Looking for small travel instrument - not a travel bass

Anything that size will need an amp.

 

This?
** Gold Tone FRETTED Micro Bass (23 in scale) with Padded Gig Bag at Gollihur Music - Double Bass, Upright Bass, String Bass Specialists

 

I have the fret less version of this. Can kind of hear it if playing alone. Anything else requires an amp.

 

Have you seen the new Taylor mini-ABG?

 

I picked up an older (late 90's?) Godin A4 a while back. It's a 34" scale acoustic bass guitar about the shape of a Tele bass and maybe 3/4" thicker. It's well made and the neck comes on and off easily for travel with no readjustments necessary. It has enough acoustic sound to be satisfying to play unamplified and the amplified sound is very good. For the $375 I paid it'd be what I'd use over any of the sub 30” scale ABGs. I’ve been unimpressed with the Taylor and all the tiny rubber string things.

 

I've owned most of the options, in pursuit of a reasonable fretless practice instrument while traveling. Didn't find any of them to be all that great. The U-bass and Gold Tone (slightly bigger body, longer scale) to be better. But the strings on both are weird. Ultimately I've decided that none are that good, and when I'm travelling I just take a break from playing.

It was easier when I was focused mostly on electric bass, lots of better options for short scale, fretted basses.

 

I've use a Kala fretless uBass as a backup for my DB, it's very portable and fun to play. It makes some usable sound for practice without an amp, but I wouldn't try to use it with other people or in front of people without an amp. With an amp and being fretless it sounds good, similar in many ways to an amped double bass, but also somewhat like a caricature of a double bass. I have learned to modify my DB playing styles to work with my uBass and the uBass pulls it off relatively well (except for arco of course).

That said, I go out of my way to great lengths to bring my DB with me when I know I'll need to play bass. It's just so much more fun to play. The one firm exception is inclement weather, I won't play the DB outside in rain or in very cold weather because of my own mobility issues. And other possible exceptions may include situations where I have to fly or travel in some other way that would be overly expensive or difficult with a DB, or in situations on stage where there just isn't room for a DB.

A real example: We've been asked to assist with jam hosting a 7-day bluegrass cruise this year, and we will have to travel about 1200 miles to get to the port. We're driving partly because we've never seen this part of the country, and partly because it's cheaper. We are bringing my wife's guitar, my banjo and mandolin, and the double bass. We probably still wouldn't try to fly with this combination, but we might consider taking a train if I was bringing the uBass.

Having fun with the DB can be more difficult and even more expensive, but under most circumstances for me it is worth it. I like the uBass, but I like the DB more.

 

AVNB1FE | ACOUSTIC BASS | ACOUSTIC GUITARS | PRODUCTS | Ibanez guitars

Parlor guitar sized acoustic bass guitar. There is a fretless variant.

 

Rondo Hadean acoustic fretless cutaway bass uke with Aquila Thunder Black poly strings. It's plenty loud enough for personal practice. Scale is 20.5" and 30" tip to tip, $180.

Hadean Bass Uke UKB-23C Cut-Away Fretless - RondoMusic.com

 

I don't understand how any of these ukes are going to be a substitute for practicing on a double bass... Maybe that's not the goal.

 

You can successfully do that mentally without an instrument. Try it!

 

Not fretless nor acoustic and not really what you asked for, but, IMO, worth considering. Works well for me for traveling. Light, compact, sounds great.

 

This should do the job... Chennell bass uke

 

This .
Of the things I bet most of us need to do better in our practice is effective visualization.
The Critical Importance of Visualization in Music Practice | Modacity
Great time to do that is on vacation . I’ve been playing scales in my head with the Dr. Drone app and rep with Amazing Slow Downer. Easy to do in the odd bits of downtime.

 

As an other has said, check out the Taylor mini-ABG. Guild and Ibanez make a similar bass that costs less. I got the guild model and love it. It is useful for practicing scales and things when I am on the road. It is also a blast to play. What makes em work is the strings that were developed for these instruments.

I do not like the uke basses. They are just not for me.

 

Altough I am totally friendly with 'visualization' and et al brain training exercises ... the quoted article seems to lack a deeper understanding about what's going on under the surface.

"You’ll be able to feel a mistake coming up before it happens, micro-practice it in that split second, and fix it before it occurs"

Really?

thich

 

Dunno, works that way for me . Did take some initial effort at accessing "mental representations" to use Ericsson's term. I think this agrees with athletes who do visualization - If the error is not clear in your "tape" or you can see it in your mind, catch it before it happens is much better than erring again and going back.

Motor planning in music performance is analogous and works in parallel to motor planning for speech production. Brain centers for music are being identified now but motor planning as part of theory of mind for language has been very well established, and for decades.

Sorry for hijacking the thread, but OP said they wanted to practice while on vacation.

 

I think the fretless aspect is the primary misunderstanding here. Plenty of us don't even think playing the actual double bass pizz is all that helpful for your intonation - arco is the best way.
A fretless bass uke is going to be its own instrument with its own issues to pull together that will not translate to double bass.
A fretted instrument will actually help your ear a bit more and keep your fingers moving. It will ALSO help you work on hear chords better. I think those bass ukes are really cool, I just wish they were cheaper!