The Squier Mini Precision Bass Club

[SBassman]

You didn't ask about a Mini Jazz?

Here you go. Doesn't have Fender's logo, but, it's same scale as the Mini P apparently:

sure, there's the mini P bass - where's the mini J?

 

[Volker Kirstein]

Here you go. Doesn't have Fender's logo, but, it's same scale as the Mini P apparently:

sure, there's the mini P bass - where's the mini J?

I already have a non-Fender/Squier mini jazz, a J&D in Seafoam with a 29.5" scale. (Also a non-Fender/Squier mini P in blue) That doesn't stop me from wanting "the real thing."

 

[DavesnothereCA]

I just realized this is a 28.6" bass! I thought it was 30".

Ok, that means two things:

1) I want one really bad.

2) What I wrote in a previous post about the great selection of short scale strings these days might not be the case here. The E-string will most likely be the problem. The tuning peg for the E seems considerably closer to the nut than on the Ibanez Mikro. I know people have used strings with 32" winding length with success on the Mikro but I suspect this won't be ideal for these Mini-Ps, at least not if you want to avoid having the fully wound part of the E-string around the tuning peg. Of course short scale strings from different manufacturers have different winding lengths so I'm sure SOME of them could work but any strings that work ok for short scale basses with a tail piece will surely be far too long for this Mini-P???

Does Fender/Squier even offer a suitable set of replacement strings for these basses?

Has anyone changed to other strings? I'd love to hear more about this!

~
I agree, with BOTH of your points.

And as much as these are causing me GAS, I really need to do some homework about strings first.

The one negative about these is that they did not choose regular 30" scale length for the build, IMNSHO.

Oh, and maybe a Maple fretboard.
~

 

[DavesnothereCA]

...Why do so many string manufacturers offer short scale sets in LIGHTER gauges than the corresponding long scale sets?

Short scale basses need HEAVIER gauge strings!

....I just don't understand the reasoning behind offering these ultra light short scale sets. Especially if that's the ONLY available gauge???

~
Absolutely !

And [visualize the immortal James Stewart saying this] "One thing I never understood, in those old Western movies, was why the wheels on the stage coach were turning backwards, when the stagecoach was moving frontwards !"
~

 

[Volker Kirstein]

~
I agree, with BOTH of your points.

And as much as these are causing me GAS, I really need to do some homework about strings first.

The one negative about these is that they did not choose regular 30" scale length for the build, IMNSHO.

Oh, and maybe a Maple fretboard.
~

Nonetheless, you can still hear the bass calling: Pick me up... Stroke my neck... Smack me on the bottom... Make me moan... You know you want to...

 

[fermata]

A little more tension would be nice too. Looking at grabbing some ferrules and drilling to use short scale flats.

Before you start drilling, remember that string tension is determined by the distance between the nut and the bridge--adding extra length on either side of those won't add more tension.

On the other hand, the extra length required for string-through could make typical short scale strings a better fit, without the fat part of the string winding onto the tuner post. Not all flats are amenable to string-through; La Bella has specific sets for it; GHS also work, and there are certainly others, too.

 

[JGrooveguy]

Before you start drilling, remember that string tension is determined by the distance between the nut and the bridge--adding extra length on either side of those won't add more tension.

On the other hand, the extra length required for string-through could make typical short scale strings a better fit, without the fat part of the string winding onto the tuner post. Not all flats are amenable to string-through; La Bella has specific sets for it; GHS also work, and there are certainly others, too.

Yes not looking to add tension via length, just that flats generally have more tension than rounds (I think?). I want to try flats on it anyway so seems that drilling is inevitable. I grabbed a set of D'Addario short scale Chromes and ordered some ferrules. Hopefully it works out as planned.

 

[macmanlou]

I grabbed a set of D'Addario short scale Chromes

FWIW - Those are what I put on my "strung-through" Fender P-Bass Jr (same scale length as the Mini), and they worked just fine.

 

[DavesnothereCA]

....Not all flats are amenable to string-through; La Bella has specific sets for it....

~
LaBella even cautions of breakage, if you put their regular strings onto a bass which needs string-through.

If this concern is true for THEIR strings, then I would reasonably expect most other brands also to fracture at the bend where it comes from the body hole to the bridge.

That said, some bridge designs might exacerbate that problem more, and others less so ?

I've never had a bass which did string-thru, so the only weirdness which I have encountered in choosing string scale lengths is the Hofner 'trapeze style' bridge, which pulls maybe 2 inches extra of each string onto the ball side of the saddle, so that the wound part of plenty of short scale strings cannot reach the nut of most Hofners, even though their basses ARE short scale.
~

 

[macmanlou]

If this concern is true for THEIR strings, then I would reasonably expect most other brands also to fracture at the bend where it comes from the body hole to the bridge.

I've used Thomastiks and Chromes with string-through bridges with no problems, and I'd bet that LaBella Low Tension Flats would work as well.

