Can someone recommend a short scale bass.....

Frankieabbot

.......please. No daft prices. Maybe something in the £250 and below bracket. New or second hand. Mrs A intends to get me a camera for crimbo.....but I fancy a leccie bass!

steamabacus

Beatles fan?

Harley Benton beatbass?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2N8PU6u3jQ

ICBM

Squier Badtz Maru.

http://www.musikland-online.de/pix/download/sqbab173716/Squier-BADTZ-MARU-Bronco-Bass-BK.jpg

Or more seriously, just a Squier Bronco. They are quite pricy for such a basic bass, though. You can get a full-scale P-Bass copy for about half that.

The Epiphone EB-0 is good too but suffers from the usual EB-0 neck dive problem.

EricTheWeary

Squier vintage modified short scale jaguar bass circa £200. They look the schnizzle.

4string

I have an Epi EB-0 (short scale) that has been modded to an old style EB-3 (added a bridge pick-up) which is a nice rock-orientated bass with a narrow but deep neck. Think "Stooges" and wear it at about waist level. There are a limited run of short scale (30") EB-3s from Epiphone (not current, but available s/h), but they are quite rare - I have only seen a couple over the last year and they are usually white (yuck).

I also have a Squier Bronco, that is a "project". The Bronco was under £100 s/h and reasonably solid.  The out-of-the-box sound is weak to my ears and it is in bits at the moment awaiting a head stock paint job (to match the body) new bridge (if you go down that road, I had to import from the USA to get the correct string spacing and it cost more than the bass, by some distance) and there will be a new pickguard/pick-up combo. When @theguitarweasel has ten minutes to do me a hot Mustang bass type replacement. 

ICBM

It's worth mentioning that you can upgrade any Bronco or old Fender Musicmaster Bass very easily by fitting a hot 'blade' type Strat pickup, including humbucking ones or even an EMG active, without any modification - the pickup is exactly the same size.

OilCityPickups

ICBM said:

It's worth mentioning that you can upgrade any Bronco or old Fender Musicmaster Bass very easily by fitting a hot 'blade' type Strat pickup, including humbucking ones or even an EMG active, without any modification - the pickup is exactly the same size.

@4string has the slight advantage of being my business partner in Oil City Pickups :-) 

So has easy access to the toy cupboard.

JezWynd

The Harley Benton HB-60 is a lot of bass for the money. I was considering it in my search but I went with a Revelation LP Recording in the end. I've taken a bit of a punt as there's very little info about them.

http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_hb_60_wb.htm

ICBM

TheGuitarWeasel said:

@4string has the slight advantage of being my business partner in Oil City Pickups :-) 

So has easy access to the toy cupboard.

lol… well that would help, yes .

Josh_Andertons

EricTheWeary said:

Squier vintage modified short scale jaguar bass circa £200. They look the schnizzle.

Agreed, these are great little basses for the price

Frankieabbot

Ibanez GSR 180?

Yamaha TRBX174? Or is that still a long scale?

Frankieabbot

Josh_Andertons said:

EricTheWeary said:

Squier vintage modified short scale jaguar bass circa £200. They look the schnizzle.

Agreed, these are great little basses for the price

It looks of my old Fender Mustang.....but with better/punchier pickups.

EricTheWeary

Josh_Andertons;880195" said:

EricTheWeary said:
u
Squier vintage modified short scale jaguar bass circa £200. They look the schnizzle.





Agreed, these are great little basses for the price

I've never been bothered about Jaguars but I think that shape works better on bass than guitar for some reason.

Frankieabbot

Looks like it could be a Dean evo xm. 30" scale length.

pintspiller

don't get a shortscale bass. i got a harley benton years ago. it's not good enough for a gigging band. i didn't think it was bass enough. find a full-scale you like at the right price, buy it.

Frankieabbot

pintspiller said:

don't get a shortscale bass. i got a harley benton years ago. it's not good enough for a gigging band. i didn't think it was bass enough. find a full-scale you like at the right price, buy it.

1) I don't gig. 2) Small hands.

fretmeister

I have small hands. No issue at all with the usual 34 scale, and some 35 scale. The shape of the neck and width is far more important for small hand people. I couldn't cope with a 30 scale if it was as big as some of original Fenders, but an extra long scale with a slim neck is easy.

String choice is massively cut with short scale basses. You can't just cut long scale strings down if they won't fit into the tuning heads.

JD50

I use a shortscale bass for home recording.

I had a Squier Bronco for a short while, lots of fun but is cheap and you can tell, found it difficult to stay in tune and would not intonate. I could have replaced the tuners nut and bridge and possibly electronics but decided id be better off spending the extra on a better bass.

I ended up picking up a secondhand Squier Vista Series Musicmaster..... Great solid feeling instrument with no mods needed.

If you can find a musicmaster go for it, alternatively the recent Squier Mustang basses?

Frankieabbot

Went for the cheap but cheerful Ibanez Mikro bass. Am still using it as it came straight out of the box. Sussing out amp/tone and volume knob combinations. So far so good!

ICBM

pintspiller said:

don't get a shortscale bass. i got a harley benton years ago. it's not good enough for a gigging band.

So all the players in world-famous bands with Fender Mustang Basses and Gibson EB series basses - and Paul McCartney with his Hofner - throughout the 1960s and 70s were wrong… short-scale basses are not good enough for a gigging band.

You might be amazed how many used them.

pintspiller

don't get me wrong. i meant it a little tongue-in-cheek too. 

i tried some epiphone basses but liked neither feel nor tone (gibson basses beyond my budget), despite some of my heroes playing them (trevor bolder, jack bruce, jim lea). as a guitarist that plays bass, i never really felt like a bassist while playing a shortscale bass