Wow, those basses are huge next to you. How do you manage to play them with such small wings?
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Beautiful, especially the 4 string in the 3rd photo! Can you tell us a bit about that one?I made a couple of 25,5" basses a few years ago to give away as presents. For strings I used the lower four of a five string set. The only drawback is that the E and A strings have to be unwound to fit into the tuners. To prevent the outer coil unwrapping the string needs to be clamped tightly before unwinding.
Since we are posting pictures i'll jump on the bandwagon.
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they don't sound the same, they don't feel or play the same.
Borrow one or try it out in a store first. You’ll find out how precise you have to be to play in tune on a 20” scale fretless very quickly. You’ll be able to clearly hear the pitch error if you are off the note by 1/8” or less. I’d love to have a fretless that can use poly / rubbery strings just for the tone, but I’ll never own another fretless with less than a 25” scale.
We have a medley that requires me to open on uke and end on bagpipes with a fair amount of stuff in the middle. We bought our singer a uke bass so she could cover for me on two I-IV-V tunes and put colored tape on specific frets then wrote what she had to play on a card in front of her.
I thought she'd tolerate it because she knew it was good for live shows, but she just asked me what would be a good starter short scale bass.
All my sub-short scale basses sound like like a "real" bass, either upright or electric. I'll never play anything bigger, I actually bought an Ibanez miKro 28.5" and it was too big for me. I had a fretless, but I found it too awkward to use when all my others are fretted, so I sold it. Nothing against fretless otherwise.
and i liked his smallguitars bass so much that i finally bought one of my own.
I agree, it's not difficult. I did pretty much the same as you, but also added a clamp over the tape. There is a risk of the outer winding becoming loose from the force of the unwinding. the clamp is a safeguard.
Beautiful, especially the 4 string in the 3rd photo! Can you tell us a bit about that one?
Thanks.
I did write up a build log on it over in Luthier's corner: 25" short scale V2.0
Heres a little shorty 24" I just put on some regular long scale cut down roto's 85, 65,45,39 tuned ADGC
its perfect and nice to have a high C on such a short scale nice for chords and a solo voice
its perfect and nice to have a high C on such a short scale nice for chords and a solo voice
Any 6 string shortys on here? My Miezo 18" is coming next week, and it was recommended that if I can, to use short scale strings, but I can't seem to find any short scale 6 string sets. Recommendations? Am I going to have to put em together from a 5 string set?
Well... kinda...
19.5" scale "Mini Bass VI", tuned ADGCFBb. I used a plain ol' Bass VI string set, but the E/A string didn't fit through the tuner peg hole, so I had to unwrap the E/A string to modify the taper. Now I know that I can order custom strings, and I won't do that again!
What's the gauge of those strings? Ernie Ball has one with a .90 B string, but I'm wondering if that will be thumpy enough. I'm stringing it F# B E A D G.
What custom strings are you going to order?
D'addario EXL156 024-084. Entirely too light for F#BEADG.
Strings get weird when you get into sub 25" scales. To get that low, you'll probably end up with F# strings in the 160s, 170s, or even fatter.
I have not fully researched ultra short custom strings, nor do I plan on doing anything further until well after the pandemic, but I hear good things about Pyramid.
Actually, the luthier is putting 125's on it. The F# is the one right above a low E. Good to know about the flimsiness. I'll look into the Pyramid ones, thanks.
I have a 120 as a B string on my 34" BEAD. I see no way a 125 would work as a F#, but I've been surprised before. I'll be very interested in the results on yours.
I'm also assuming steel strings, not nylon. I dunno squat about nylon.
That's how he strings them, generally 110-125 on the low, if you want to be in that range. They have some ridiculously huge custom strings that will actually let you get down into normal bass range, but I don't want to spend that kind of money.
Here's more on that...
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OK. I just reread the conversation, and realized your F# is the low F# on a "regular bass." I was thinking an octave lower. I retract my statement about 125 being too light. It should be just fine there.
How’s this going? I saw an IG post that looks like it’s probably you based on the screen name. I went hunting for your NBD thread but stumbled on this update.
I’ve got a Miezo 18 on the way soon.
