Anyone have experience with piccolo basses?

[BAG]

My daughters have recently received some stock of Elixir strings from the supplier and as they've gone up in gauge size I found a set of light gauge spares. The string gauges are similar to a dedicated piccolo set so i'm going to try them on the Jag shorty tonight. It'll be interesting to see if they are long enough and if acoustic strings will work.

 

[MD]

I have some real, non-troll questions as someone who genuinely doesn't know the answers. What is the point of a piccolo bass? How is this used in a musical setting?

In a live situation, it allows a player to step away from the traditional roll of a bass player and function as a front line voice. The two instruments, IMO, are not interchangeable. When Ron Carter came out with his "Piccolo" album, he was out front, but had Buster Williams on bass in the rhythm section.

I haven't had mine out in a while, but when I was playing it, I was soloing over jazz tunes. We all know what happens when the bass takes a solo in jazz, right? Great fun to solo with a full rhythm section behind you; what horn players probably never think about.

 

[Nephilymbass]

Hi everyone!

There are guys who are successful using the piccolo bass out there, I'm thinking of especially Foley and Stanley Clarke. The concept has intrigued me since I was in my teens and I heard Stanley Clarke on the piccolo for the first time. I have on a number of occassions attempted to string basses up as piccolo basses, with various scale lengths (34", 32", 22"), but I have still not found something that "feels right" to me.

Anyone have any good experience on this to share? It's an itch that hasn't subsided in 35 years, so still hunting

Thanks

piccolo doesn't really determine scale length. I did it on a 34" bass. It's fun especially if you just want a bass to jam on at home or aren't in a band. A lot of techniques are surprisingly easier on the thinner strings also. With piccolo strings I feel like I'm actually pretty good at two hand tapping, switch back to regular gauge and and it's like NOPE, I was wrong lol.

 

[BAG]

As it turns out (and I suspected it might be the case) the guitar G string is too short even on the Jag shorty. It would probably be fine on my short scale travel bass with 2 + 2 headstock and smaller tuning posts but on the Jag they just won't hold. Oh well....time to order some piccolo strings I think.

Is there a set available that has a wound G string? All I can find is sets with a plain G.

 

[MrWalker]

Thanks for all your insight and tips. I realize, of course, that a 7-string bass (or any other extended range bass) will cover BOTH the piccolo and normal bass range, so that is an obvious alternative