From Craigslist, I just spent $50 on this cute, tiny, 26 inch scale, Glarry bass guitar. New these miniature instruments sell for only around $90-100 USD, making them the cheapest new bass I’ve ever heard of.
My thought when buying it was to do another piccolo bass conversion, another even smaller ax up in the guitar octave again. But first I wanted to get a better bass sound out of it if I could without spending many semoleons on it, since I plan to pith and piccolo it right quick.
Not an awful sound now that I’ve worked on it for two four six days, so far, despite me being too lazy and cheap to buy new strings for it. The like-new mini Glarry was so out of intonation when I bought it all I could do was to make sure the all notes sounded and the neck looked good.
Sharpish fret ends like you’d expect but no bloodshed. Cute painted headstock, junk tuners. Everything needed tightening, fresh from the factory.
Weak QC and no attempt at any setup, normal for cheapie basses. OTOH the neck pocket, precisely CNC cut like all new instruments, is a much tighter fit than my 2014 MIJ Precision Bass.
I finally checked both pickups after a long intonation session, to find out the Glarry’s bridge pickup was non-operational. I laughed. Funny the seller never mentioned that. I tested all the notes but forgot to try out both the ‘pups’. No matter, it was a loose wire, re-soldered in 10 minutes.
Too-big standard guitar HSC points out diminutive dimensions.
No neckplate needed if you have plenty of little washers. As with all ‘bolt-on’ Fender necks, this one uses wood screws.
I’ll open the hatch in back, see if the bridge pickup has a broken wire or something. [See above, fixed.]
These machine heads probably cost a dollar two ninety-five to manufacture the whole set. I had to sluice the D tuner in CLP miracle gun cleaner to ease the grittiness and make it usable. All Parts sells aftermarket sets cheap, that’s next.
Here it is with Blackstar Fly3 mini amp. Lighter is for scale. Perfect package for busking, or gigging in that bar with the stage behind chicken wire in Roadhouse.
I paid $91 USD, free shipping, at Reverb, cheaper at Amz. Typical gouge of no included AC power adapter, that I bought elsewhere for $17.
I really wish I knew what these knobs and things did – I figured out Volume on my own, and how to plug it in. The instructions are in 3 languages but tell you nothing. In good English these days though.
So for the next piccolo bass string experiment I’ll use the clanky old roundwound D and G strings presently on the bass. Only I’ll move them to the E and A position (strings 4 & 3) and tune them an octave up.
Then I’ll open my cheapest new 6-string guitar string set [Alice!], and select the thickest strings, the low E and the A.
I’ll put them on the Glarry at the D and G string locations, then tune them to that pitch, in the same octave as the E and D string.
I have no idea if this field expedient, hillbilly DIY piccolo bass string set will work or not. Might snap strings tuning it; string tension might be too floppy or too loose; might not intonate at the 12th fret. But the $5 price is right. With strings left over!
None more cheap than $50, much less a fun to play, good sounding (OK sounding now, maybe good tone soon), mini bass perfect for summer travel.
Maybe I will swap in aftermarket or used pickups to replace the Glarry’s tomato cans. I will change the tuners for sure, and maybe the bridge too, for better ones someday.
And buy actual new D'Addario piccolo bass strings as soon as I haul out my dusty wallet for a 20-spot. I’m stoked. And curious to hear how it sounds an octave up as a piccolo bass.
POSTED IN BASS BUILDING, BASS GUITAR, DIY, LUTHIER, MUSIC, PHOTOGRAPHY, PICCOLO BASS, PRODUCT REVIEW, UNCATEGORIZED | TAGGED BASS GUITAR, BLACKSTAR FLY3 BASS AMP, GLARRY, GLARRY MINI BASS, GUITAR, MUSIC, ORANGE CRUSH 50 WATT BASS AMP, REVIEWS |
My thought when buying it was to do another piccolo bass conversion, another even smaller ax up in the guitar octave again. But first I wanted to get a better bass sound out of it if I could without spending many semoleons on it, since I plan to pith and piccolo it right quick.
Not an awful sound now that I’ve worked on it for two four six days, so far, despite me being too lazy and cheap to buy new strings for it. The like-new mini Glarry was so out of intonation when I bought it all I could do was to make sure the all notes sounded and the neck looked good.
Sharpish fret ends like you’d expect but no bloodshed. Cute painted headstock, junk tuners. Everything needed tightening, fresh from the factory.
Weak QC and no attempt at any setup, normal for cheapie basses. OTOH the neck pocket, precisely CNC cut like all new instruments, is a much tighter fit than my 2014 MIJ Precision Bass.
I finally checked both pickups after a long intonation session, to find out the Glarry’s bridge pickup was non-operational. I laughed. Funny the seller never mentioned that. I tested all the notes but forgot to try out both the ‘pups’. No matter, it was a loose wire, re-soldered in 10 minutes.
Too-big standard guitar HSC points out diminutive dimensions.
No neckplate needed if you have plenty of little washers. As with all ‘bolt-on’ Fender necks, this one uses wood screws.
I’ll open the hatch in back, see if the bridge pickup has a broken wire or something. [See above, fixed.]
These machine heads probably cost a dollar two ninety-five to manufacture the whole set. I had to sluice the D tuner in CLP miracle gun cleaner to ease the grittiness and make it usable. All Parts sells aftermarket sets cheap, that’s next.
Here it is with Blackstar Fly3 mini amp. Lighter is for scale. Perfect package for busking, or gigging in that bar with the stage behind chicken wire in Roadhouse.
I paid $91 USD, free shipping, at Reverb, cheaper at Amz. Typical gouge of no included AC power adapter, that I bought elsewhere for $17.
I really wish I knew what these knobs and things did – I figured out Volume on my own, and how to plug it in. The instructions are in 3 languages but tell you nothing. In good English these days though.
So for the next piccolo bass string experiment I’ll use the clanky old roundwound D and G strings presently on the bass. Only I’ll move them to the E and A position (strings 4 & 3) and tune them an octave up.
Then I’ll open my cheapest new 6-string guitar string set [Alice!], and select the thickest strings, the low E and the A.
I’ll put them on the Glarry at the D and G string locations, then tune them to that pitch, in the same octave as the E and D string.
I have no idea if this field expedient, hillbilly DIY piccolo bass string set will work or not. Might snap strings tuning it; string tension might be too floppy or too loose; might not intonate at the 12th fret. But the $5 price is right. With strings left over!
None more cheap than $50, much less a fun to play, good sounding (OK sounding now, maybe good tone soon), mini bass perfect for summer travel.
Maybe I will swap in aftermarket or used pickups to replace the Glarry’s tomato cans. I will change the tuners for sure, and maybe the bridge too, for better ones someday.
And buy actual new D'Addario piccolo bass strings as soon as I haul out my dusty wallet for a 20-spot. I’m stoked. And curious to hear how it sounds an octave up as a piccolo bass.
POSTED IN BASS BUILDING, BASS GUITAR, DIY, LUTHIER, MUSIC, PHOTOGRAPHY, PICCOLO BASS, PRODUCT REVIEW, UNCATEGORIZED | TAGGED BASS GUITAR, BLACKSTAR FLY3 BASS AMP, GLARRY, GLARRY MINI BASS, GUITAR, MUSIC, ORANGE CRUSH 50 WATT BASS AMP, REVIEWS |
yeah, no joy --- i'd love to hear the little beast! TIA
