The Short Scale Bass Appreciation Society!

[HeadlessBassist]

6 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Went to a gig tonight. Bass player had a Supernatural he's owned for 40 years. I said if someone told me a Jaydee into a Markbass I  would have expected super clean funk, but he had a greatn if middley, bluesy growl.

 

Yes, MarkBass amplifiers tend to make vintagey, wooden basses sound very gritty and growly. I get a completely different sound from my MarkBass 210 tilting combo than from my TC Electronic stuff. MarkBass tends to have a very boosted, yet honest sound. You hear literally everything, whereas the TC's are very smooth and sweet sounding, but heavily processed. 

[Obrienp]

14 hours ago, YellowLedBetterBass said:

Ooh I didn't know this - there can't be many of them out there though, the only one I've seen is from the US for way more than I think it's worth.

 

I wonder if there are neck swaps available for the bolt-on Epi TBirds - there's loads of those around.

If you do that with a standard short scale neck, you will have to move the bridge forward around 4 inches, which will make quite a mess. I guess you could hack off some of the tail end and reshape it but it would be a lot of work and require refinishing afterwards. The pickups will be in the wrong place: a lot closer to the bridge, which will probably affect the tone as well. If you were performing major surgery on the tail end, you could reroute the pickup cavities as well, to get them closer to the sweet spot but you are going to end up with a bass full of filler.

 

if you can’t land an original Gibson short scale (or can’t afford it) and it’s the tone you are after, the new Shergold Tele shaped shortie has twin humbuckers. I have only heard the samples on the website, so I can’t tell whether it would get you the same tone as a TBird but it will be a hell of a lot cheaper. Might be worth a look.