Short-scale or 3/4 size?

Hi All,

I'm looking for advice here. I bought my wife a U-bass in February. She's taken to it like a duck to water and now wants to try a bass guitar. However, the scale length of my Fender Jazz copy is too long for her and so I started looking for a budget short-scale. Having had positive experiences with Gear4Music cheapie instruments, I took a look at their own-brand basses and found their LA model in both short-scale and 3/4 size, with the 3/4 size being cheaper. In the photos on the G4M website, these basses look almost identical with the only obvious difference being the knobs on the pots and they seem to have the same scale length. The short scale is listed as having 22 frets compared with 20 frets for the 3/4 but both photos show 20 frets.

So, is 'short-scale' another way of saying '3/4 size'? Are there any fundamental differences between these 'classes' of instrument? Although I own a bass, I'm not a bassist; so I'd appreciate all the help you care to give.

Thanks for looking, Geoff