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Short or Medium Scale 5 string basses
- Thread starter drewphishesp
- Start date
Birdsong. Muckelroy. Elrick. S Martyn. Offbeat. Nordstrand.
St. Germaine, ACG, Swan, S. Martyn, Cliff Bordwell, Maruszczyk, Chris Stambaugh, among others,
Are you referring to Rob Allen, who builds a model called the Mouse, or is this someone else I'm not familiar with?
MTD has Kingston LK5 that has a 32” scale neck. Great bass!
Always wondered how those shorter scale 5s played. I’m not a fan of the 35+ length.
Checkout bluesman vintage. Haven’t played the short scales but great basses and value for the money. He makes a Pbass body V in 30” with all sorts of pick-up configurations. Call and talk to John and there could be discounts available too.
Chris Stambaugh built my 30" 5-string (tuned EADGC) and it's fantastic. So easy to play, but it sounds just as big as a full-scale instrument.
The Spector Bantam 5 is a fairly popular 32" scale 5 string. There are a few for sale here in the classifieds. I personally have two, one with the stock pickups, and one swapped to be P/P.
I can do 32" but no shorter as it mucks with my fretting hand....that's just how I am. Stanley Clarke uses 30" 4 strings so adding the extra B or C is not much of a stretch.
Riis
Not small batch:
Ibanez Mezzo SRMD205 (32”)
Ibanez EHB1505SMS (30”-32”)
Ibanez EHB1005SMS (30”-32”)
Ibanez Mezzo SRMD205 (32”)
Ibanez EHB1505SMS (30”-32”)
Ibanez EHB1005SMS (30”-32”)
I can do 32” but no longer as that 1-4 fret stretch is just too big for my wittle hands.
I have a 32” scale Muckelroy. Heck of a build, but I’m just not a 32” guy. I wanna trade it, but only for another Muck build.
If you can find a discontinued 32" scale Ibanez Mezzo 5, get it!
They are amazing basses, great neck, light weight and NO dead spots and the fit and finish are remarkable.
The stock pickups and preamp sound great and the basses really lend themselves to upgrades too.
I bought a 2nd one when I heard Ibanez was going to discontinue them.
On my first, I installed a Hipshot B style top load bridge, Audere 4 band preamp, and I replaced the bridge Jazz PUP with a DiMarzio Ultra Jazz to eliminate 60Hz hum. It's my go-to 5 string and I own a boat load of expensive 5's and this little bass is just perfect.
On my 2nd one I replaced the bridge with a Gotoh 510 SJ-5 op Load and installed a Bill Lawrence J45 pickup in the bridge, electronics are stock and the bass sounds excellent.
These only went for around $375 new and were the best deal out there.
It's too bad they didn't catch on enough for Ibanez to keep making them, they were inexpensive but definitely not cheap..
They are amazing basses, great neck, light weight and NO dead spots and the fit and finish are remarkable.
The stock pickups and preamp sound great and the basses really lend themselves to upgrades too.
I bought a 2nd one when I heard Ibanez was going to discontinue them.
On my first, I installed a Hipshot B style top load bridge, Audere 4 band preamp, and I replaced the bridge Jazz PUP with a DiMarzio Ultra Jazz to eliminate 60Hz hum. It's my go-to 5 string and I own a boat load of expensive 5's and this little bass is just perfect.
On my 2nd one I replaced the bridge with a Gotoh 510 SJ-5 op Load and installed a Bill Lawrence J45 pickup in the bridge, electronics are stock and the bass sounds excellent.
These only went for around $375 new and were the best deal out there.
It's too bad they didn't catch on enough for Ibanez to keep making them, they were inexpensive but definitely not cheap..
