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 yesterday at 13:44 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.

[YellowLedBetterBass]

Toying with a new pickup for the Bronco but unsure what to go for. There's the hot rail type pickup which most go for, or there's the purpose-made types from McNelly and Toltec which also look good.

 

I also see Retrovibe make a blade/rail type pickup "for bass" but I don't see how it is any different from the plethora of cheap hot rail-alikes on Amazon/eBay 

 

Anyone have any input on what they've done to theirs?

Edited 5 hours ago by YellowLedBetterBass

[Obrienp]

26 minutes ago, YellowLedBetterBass said:

Toying with a new pickup for the Bronco but unsure what to go for. There's the hot rail type pickup which most go for, or there's the purpose-made types from McNelly and Toltec which also look good.

 

I also see Retrovibe make a blade/rail type pickup "for bass" but I don't see how it is any different from the plethora of cheap hot rail-alikes on Amazon/eBay 

 

Anyone have any input on what they've done to theirs?

I fitted a Tone Rider split P Bass set with a custom made guard from fleaBay. It required a little extra wood work under the pick guard but not much. Sounded great. The problem with that kind of intrusive mod is that you can’t reverse it to sell the bass and we all know you never recover anything like the cost of upgrades when you sell. The purpose-made upgrades are likely to sound better (and cost more) than a rail intended for a Strat and you can always remove the pickup and sell it separately, if you move the bass on. You probably can with the Strat pickup too but it’s a saturated market, so resale values could be lower.

[Alanko]

2 hours ago, YellowLedBetterBass said:

Toying with a new pickup for the Bronco but unsure what to go for. There's the hot rail type pickup which most go for, or there's the purpose-made types from McNelly and Toltec which also look good.

 

I also see Retrovibe make a blade/rail type pickup "for bass" but I don't see how it is any different from the plethora of cheap hot rail-alikes on Amazon/eBay 

 

Anyone have any input on what they've done to theirs?

The Retrovibe pickup probably is a generic OEM pickup. They aren't winding anything in-house. At the most they might commission pickups with tweaked specs from Far East pickup winders, but I suspect some pickups, like their mudbuckers, are re-badged Artec or Roswell units.
 

Their plastic and metal parts appear to be built or modified in-house. The basses appear to be built from 3rd party bass necks and guitar bodies.

 

 

A Dimarzio Pro Track might be a good fit in a Bronco as it is a rare example of a rail pickup that isn't furiously overwound.