molecule

I am new to short scale basses but about a year ago my curiosity got the better of me and I bought an Epiphone EB0 s/h from a guy in Brighton so I could find out what a short scale was like to play. Well, I loved playing my EB0 sitting down, I didn't find the short scale at all difficult to adjust to, in fact quite the opposite, but when I played it standing up it was so heavy, and it always wanted to tip away from me so I could not see the frets. I managed just two short gigs with it, and one of those was sitting down. During this year I have used the EB0 at home sometimes to rehearse or learn new songs, but it I decided that if I was ever going to play short scale at a gig, it would have to be much lighter. I have now found the answer to the weight problem, without radically departing from the SG shape of the EB0. It is a Mike Watt signature Wattplower, made by Reverend . It weighs just over 3 kgs. and although passive, the tone control offers a huge range of sounds from muddy thud to outrageous twang, with lots of usable tones in between the two extremes. I am not ready to give up my 34" basses yet, but I am looking forward to finding out where this bass will fit in to the range of music I play.

I had a couple of Westone Thunders in the late 80's, here are a couple of photos of the Thunder IIIA fretless. I sold it when I moved on to a five string Status S2 fretless, which I still have.

It sounds a lot like the Spector Coda, but the action is lower and it is much lighter. I've tried weighing it and I think it is just under 4 kgs, which is lovely.

Here it is, my new Zoot Jazz Maniac, exactly nine months after I confirmed my choice of Fraylin pups and chrome finish on the hardware. I knew it would be a long wait for it to be built, but I never expected to be still be lockdown when it arrived! So I was never able to visit Mike Walsh to see the bass under construction, or to collect it in person. I am indebted to itu for first suggesting Zoot in a long list of builders he posted here last June, that I explored during the first lockdown before settling on this Jazz Maniac.

I chose a Mark Bass micro because it could handle the low B on my 5 string, and I am very pleased with it, and even use it for small pub gigs. I have a 4 string Status Shark with flats it sounds great through the Micro.

I had two of those Westone basses in the last century. My version of the Thunder IIIA was my first fretless, but I let them both go as I moved on to five string basses. Now I have started acquiring four string basses again I am wondering why I let any of them go! My current fretless is also a classic Status S2, with five strings, it is a lovely instrument and my lightest bass despite being the oldest in the collection.

Why Get Up - The Fabulous Thunderbirds

The bass line I am most proud of learning is "Hey Bulldog" by the Beatles. I prefer learning from chord charts rather than tabs, but I found a tab for McCartney's bass line and I persevered with it trying it out a couple of times each time I did some practice. Eventually it stuck. I still don't know the chord sequence for the song, I just play the bass tune.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this topic. I followed up every suggestion and have made my decision. I am commissioning Zoot to build me a Jazz Maniac similar to this one, but with P/J pickups.. It won't be built until next year, but I will put a picture of it on BC when it arrives.

I specified P/J because I don't have one, but it could be J/J as I don't have one of those either; I have three basses with soap bars and one with a single J style pick up. It does not have to be traditional shape, in fact looking at all the suggestions made here I think it would be daft to spend a lot of money on an exact clone when there are so much creative restyling available.

I cannot see any basses on the current Gordon Smith website.

When I am released from house arrest, I plan to visit guitar shops to find a P/J bass that suits me; I don't have a P/J or a J/J in my modest collection at the moment. But yesterday, the thought occurred to me: should I be looking for a British made bass to help kick start the economy? So can anyone recommend any British bass builders? I am aware of the luxury end of the market like Wal, Overwater and Status Graphite, but are there people building basses for the ordinary player, without exotic woods and sophisticated e.q. systems?

I've had two fretless basses in my life and my current fretless is a Status Graphite S2 5 string. You can get sounds from a fretless that you cannot produce from a fretted bass, e.g. the bass on Paul Simon's Gracelands. You can also make it sound "normal". I recommend a lined fretboard to help you transition and I suggest practising with the fretless on songs you know well from using your fretted bass. I hope you enjoy this experience.