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Shortscale headless ???

TheBass

TheBass

Jul 2, 2004
1,628
4,615
Germany
#1
Since I recently bought a Piccolo4 shortscale built by the german luthier Johannes-Dieter von Paris, I totally fell in love with it's punchy, percussive sound and it's incredible playability. It's like all speed limits had been removed and fast licks and wide finger sets are almost effortless to play now. I'm addicted !

Because I need to travel a lot and would like to take my bass with me on the flight I'm looking for a headless shortscale now, preferably something built as compact as a Steinberger XL-2. I tried the Guild Ashbory but that's not my sound and I don't like it's playability. It should be a compact headless shortscale. 4-String only.

Any suggestions ?
 
#7
For practice only, or performance?

I recently purchased a Traveler MK-II bass. 32" scale, built-in headphone amp, nice gig bag, uses regular strings.

Pros:
Steel string, 32" scale, plays and sounds good. Super light-weight. Fits in the overhead on ERJ's and smaller Canadairs jets - fly puddle hoppers with no problems. Good craftsmanship. Sounds decent. Uses regular strings, and comes with D'Addario XL 170's. Nice gig bag.

Cons:
Neck dive. Plays OK seated, but neck dive when playing with a strap. includes a 2" Levy's web strap, maybe a better, grippy strap would help, I haven't tried one. The action was a little high on mine. I plan and sanding the bridge saddle, but didn't want to do it until I had extra saddles, just in case. I shimmed the neck with a piece of my business card, and it plays just fine. So much so that even now that I have the extra saddles, I'm in no hurry to do the sanding work.

Bottom line:
I fly regularly with a tool box, suitcase, computer backpack stuffed with cables and interfaces for work. I cannot carry on my toolbox, and during the winter months my suitcase becomes too big for a carry on, depending on the projects. Airlines allow two checked pieces of luggage, one carry-on and a personal item, such as a computer bag/backpack. Although it's not perfect, I haven't found anything better to to take with me as a carry-on practice bass - especially when it comes to puddle hoppers. I wish it was a 35" scale fives string, but it works just fine. I was recently "stranded" in Chicago's O'Hara airport for six hours (happens a lot there), and this was a God-send. I wouldn't play shows with this pizeo only instrument.

FWIW, I purchased mine from Traveler Music off of Ebay. Great service and 30 day return policy. Plus the owner, Andy, hooked me up with the extra bridge saddles at no charge. No affiliation.
 
#8
Well, mainly practice. But preferably suitable for a gig as well. It doesn't need a build in amp since I carry my Boss Micro BR with me whereever I go. The Traveller looks interesting and their photo gallery exactly shows what I have in mind to use it for :-) I will check if they have it in shortscale too. I never saw something like that in Europe.
 
#9
How about this chap?

0541.jpg


Short scale, tuned a-c and complete with built-in octaver! :bassist:
 
#11
This 30" scale Jerry Jones Longhorn has been the perfect travel bass for me. It's light, fits in overhead on planes, is hollow so there's easily enough acoustic sound to practice on a moving bus, relatively inexpensive (street price about $750USD), they hold their value well, and they sound good enough that it's my main electric bass.
JJorig%20LH4.jpg
 
#14
Thunderitter said:
How about this chap?

0541.jpg


Short scale, tuned a-c and complete with built-in octaver! :bassist:
Click to expand...
Wooo :eek: that looks dangerous. Seems to be the perfect axe for a Marilyn Manson tribute band to me :D

@Jay Terrien: I played the King Bass when it was released. Awesome design and a tremendous player, but still too large for my needs. I already own two Alembics, a Stingray and a Sterling and the Piccolo4. These are all great basses and cover all my sounds on stage and in studio. The only drawback is that they are too large to carry them with me when I'm travelling for my day job. I'd like to get a compact - headless - , lightweight shortscale to carry with me for practicing. If I can use on stage too - great ! But the keywords are "compact" and "lightweight" and I don't like to spend the big bucks for a $$$$ Ritter or $$$$/xx months custom build.
 
#20
spade2you said:
None that I could ever think of. Short scale basses are a small niche of the market. Headless basses are an even smaller niche. Together, I don't think I have ever heard anyone who wanted a true shorty that's also headless.
Click to expand...
I posted my search in a german bass board as well (with no success) and hoped to find a shortcale headless in the larger amercan market. But after all I guess you are right.

I am not under GAS attack to buy it asap. I'll rather search a bit longer and buy only once.
 

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