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Thoughts on short scale basses?


kevvo66

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Gretsch Junior Jet II is good for the money. I've got one in black, but they do loads of colours now.

Good bass, easy to play & looks great (to me).

I believe the Ibanez Talman shortie basses are good too - I've never tried one though.

Good luck! :)

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I can vouch for the Fender Mustang basses. 

Im a lifelong P bass player but last year also started to use an MIJ Mustang bass. Very much in the same sonic territory and doesn't feel at all cramped. 

And they look v cool and distinctive while still being vintage styled (I'm not really into modern looking basses). 

Well worth a try. 

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When I was fourteen, I went to a school dance. I saw the bands guitars standing on stage before they came on. The long neck of the bass just turned me on. That was me hooked. I knew that bass was what I wanted to play. 

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7 hours ago, Monkey Steve said:

I'm a bit similar to the OP in that the one's I've tried haven't done it for me, not for sound, but I can't get on with the lack of tension in the strings, they just din't feel right to play.  But that's me, YMMV

However, it always occurred to me that for short scale guitars that is solved by putting on heavier strings - I have 12's on all of my electric guitars, but those guitar playing mates with less robust hands than mine will play 8's or 9's on Fender scale lengths, and 10's on Gibsons.

Is that a thing with short scale basses?

For some reason the "standard" gauge of a set of short scale strings tends to be a bit lighter than the equivalent 34" scale set. For example I recently bought a set of Rotosound short scale things for my Burns Sonic, the gauges were 40, 50, 75, 90 whereas the equivalent 34" scale set is 40, 60, 80, 100. I found I was back to the problems I had in the 80s when I had great difficulty getting a decent note out of the E string on that bass.

If the scale length is shorter than you need a heavier string to achieve a comparable tension when tuned to the same pitch.

I have a set of Axion Custom Works strings on my Burns Barracuda Bass VI the heavier gauges give a much more comparable feel to a 34" scale set, although IMO the E string could still benefit with being a bit heavier.

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7 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

For some reason the "standard" gauge of a set of short scale strings tends to be a bit lighter than the equivalent 34" scale set. For example I recently bought a set of Rotosound short scale things for my Burns Sonic, the gauges were 40, 50, 75, 90 whereas the equivalent 34" scale set is 40, 60, 80, 100. I found I was back to the problems I had in the 80s when I had great difficulty getting a decent note out of the E string on that bass.

If the scale length is shorter than you need a heavier string to achieve a comparable tension when tuned to the same pitch.

I have a set of Axion Custom Works strings on my Burns Barracuda Bass VI the heavier gauges give a much more comparable feel to a 34" scale set, although IMO the E string could still benefit with being a bit heavier.

It seems to be a problem with Rotosound short scale strings. Poor intonation, more so on the E string. I use D'Addario, problem solved.

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41 minutes ago, mikel said:

It seems to be a problem with Rotosound short scale strings. Poor intonation, more so on the E string. I use D'Addario, problem solved.

I'm not much of a fan of D'Addario bass strings, so I'm getting Newtone to make me a 4-string set of the Axion Strings with standard Bass ball ends. That should sort it out.

On the whole I find that Rotosound are pretty much incapable of making anything other than 34" 4-string sets.

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1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

If the scale length is shorter than you need a heavier string to achieve a comparable tension when tuned to the same pitch.

 

Heavier (as in larger diameter?) or higher tension? Sometimes heavier means higher tension, but it isn't always the case. 

Edited by pete.young
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52 minutes ago, kevvo66 said:

So when I get one change the strings , probably the ones I've tried in the past the strings could of been letting it down

I have a set of DAddario`s and they are 50, 70, 85, 105, EXL160s. No floppy problems here, oohh errr Mrs!

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So, into the fray,  I'm a die hard shrt-scaler, these are my two for gigging, the Landing is a custom built by Jimmy Wilson, there's one on flea-bay as we speak, the Gretsch  has a massive E string, and it's still a bit limp (boys !),  Notice how much bigger the Gretsch  is ,  I've laid them down to get the bridges and nuts aligned, they are quite different to  play !  I also have two 32 inch scale basses, can I point out that they are as easy to play because  the headstock  isn't two inches further away, the bridges are two inches nearer the end of the guitar body, backwards as it were, and yes, I have arthritis too but have never coped with 34 inch scale .

1548441074361-2095653802.jpg

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1 hour ago, Bluewine said:

So, when I go to have the strings replaced on my Hofner, I'll ask them to use D'Addarios and I'm good?

Blue

Ah, now, I’m no expert on Hofners, from what I can glean they are a law unto themselves. I expect someone who knows them better than I might answer this.

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