Matt P

I believe that there are a few short scale 5 strings available but they aren't that common. Ibanez make a mikro one which is 28.something inches, and there's birdsong who have made some 31" i think. Maruszczyk have made one or two as well. I've got a vague plan to build a 30.5" 5 string but it depends on finding the right donor neck (34" scale, 5 string, 22 or 21 fret and 19mm spacing at the bridge) there are a few sets of strings available if you like roundwounds but the only short scale 5 string flats i can find are La Bella's this is what i found when i googled the question a few months ago https://www.talkbass.com/threads/tight-b-string-on-short-scale-5-string.1248784/ Matt

a quick update on the GHS Precision flats, the are indeed the length quoted at 32.5" from ballend to silk, they fit perfectly on my aria, the feel is actually quite good, there is no hint of floppiness, the tension is very similar to 34" scale flats even though the gauges are quite light. they have a good even sound from string to string and a lovely smooth feel. I cant comment on the tone yet as i've only tried them through headphones, i should get to try them through an amp in the next few days. Matt

I've got a guitar with a Seymour Duncan fat cat at the neck and a SD JB at the bridge, not a suggested combo from seymour but it works surprisingly well (i'm a total JB addict though, got them in 2 guitars and another one in the drawer for the next guitar.) i've had my eye on a Phat Moggy for a while now, if the fat cat hadn't popped up cheap on ebay then that would be what i bought, the catswhisker pickups are very tempting, have you considered emailing him and asking what he'd suggest? it might be worth having a coil tap switch as well for the humbucker (you might be able to coil tap the current pickup if it's got the right wiring.)

are you taking this cab home after each service or could it live in situ? i play at church and we've got a 4x10+1x15 rig (with a trace head) and it lives in position and is only moved occasionally for weddings etc. i substitute my markbass head when i'm playing as it's in my case and it saves adjusting the settings on the trace (we have other bass players who use the house rig) if you can leave a cab at the church then weight doesn't become an isuue, and a cheap but solid cab can be bought for peanuts. (i think we've got a peavey 4x10 megabass? and the 1x15 is a behringer cab with a replacement eminence speaker that i got for 20 quid) Matt

I'll echo the yamaha recommendations, also worth looking at aria and freshman, and definitely go for a straight acoustic with no electronics, you'll get far more for your money. Secondhand is the way forward too.

That matches up with the lengths I saw quoted here: https://www.bassstringsonline.com/Bass-String-Lengths-by-Manufacturer_ep_47-1.html Most of the other manufacturers seem to be at 32" from ballend to silk, I find it odd that 35.5" is classed as a short scale string, most makers use 34" for medium scale.

i looked at these but the length from ballend to taper/silk was quoted as something huge like 35.5" any chance you could measure the set you have as i wouldn't mind trying some but anything over 32.5" from all end to taper wouldn't really fit on my tiny Aria bass (it's small enough to easily fit in a strat hardcase) Matt

I've just ordered a set of GHS precisions for my new 30" scale Aria, will report back once I've got them fitted, I've been using Chromes for years and really love them but had heard quite a few people raving about the GHS strings and thought i'd take a punt as they're a bit cheaper than the Chromes (buying from Thomann so about 28 quid +p&p)

I can't comment on the Clarett but i do own the first gen Scarlett 18i8 and am very pleased with the results (using reaper as our preferred DAW), the only negative that i can come up with (and it's a very minor point) is that there isn't a simple way to rack mount it, i sorted it with a rack shelf and some home-made adapters but if there had been an off the shelf option i would have certainly bought it. i've got mine mounted in a 4U rack with an octopre mk2 and a headphone amp and it's great, i have bought a 2i4 to have permanently setup on my desk for overdubs and mixing as the rack tends to live at our favoured recording venue (guitarists kitchen/dining room) Matt

@pete.young it might be worth trying the Newtone heritage strings on your guitar of advanced age, they have a much lower total tension than most of the strings on the market (i seem to remember that the 12's have a total tension lower than a D'addario 11's set) the lower tension is of importance to me as my beloved cedar-top McIlroy came with a note stating that fitting anything heavier than standard 12's invalidates the warranty. Matt

for about 10 years i only used D'addario EJ26, which are 11's, i then went to EJ16's which are 12's on the advice of a couple of friends, but for the last 10 years i've exclusively used Newtone Heritage 12's, they're lower tension, balanced and have a fantastic tone as well as the perfect feel. as a bonus they seem to last longer than the D'addario's which more than offsets the higher cost. https://www.newtonestrings.com/shop/heritage-series-acoustic-6-string/ I've introduced a few friends to these strings and they've always had compliments and many have switched to them (i buy 12 sets at a time and share the order with our guitarist)

i've just done a bit of a search as i was considering ordering some of the stainless La Bella flatwounds and most places state that all the La Bella short scale strings are 32" from ball end to silk, any ideas what is up with this set? have they gone overboard with the silk?

