"Short fingers" and "small hands" guys...your fingers are JUST FINE!

Whatever you say! Physical limitations can be overcome by practice! That's good to know! What do you recommend to increase the length of fingers?

 

Work on what you can change rather than lament on what you can't.
Thou shall then live a longer, happier life.
Increasing finger span through practice is a thing. So is learning to slide fingers to reach notes.
Or do you need motivator pictures from guys who play bass with one finger, non finger, feet, a single arm etc?

 

To be fair I've never once complained about small hands. I get frustrated by my pinky's inability to reach for some chords, but then look for alternate voicings or, as OP says, practice. I just think it's silly to complain about people who complain about a legitamate issue

 

Just look at Malmsteen... he may be a guitarist, but MAN does he have sausage fingers. Ain't hurtin' him nothin'.

Now that makes short fingers sound like a disability, which is unfair to people with real disabilities.

 

This is true.
I used to date a girl who's sister was a 5'2" classical upright player. Her hands looked like they could belong to a 10 year old. But she was a great player.

 

That's because he is old and fat now. He wasn't always like that.

 

To use an analogy, you can bring up Muggsy Bogues as an illustration of a short guy playing in the NBA, but for every under 6ft NBA player you can mention, someone else can mention 12 over 6ft. I wish Muggsy luck dunking on Shaq.
Are longer fingers required to play bass? Certainly not. Is it advantageous? I think it is pretty clear that it is.
Victor Wooten is the Bogues in this situation. His right hand technique is really where a lot of his skill is, and it generally sticks to 4 string basses, all though I know he occasionally plays a 5. He has found a way to make that work for him. However, statically speaking, the fastest bass players using 5 and 6 string basses in extremely technical music have pretty good sized mits. Working the top frets on the B of a five can cause cramping in my left hand. 6s are nearly impossible for me to play on the lower register with any sort of speed.
The music I like is an extreme example. In many genres speed on a 6 string bass isn't critical. You could Django Reinhardt both hands on many classic bass lines. It is a matter of what you are playing.

 

That baby has huge hands!

 

Play what is comfortable for you.

 

People play the bass they like. With modern basses there's no reason why they shouldn't. SS, fanned fret, 15 strings, who cares. They all sound good. Frankly, I'm getting tired of people listing dumb reasons why they shouldn't. "I saw a 4'4 woman playing an upright. If she could so can you!" "Why not spend 100 extra hours practicing to play on a "34" instead of playing that perfectly fine Mustang?" "Just play what you like, but of course if you play that bass I'm going to assume that you don't practice, have bad technique, and like to make excuses." And so on.

If someone wants to try a different bass to suit their needs, why get pissy about it?

 

I feel most comfortable playing a short scale 4 string with narrow spacing. Does it look silly on my broad, 6'3 (1.9m) frame? I don't care.

 

Play what you want. Don’t concern yourself with the musings of a random on TB.

 

Please....I've got pretty small hands and I rock a 6 string fretless 34 Inch scale. Btw we play technical death metal crazy type stuff at 220 plus bpm all over the fretboard and super low stuff. Don't buy Into the hand crap some are trying to sell you. There are ways to make your physiology work for you not the other way around.

 

What length are short fingers? I heard the same lame ash drivel for guitarists as well.