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scale length question

#21
By asking for reasoning in an open forum on the decision of a single person who isn't participating, can only lead to conjecture. Only the builder could answer that question from his own mind. There are possibilities like being "unique", but once again it can only be conjecture or supposition. Good luck on your quest.
 
#22
Musiclogic said:
By asking for reasoning in an open forum on the decision of a single person who isn't participating, can only lead to conjecture. Only the builder could answer that question from his own mind. There are possibilities like being "unique", but once again it can only be conjecture or supposition. Good luck on your quest.
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First... I'm totally happy with the instrument. So there's nothing negative I'm trying to glean. Essentially this was my first custom build, and for me this build was part of my continuing education. So many decisions needed to be made. A wonderful experience.

As these things go, it would be reasonable for me to expect that I'll commission another instrument in the future. That said, I'm asking questions, seeking information, pondering, so that when this next build occurs I'll be a more educated person who can make specific requests based on some understanding.

And so back to my original question... I'm just wondering if there's an advantage and/or reason a bass guitar would be crafted at a 33-3/4" scale instead of a 34" scale. It may turn out the reason is... "hey, that's how the math worked out"... which is a valid reason. I was just asking the experts...
 
#23
grisezd said:
Regarding string fitment, I've not had a problem with using overly long strings on my short and medium scale basses (even my super short, guitar scale bass) since I learned to unwind wraps
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excuse me for sounding silly, but is it necessary to unwind the string wraps on long strings? When I was using strings which were leaving fat bits round the tuning posts, I got cutting pliers, and snipped the end off. Is that a no no?
 
#24
Slowgypsy said:
And so back to my original question... I'm just wondering if there's an advantage and/or reason a bass guitar would be crafted at a 33-3/4" scale instead of a 34" scale. It may turn out the reason is... "hey, that's how the math worked out"... which is a valid reason. I was just asking the experts...
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I think you have the answer to the question...there isnt an obvious one. One possible reason could be the builder may believe you can feel the difference in tension in that 1/4", but I would guess most people wont be able to. You arent going to get a definite answer without asking the guy who built it. I'm sure you are already aware of the reasons for choosing short/medium/long scale, so you may be able to connect some of the dots :).
 
#26
Jamestrouton said:
excuse me for sounding silly, but is it necessary to unwind the string wraps on long strings? When I was using strings which were leaving fat bits round the tuning posts, I got cutting pliers, and snipped the end off. Is that a no no?
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It wont have much, if any negative affect having the "fat bits" round the post. It just doesnt look very nice. I have done it before and didnt notice anything bad, and have seen it done many times.

Jamestrouton said:
As well as my question a post or two ago, I have one other question.
What scale length would constitute a typical short scale bass?
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30"
 
#27
Meatrus said:
It wont have much, if any negative affect having the "fat bits" round the post. It just doesnt look very nice.
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That's what I had thought, thanks for confirming :)
I was also wondering, if shortening the string, do you specifically need to unwind the string? Or can you just snip it with pliers?
 
#28
Jamestrouton said:
That's what I had thought, thanks for confirming :)
I was also wondering, if shortening the string, do you specifically need to unwind the string? Or can you just snip it with pliers?
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You could unwind it, but you may end up with it unwinding too far if your not careful. Exposing the core may not be a good idea as far as corrosion is concerned, but its probably nothing to worry about. Really though, I would just buy the correct scale length strings for your bass.

Edit: if you cant find them, just snip
 
#30
I don't think it's the case here, but right now i'm building my first bass, and I wanted it to be 32" scale. Well, back home we use the metric system, so most rulers I have access to are in milimeters, not inches. So instead of going with 32", which is about 812.8 milimeters, I decided to go with 812 milimeters, which is roughly 31.9685". Measuring in milimeters will save me some troule I believe when laying out the frets.
 

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