I've also put regular LaBella Deep Talkin' Flats on Traveler basses, which require the strings to wrap 180 degrees around the body, without issues.

 

[Diver]

Grabbed mine from Sweetwater last week.
I am pretty impressed at what I got for the price. The neck and action were just perfect out of the box, better than my FenderJazz Ultra, that is well over 10x the cost of this.

I never was a P bass guy, but this little guy already changed my mind about them.
I went on a trip to the desert and wanted something cheap to load in the car and it is perfect for that.

Pickups are good enough I think. Brights are a bit thin and I am not sure about the range given by the tone knob, but the low end is really good.
I had to sand the edges of the pickups as mentioned in this thread, the corners are really sharp.
I also replaced the strap buttons, I am not sure what straps the originals are supposed to fit, but this is not a toy, I need to strap that baby.

The low end is really good on these, the brights are quite thin, which I guess could be fixed with better electronics.
I found the stock string quite decent, but I feel like I will roll off the tone most of the time and maybe use flats, for the extra tension, if I can find them.

Then it made me wonder why I waited so long to play short scales and then realized that string tension is lower and is not the most suitable for certain techniques used on regular scale. Nonetheless, adapting to it is fun and the best part is that you can tell you wife that this is also a gift for the kid...just kidding, she will count this as another GAS purchase seeing the time having fun with it already...good one Squier!

 

[SBassman]

Yup. Sand those pickup edges or risk bloodshed.

 

[SBassman]

Here it is after the obligatory chrome knob replacement.

 

[SBassman]

I feel like I lucked out on my specimen.

After the out of box bomb of the alignment being off, the rest of this bass has been pretty close to perfect.

• Electronics are super quiet.
• Tuning is very stable. Those extra 3 inches over the sub shorts/guitar scales makes a significant difference with stability.
• Set up was very good. Action is pretty close to perfect. Intonation was close to perfect and is perfect now after my tweak. Most important, the nut was cut perfectly.

Far exceeding my expectations for a bass this price.

Next up: the pickguard is Screaming at me to be replaced. If anyone goes down that road, please post here so that I can copy your answers.

 

[GrahamNN3]

Next up: the pickguard is Screaming at me to be replaced. If anyone goes down that road, please post here so that I can copy your answers.

Yes - pickguard with a chrome control plate would be nice ...

 

[ThinLizzy]

My 2 Phil Lynott Fenders and my Mini-Phil. I made my own pickguard.

 

[SBassman]

I wish I had the tooling to make a pickguard. I'm the kind of person - if I can't do it with excellence, I'm not going to bother. Wish I could, though. This is always a problem for me. I despise white pickguards.

I wrote to pickguards.com - wdmusic - and they pretty much insulted me on the response. I gave them all the info, and they responded with - send us a trace - it will be 40 to 150 dollars. Um, 40 would work, 150 would definitely not work. They need a trace before they reduce that price range? I had described it, told them the bass model, told them it looked like a standard P bass pickguard but was reduced in size. That's not enough to tell me better than 40 to 150? Bzzzt. Next.

 

[SBassman]

I wish I had the tooling to make a pickguard. I'm the kind of person - if I can't do it with excellence, I'm not going to bother. Wish I could, though. This is always a problem for me. I despise white pickguards.

I wrote to pickguards.com - wdmusic - and they pretty much insulted me on the response. I gave them all the info, and they responded with - send us a trace - it will be 40 to 150 dollars. Um, 40 would work, 150 would definitely not work. They need a trace before they reduce that price range? I had described it, told them the bass model, told them it looked like a standard P bass pickguard but was reduced in size. That's not enough to tell me better than 40 to 150? Bzzzt. Next.

After I replied that they should be able to do better with narrowing the range, they responded with - 60 to 80. They are off my list. I wrote to several other custom pickguard makers.

If anyone has a suggestion for a fair custom pickguard maker, please chime in.

 

[GrahamNN3]

Manchester UK Custom Guitar Scratchplates | Jack's Instrument Services

 

[Volker Kirstein]

I feel like I lucked out on my specimen.

After the out of box bomb of the alignment being off, the rest of this bass has been pretty close to perfect.

• Electronics are super quiet.
• Tuning is very stable. Those extra 3 inches over the sub shorts/guitar scales makes a significant difference with stability.
• Set up was very good. Action is pretty close to perfect. Intonation was close to perfect and is perfect now after my tweak. Most important, the nut was cut perfectly.

Far exceeding my expectations for a bass this price.

Next up: the pickguard is Screaming at me to be replaced. If anyone goes down that road, please post here so that I can copy your answers.

Ditto. On mine it was loose nuts/screws. After everything was tightened up, it's a beauty, and has quickly become my favourite bass.

I believe many, if not most, of the others that have gotten one feel the same: this is one sweet little P.