i've just thrown a tape measure against my bass and i think they might be too short for my bass as well, it's a 30" scale but i think i need 32" between the ball end and the start of the silk to ensure proper fitment as it's just over an inch behind the saddle to the end of the BBOT bridge.

i'm guessing i'm too late to this?

i'm a huge fan of Hiscox hard cases, they're pretty light and very strong and can usually be picked up secondhand for decent prices if you don't want to pay £100 new. they make 2 different ones and have a good detailed dimensions on the website. https://www.hiscoxcases.com/our-cases/bass-cases/ i have about 8 of their cases in total with 3 of them being the standard bass case, some of my instruments came with them as standard, the rest i bought new or secondhand depending on how skint i was at the time. Matt

i can't believe that this question has had all these replies and no-one has mentioned OBBM ! he is our resident cable merchant and renown for his excellent high grade and sensibly priced cables. He trades as rock-wire and his wares are available here - http://www.rock-wire.co.uk/ i have no connection to him other than using his speaker cables for the past 5 years at least (as do a large proportion of members of this forum i believe) EDIT - ive just had a quick look at the cable in the link and it doesn't look like their using very large cable, the standard plugs will only accept cables up to about 7mm ish (going by my shaky memory here might be a little more) the 2.5mm sq and larger cables that i've used have all required the oversized neutrik plugs. if the OP's amp will take Speakon connectors i'd always recommend them as they mean that the cable is dedicated to amp-cab duty (i've come across people "borrowing" speaker jack-jack cables for short runs between pedals before) Matt

In the north east i'd suggest getting in touch with these guys http://www.masfix.co.uk/ they're the most likely to have the correct fasteners (they were the default supplier of fasteners at my old job in an engineering company) they're not too far from you either. Matt (the happy new owner of your old Zoom ms-60B)

@MoonBassAlpha @Geek99 Apologies, missed the line in the description that said it came with the piezo, just skipped to the package includes bit. as it looks like this is a clone/copy i'd consider it for a cheaper guitar but i think i'd prefer to go for a passive piezo or a soundhole mag straight out to an endpin jack and then an external preamp (behringer adi21 probably) as i'm really adverse to cutting holes in guitars if i can avoid it (even enlarging the endpin hole on my Jim dandy to fit the jack socket was nerve wracking)

Alan Dingwall in Sunderland (I think) supposed to be top quality. I've got his phone number somewhere.

I think that's just the preamp, without the piezo or the mic, looks far too cheap to me as well, I'd expect to pay far more than that for the preamp.

that's rather tasty! a brand new status neck is £374.40 delivered inc VAT, so the £320+25 that someone paid for this one is a bit high, personally not enough of a saving over a new one. Matt

I rather like that! what scale length is it? i'm not really a gold person but I think i'd be pretty happy to rock that on stage. Matt

@AndyTravis loving the blue, it looks fantastic, you've even got matching blue control knobs! i can overlook the football reference that's 2cm longer than either of my strat type cases, and 1cm longer than the internal dimensions of the gigbag that thomann suggest,i'm guessing that either the gigbag is a little longer than they say or it's got a bit of give and the bass is a snug fit. do you think that it would be possible to lose 2cm from the end of the headstock (along with a bit of a re-shape, possibly to a tele style shape?) i'd really like to fit it into a hardcase for travel (i have hardcases for pretty much all my instruments) but if there isn't room then i think i might look for a different Bass as a starting point, something with a 2+2 headstock and a modern styled body, or start with a clean sheet and build from scratch. (i've got a random plan for a 30" scaled 5 string neck through that might work)

@blablasi'm loving what you've done to create this collection of basses and am very tempted to get one for myself as i'm partial to a short scale and i've got a bartolini pickup in a drawer that would work perfectly. a small question though - what are you using to transport these basses for gigs etc? Thomann suggests an electric guitar gigbag, i'm wondering if they would fit in one of my strat type hardcases? Any chance you could measure the total length of one? it's a shame that they only offer black as a finish option would be great in some other colours (a sonic blue re-spray might be in order) Matt

provided that you encase it properly i can't see any real problem except that most combos with decent amounts of power (say 100W at the minimum) are often available as head versions as well so selling the combo (if you already have one) and just buying the head version might be a better option. If you want to hide it somewhere in the car then i'd be looking at some of the class D amps available, the Markbass F1 that i'm using would fit the bill, fairly small, not too expensive (i think i paid £250 for mine) and plenty of power, suitably protected (laptop bag and some bubblewrap) it could easily be hidden with the spare tyre under the boot carpet and no-one would ever suspect that it's there. there are plenty of excellent 250w-800w amps available that aren't that much bigger than a hardback novel. Matt