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Short/medium scale basses with humbuckers that don't cost the earth, what is it there


shoulderpet

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Many of you will have seen my recent thread where I was fawning over some Thunderbird basses I had tried, it occurred to me that whilst I loved the tone of those 2 basses I tried, the common denominator was the humbuckers in both basses as they otherwise were not really all that similar and not all that similar to the Gibson Thunderbird.

 

Whilst I could get a Thunderbird let's say that I am physically challenged when it comes to long scale basses, I am 5ft6" tall with short stubby fingers so I was wondering what is out there that is short/medium scale and is relatively inexpensive (I will have about £400 to play with in a couple weeks time), I could mod my Ibanez Mezzo to have a humbucker at the bridge instead of the J pickup but by the time I have paid for the work to be done plus the cost of the pickup I may as well have just brought a new bass.

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41 minutes ago, Newfoundfreedom said:

Gretsch Junior Jet. 

 

Superb basses. Cheap as chips, built like tanks, and sound like thunder. 

That bass has been on my radar for a while, only thing that has stopped me from pulling the trigger is the plastic pickup surrounds but having heard good things about it I am really tempted

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Thank you for the replies, probably also worth mentioning, I like a bass that is wider at the nut for example my Hofner club bass is around 43mm at the nut and it is probably the most comfortable neck I have played (unfortunately for rock the Hofner needs a lot of processing to get a nicely gnarly tone). 

I am not after tight string spacing like on the Hofner and doesn't have to be slim on the dusty end like the Hofner

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1 minute ago, shoulderpet said:

Thank you for the replies, probably also worth mentioning, I like a bass that is wider at the nut for example my Hofner club bass is around 43mm at the nut and it is probably the most comfortable neck I have played (unfortunately for rock the Hofner needs a lot of processing to get a nicely gnarly tone). 

I am not after tight string spacing like on the Hofner and doesn't have to be slim on the dusty end like the Hofner

 

Score +1 for the Fallout then - 1 5/8" or 41.3mm nut.

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1 hour ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Seems odd that a 30.5" EB3 hasn't been suggested, especially if a Thunderbird appeals?

 

EB-3 is out of budget (in that you'd need to buy a Gibson SG or a very hard to find Epiphone Elitist EB-3) and despite the modern "mudbucker" in an SG being a TB+ in disguise it doesn't sound much like a Thunderbird with that neck pickup jammed up at the neck heel.

 

Epiphone EB-0 I wouldn't recommend because all you have is a very neck focused humbucker and that's it. In my experience, it's a very limited tone pallette.

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