First off, some notes on existing threads:
we have a long-standing thread on bass guitars shorter than 29" scale, covering everything from the 18" Ashbory bass (1986) up to the 28.6" Ibanez Mikro (Big Island EBU (Electric Bass Ukulele) by Hosco) and everything in between (including ukulele basses, 6-string-guitar-to-bass conversions, you name it): the 2007.
(It tends to focus on standard-octave bass tuning, so in it you'll find very little regarding instruments of the Sub-Short Scale Talk.
There's no single, comprehensive megathread about the ukulele bass — an instrument "short piccolo", "half-board" type as popularised by Wing Instruments, then licensed to Mike Upton's Kala Brand Music Co. and produced first conceived and developed by Owen Holt of Road Toad Music starting from late 2004 to date — but there is the from early 2009 with its six predecessors.
(Inevitably, it does also contain numerous references to Kala U·Bass alternatives, as well as extensive coverage of solid-body piezo uke basses made both by Kala - starting from 2010 - and the competition.)
This thread discusses the peculiar string needs of a true mag-pickupped solid-body in uke bass scale (20.47"), the Kala UBass Megathread, Part 7: (ca 2018, now discontinued):
Metal core ukulele bass strings for magnetic pickup
@Volker Kirstein's Fame M-03 Mini Bass is a similar platform, and could be tuned standard using the same Dogal UBS162 string set originally designed for the Big Island (or the Galli flats I mention in the thread).
A one-stop thread for Guitar Scale Acoustic Basses — a product segment pioneered by steel-core bronzewound stringed instruments by Alvarez (since 2005 at the latest), BeaverCreek and Michael Kelly, revived by Aquila (2013) and Gold Tone with their respective synthetic-string offerings, then definitely established by Taylor (early 2017), Guild and Ibanez with their nyloncore roundwound string equipped parlour products — exists and is going strong.
There isn't one equivalent for guitar-scale solid-body, electric (magnetic-pickup) bass guitars.
[A format first introduced by Carvin in 1959, occasionally popping out in the Sixties and Seventies, revived by Fernandes with their Pie-Zo Bass — aka Nomad Bass outside Japan — come the Nineties (first mention here is from 2000) and by the Samick Greg Bennet Mini Corsair Bass MCR-1 (was out in 2001, still in production), and now available in several models, such as the Glen Burton GBMB-NT / Glarry GW101 / Rocktile TB-4.]
However, a handful roughly serve the purpose:
Mini Basses
Ultra short scale bass round up
Guitar Scale Electric Basses
25" scale micro basses anyone?
__________
Now, similarly to what was done for Mikro-scale slabs,
Let's catalog all 28" scale basses
I thought I'd make a little list of electric basslets of the specific scale length that seems to have become the most popular among manufacturers, to wit: circa 23" scale.
In terms of guitars, it sits somewhere between the scale 7/8 and 3/4 size student classical guitars have; 23 inches is also the scale of many tenor guitars (any longer and their treblemost string in standard tenor-banjo = mandola tuning, i.e. 440Hz A4, would break).
Tiny Bass (2019, f.k.a. Tiny Boy Bass)
DX-3 line
TR-4 line
Category: Electric Basses
Tiny Boy Basses
Carry-on by Blackstar Mini bass (2023)
Carry-on by Blackstar | Travel Mini Bass Guitar | Portable & Lightweight
Carryon by Blackstar Mini-bass
NBD: BlackStar CarryOn Sub-scale
Fanner Guitar Works PeeWee Bass Electric Ukulele (2021?)
PeeWee Bass Electric Ukulele - Fanner Electric Ukuleles
Kala Solid-Body U·Bass (upcoming)
Solid Body U•BASS® – Kala Brand Music Co.™
Flight Mini Bass (TBL - transparent blue)
Flight Mini Bass (TBL) Solid Body Transparent Blue
Website info on scale length (claimed 20") is apparently inaccurate: scale is 23", just as for the super-juicy
Flight Mini JB Bass (both since...not sure, but they're recent)
Flight Mini JB Bass
Will update thread if/when more models appear/I become aware of them.
