy debris pile somewhere here in town during the massive city-wide floods in 2016. The flooded out, sludged guitar then sat in the volunteer's open garage in St. Bernard Parish for the last two years, baking, festering and warping ... until a couple weeks ago when it was gifted to yours truly. It is spit-shine clean compared to how it looked when it walked in - there were live spiders under the pickguard. Oddly enough, the electronics still work and the pickups meter strong at about 8.9K each. Anyway, 99 percent of the Western guitar playing world would see this is as a hopeless heap. Fans of Hofner Guitars of Germany, however, see it as an insanely rare 1964 Hofner Model 188 28" scale six-string BASS. Pot codes date 44th week of '63. Yes, a mid-60s tremolo-equipped and baritone scale response to Fender's rare-in-its-own-right Bass VI, by Europe's equivalent of Fender and Gibson in that era. It's fair to say not many of these were made nor sold worldwide in the eight years they were shown in the Hofner product catalog. These things are so rare, I had to make up a "set" of mixed bass and guitar strings just to get proper tension on the neck. On that note, we've completed the hardest part of the job - a week-long steaming and clamping out of the worst neck warp I've seen in three decades of working on guitars. The neck was as bent as a long bow, backwards, and I'm still working on it. But it appears this thing is going to come back to life.
Since this post/photos, I've straightened out and cleaned up the neck (and refretted it with jumbos). Body is undergoing facelift as I type this. It's not getting refinned with red croc vinyl, I have another idea. So stay tuned. :)
Posted on 11/14/18 at 10:22 am to yesyesyall
Yeah I have two Bass VI's. One is the Eastwood TB64 copy. It's an awesome instrument, and it's among the best instruments I've ever played. The natural sustain out of that instrument is amazing. I also have a Burns Barracuda that I converted to a baritone guitar. Those two instruments are the ones I use the most in my own work, and the ones that my friends always want to borrow for their own recordings. I've played a couple of Fender Bass VI's, as well as the Squier version, and from what I remember, it was a little difficult to make chords on the Fender version. It's a lot easier on these two versions. I would highly recommend the Eastwood. Schecter also makes a couple of Bass VI's that come highly recommended, especially the UltraCure VI, though that instrument is especially difficult to find.
Bass VI's are so versatile it's crazy. You sacrifice low-end a little bit for a lot of beautiful mid-range and high-end sounds, but you can still get some growl. The Burns Barracuda is a special instrument. The one I have has a maple neck and is just amazingly playable. I've tuned mine to A with a set of 13s and it gets an amazing range of sounds.
Suffice it to say, I'm pretty obsessed with Bass VI's. But I have a lot of amazing bass guitars. The Rickenbacker 4003 has a wonderful growl, my Peavey T-40 can emulate lots of different basses due to its pickup configuration, I have this old Ibanez 34-inch scale hollowbody with new Bartolini pickups that has the most amazing low-end, and these two Bass VI's. I'm always on the lookout for more Bass VI's, though I think my next bass will be primarily for slapping.
Bass VI's are so versatile it's crazy. You sacrifice low-end a little bit for a lot of beautiful mid-range and high-end sounds, but you can still get some growl. The Burns Barracuda is a special instrument. The one I have has a maple neck and is just amazingly playable. I've tuned mine to A with a set of 13s and it gets an amazing range of sounds.
Suffice it to say, I'm pretty obsessed with Bass VI's. But I have a lot of amazing bass guitars. The Rickenbacker 4003 has a wonderful growl, my Peavey T-40 can emulate lots of different basses due to its pickup configuration, I have this old Ibanez 34-inch scale hollowbody with new Bartolini pickups that has the most amazing low-end, and these two Bass VI's. I'm always on the lookout for more Bass VI's, though I think my next bass will be primarily for slapping.
Posted on 11/14/18 at 10:29 am to Drunken Crawfish
In terms of short-scale basses, you will often find hollowbody basses that are short-scale. I love those basses, because they often have such wonderful sounds. If you are playing country, getting a hollowbody short-scale bass might be up your ally. Gretsch has some short-scale basses, but they are giant basses otherwise. You couldn't go wrong with a Fender Mustang though. You won't be held back by playing a short-scale bass, in my view. You might sacrifice something on the low-end though. You also couldn't go wrong with a Fender Jazz, as those are easy to play and can cover pretty much every genre.
This post was edited on 11/14/18 at 10:33 am
Posted on 11/14/18 at 2:27 pm to crazy4lsu
holy shite, i'm glad i asked! thanks crazy & fretshack
Posted on 11/19/18 at 1:53 pm to yesyesyall
Checking back in ... The '64 Hofner Model 188 now, with her new satin black faux textured vinyl finish ...
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