Disappointed with SBMM Short-Scale StingRay

[pcake]

i owned a short scale briefly and returned it for reasons that had nothing to do with quality issues. that being said, while i loved the neck, it didn't sound very stingray-like to me.

 

[Jeff Scott]

Jack Bruce (Cream), Lemmy (Motorhead), Chris Squire (Yes) and Paul McCartney (Beatles) are all short-scale players.

 

[Djadja]

Joe Dart and Tim Commerford both have short scale signature models that i presume they play sometimes. Justin Meldal-Johnsen clearly plays his. I think ive seen Tim Lefebvre play short scales. And there are a number of excellent YouTube players who regularly play short scales.

 

[Verne Andru]

Not totally sure what Ric Lemmy played but on the House of Blues DVD Chris Squire cycles through about 5 basses, more than a few of which were short-scale.

 

[Jeff Scott]

Not totally sure what Ric Lemmy played but on the House of Blues DVD Chris Squire cycles through about 5 basses, more than a few of which were short-scale.

Which ones? Can you do screen captures and post them?

 

[HelpImaRock]

I wandered into GC yesterday and played one of these. I played it through an Ampeg Rocket combo and thought the parallel pickup sounding was the best one. The neck was just ok. I honestly like my Squier CV Mustang better. (FWIW, I also played a Vintera II Mustang, and like my Squier better than it too.)

 

[hooky_marr]

So I’ve been trying out my fretted SSBM shorty (sunburst / maple neck) through my pedalboard into my audio interface (Audient ID4) and here’s my impressions, ymmv etc:

* A good setup helps A LOT.
* As this was a first gen model I upgraded the tuners to Hipshot Ultralites.
* The pickup is indeed very hot and required me to back off the volume to avoid clipping.
* Adding an external preamp really helped sculpt the tone - I’m using a Tech 21 Q Strip pedal/DI as the last thing in my chain, and using the Aggressive Pick Bass setting from the manual as a starting point sounds very good.
* Generally I like the parallel setting better than series.
* The single coil setting does indeed pick
up a ton of hum - it was unusable.
* It sounds pretty good with some compression and is fun to play through an octaver & chorus.

What I’m probably going to do as upgrades / mods:

* Replace the neodymium pickup with an Alnico V, wired parallel only
* Swap out the electronics for more basic volume / tone controls
* On the other one that I will convert to fretless, I’ll do the same, and likely swap the bridge for a Babicz for better sustain, and do a string-through-body setup like a Yamaha BB734, so the strings go through at a 45° angle.

 

[Corrington]

I have an SBMM short scale bass. I liked the neck profile, weight, and balance. I hated those pots and pickups. I ripped them out and put in EMGs. I had to rout a battery compartment and enlarge the controls cavity. Well worth the time and effort. Now it sounds amazing. I’m glad I made the change. Now the bass is a keeper.

 

[Djadja]

Thanks. Do you have the older ones or the newer ones with roasted necks?

sorry this took so long. I'm not getting notices from Talkbass consistently since the software "upgrade."

mine is the first generation with rosewood board - the white one in my avatar.