The first time I ever heard a piccolo bass was while listening to Stanley Clarke. At the time, I had no idea what I was hearing—I just knew it sounded different and intriguing.
My first experience playing a piccolo bass wasn’t actually on a true piccolo bass. I had an 8-string bass with strings paired in octaves, similar to a 12-string guitar. One day, I removed the lower strings and played only the higher octave strings. It completely blew my mind. Suddenly, I could play chords in the lower register of the bass, but because the notes were an octave higher, everything sounded clean and clear. I could hear every note. Instead of the muddy sound that often comes from playing four-note chords in the low register in standard bass tuning, it sounded clear and musical.
The rest, as they say, is history—at least for me. Piccolo bass tuning changed my life both melodically and expressively.
All of my solid-body piccolo basses are Kiesel B2 models that I tune an octave and a fourth above a standard bass, placing them squarely in the register of a guitar. Since I play many different types of basses- 4-string, 5-string, fretted, fretless, tenor tuning, and more- I prefer to keep my muscle memory as consistent as possible. That’s why the Kiesel B2 Basses are 34-inch scale length.
Because I also play a fair amount of fretless bass, I want my fingers to go to the same places regardless of the instrument. Consistent scale lengths help maintain accurate intonation. If the scale length is constantly changing, it can affect your fretless accuracy, and that drives me crazy. While shorter scales are often easier and more efficient to play, I prefer the consistency of the same scale length above all else.
My acoustic bass guitars and hollow-body bass guitars that I use for a jazz-guitar-like sound are 32-inch scale instruments, but I approach playing them differently. After all these years, switching between the two feels natural.
The bottom line is that playing piccolo bass is an absolute blast—and having a blast is the whole point of playing music in the first place.
My first experience playing a piccolo bass wasn’t actually on a true piccolo bass. I had an 8-string bass with strings paired in octaves, similar to a 12-string guitar. One day, I removed the lower strings and played only the higher octave strings. It completely blew my mind. Suddenly, I could play chords in the lower register of the bass, but because the notes were an octave higher, everything sounded clean and clear. I could hear every note. Instead of the muddy sound that often comes from playing four-note chords in the low register in standard bass tuning, it sounded clear and musical.
The rest, as they say, is history—at least for me. Piccolo bass tuning changed my life both melodically and expressively.
All of my solid-body piccolo basses are Kiesel B2 models that I tune an octave and a fourth above a standard bass, placing them squarely in the register of a guitar. Since I play many different types of basses- 4-string, 5-string, fretted, fretless, tenor tuning, and more- I prefer to keep my muscle memory as consistent as possible. That’s why the Kiesel B2 Basses are 34-inch scale length.
Because I also play a fair amount of fretless bass, I want my fingers to go to the same places regardless of the instrument. Consistent scale lengths help maintain accurate intonation. If the scale length is constantly changing, it can affect your fretless accuracy, and that drives me crazy. While shorter scales are often easier and more efficient to play, I prefer the consistency of the same scale length above all else.
My acoustic bass guitars and hollow-body bass guitars that I use for a jazz-guitar-like sound are 32-inch scale instruments, but I approach playing them differently. After all these years, switching between the two feels natural.
The bottom line is that playing piccolo bass is an absolute blast—and having a blast is the whole point of playing music in the first place.
