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.

[Woodinblack]

4 hours ago, HeadlessBassist said:

MarkBass tends to have a very boosted, yet honest sound. 

 

We did an speaker shootout at one of the bass bashes, they all sounded very similar apart from the MarkBass which was so heavily tuned.

[YellowLedBetterBass]

1 hour ago, Obrienp said:

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.

Those Shergolds look good. I was tempted by one of their Telstar guitars not too long ago, they're meant to be incredible vfm. I didn't realise they did basses too.

[YellowLedBetterBass]

I also mentioned elsewhere - Amazon are currently selling Ibanez TMB100s in yellow for £128. I'm not sure how much cheaper than normal that is, but it looks like it's very cheap for what it is.

[AlexDelores]

If it’s just the pickup config you wanted I’d go for one of these… Fancied one for quite a while but always talk myself out of it…

 

https://retrovibe.co.uk/product/retrovibe-tc30-thundercaster-bass-30-short-scale-dark-grey-flame-top/

[Obrienp]

2 hours ago, YellowLedBetterBass said:

I also mentioned elsewhere - Amazon are currently selling Ibanez TMB100s in yellow for £128. I'm not sure how much cheaper than normal that is, but it looks like it's very cheap for what it is.

That’s the full scale version. A brilliant price nevertheless. It’s the TMB 30 & 35 which are the shorties. https://www.ibanez.com/eu/products/model/talman_bass/

 

I had the 35. Chunky neck and it weighed a ton (apparently they vary a lot). Very noisy, weak Jazz pickup that is not a standard length. Weird Strat style jack socket that I couldn’t get my wireless dongle into. Most people end up spending a lot on upgrades to get a decent bass. Then you can’t recover the outlay if you sell it. Fine, if like me, you are an inveterate modder and enjoy the process.

Edited 3 hours ago by Obrienp

[YellowLedBetterBass]

Yeah I remember going to an Ibanez event at PMT Birmingham before they moved and tried a Talman short scale then. It looked pretty cool - offset, seafoam green, strat style jack socket.

 

Weighed more than my mega heavy Harley Benton Jazz Bass (which Andy ended up hollowing out for me - there's a build thread on here of that process). And it still had massive neck dive.