Small bass for cramped public transport

[tauzero]

Thinking of cricket bats, there's also the Westone Quantum and the non-cricket-bat small-bodied headless Ibanez Axstar, although both are now obsolete and priced accordingly.

[crazycloud]

Steinberger Spirit or Hohner B2. Add a strap pin extension and a single ball adapter and you're gold. I've had an XL2 for 38y and B2 and Spirits for nearly as long and they're great, especially the older Hohners. Nothing else will be as compact, cases are easy and cheap (rifle bag) and I've even played mine on a bus as you can play it vertically like an upright.

[lemmywinks]

On 07/09/2025 at 11:32, bassbiscuits said:

At the very cheap end is a Tanglewood Elfin bass, or Squier do a mini precision bass. 
 

I have a Tanglewood Elfin and it’s merely ok, rather than brilliant. It’s something like 26” which is really short for a bass. 
 

Cheap and fairly cheerful tho. 

 

Tanglewood also did a 30" Elfin bass, I have one. It's loads of fun but like a lot of 30" scale basses it's still close enough in length to a full size bass to be cumbersome. It doesn't fit in a guitar gigbag like my Ibanez EHB does.

[fretmeister]

I'd measure the entire instrument rather than relying on scale length alone. Some headstocks are surprisingly long to the point that a shortie with a big headstock could have a total length more than a Medium scale with a smaller headstock.

 

Bridge placement varies a bit too with some designs having their bridges away from the edge of the bass so they are actually longer.

 

In the photo on the left is a Jim Deacon shortie P bass. 30 inch scale. On the right is an Ibanez Mezzo SRMD200 32 inch Medium scale (this one is for sale! It's in the classifieds). The bottom of the basses are both in my bass stand.

 

When they are on the floor standing up the shortie is actually a tiny bit taller than the medium.

 

The little Jim Deacon P basses are cheap used if you can find one but will need some upgrades. The stock pickup is very poor and the controls are really on/off with nothing happening in the middle. They are also quite neck divey.

 

I have 2 as after upgrades to a good pickup and loom and lightweight tuners they are fantastic little basses. The one in the photo hasn't had the tuner upgrade yet. I have them here already but I've been really lazy!