[Finally, a shout-out to @SBassman and @KohanMike, for reasons that become apparent once one peruses one or two of the threads linked above...]
we have a long-standing thread on bass guitars shorter than 29" scale, covering everything from the 18" Ashbory bass (1986) up to the 28.6" Ibanez Mikro (Big Island EBU (Electric Bass Ukulele) by Hosco) and everything in between (including ukulele basses, 6-string-guitar-to-bass conversions, you name it): the 2007.
(It tends to focus on standard-octave bass tuning, so in it you'll find very little regarding instruments of the Sub-Short Scale Talk.
There's no single, comprehensive megathread about the ukulele bass — an instrument "short piccolo", "half-board" type as popularised by Wing Instruments, then licensed to Mike Upton's Kala Brand Music Co. and produced first conceived and developed by Owen Holt of Road Toad Music starting from late 2004 to date — but there is the from early 2009 with its six predecessors.
(Inevitably, it does also contain numerous references to Kala U·Bass alternatives, as well as extensive coverage of solid-body piezo uke basses made both by Kala - starting from 2010 - and the competition.)
This thread discusses the peculiar string needs of a true mag-pickupped solid-body in uke bass scale (20.47"), the Kala UBass Megathread, Part 7: (ca 2018, now discontinued):
Metal core ukulele bass strings for magnetic pickup
@Volker Kirstein's Fame M-03 Mini Bass is a similar platform, and could be tuned standard using the same Dogal UBS162 string set originally designed for the Big Island (or the Galli flats I mention in the thread).
A one-stop thread for Guitar Scale Acoustic Basses — a product segment pioneered by steel-core bronzewound stringed instruments by Alvarez (since 2005 at the latest), BeaverCreek and Michael Kelly, revived by Aquila (2013) and Gold Tone with their respective synthetic-string offerings, then definitely established by Taylor (early 2017), Guild and Ibanez with their nyloncore roundwound string equipped parlour products — exists and is going strong.
There isn't one equivalent for guitar-scale solid-body, electric (magnetic-pickup) bass guitars.
[A format first introduced by Carvin in 1959, occasionally popping out in the Sixties and Seventies, revived by Fernandes with their Pie-Zo Bass — aka Nomad Bass outside Japan — come the Nineties (first mention here is from 2000) and by the Samick Greg Bennet Mini Corsair Bass MCR-1 (was out in 2001, still in production), and now available in several models, such as the Glen Burton GBMB-NT / Glarry GW101 / Rocktile TB-4.]
However, a handful roughly serve the purpose:
Mini Basses
Ultra short scale bass round up
Guitar Scale Electric Basses
25" scale micro basses anyone?
__________
Now, similarly to what was done for Mikro-scale slabs,
Let's catalog all 28" scale basses
I thought I'd make a little list of electric basslets of the specific scale length that seems to have become the most popular among manufacturers, to wit: circa 23" scale.
In terms of guitars, it sits somewhere between the scale 7/8 and 3/4 size student classical guitars have; 23 inches is also the scale of many tenor guitars (any longer and their treblemost string in standard tenor-banjo = mandola tuning, i.e. 440Hz A4, would break).
Tiny Bass (2019, f.k.a. Tiny Boy Bass)
DX-3 line
TR-4 line
Category: Electric Basses
Tiny Boy Basses
Carry-on by Blackstar Mini bass (2023)
Carry-on by Blackstar | Travel Mini Bass Guitar | Portable & Lightweight
Carryon by Blackstar Mini-bass
NBD: BlackStar CarryOn Sub-scale
Fanner Guitar Works PeeWee Bass Electric Ukulele (2021?)
PeeWee Bass Electric Ukulele - Fanner Electric Ukuleles
Kala Solid-Body U·Bass (upcoming)
Solid Body U•BASS® – Kala Brand Music Co.™
Flight Mini Bass (TBL - transparent blue)
Flight Mini Bass (TBL) Solid Body Transparent Blue
Website info on scale length (claimed 20") is apparently inaccurate: scale is 23", just as for the super-juicy
Flight Mini JB Bass (both since...not sure, but they're recent)
Flight Mini JB Bass
Will update thread if/when more models appear/I become aware of them.
[Finally, a shout-out to @SBassman and @KohanMike, for reasons that become apparent once one peruses one or two of the threads linked above...]
