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spacing & scale important?

A

adrian garcia

In Memoriam
Apr 9, 2001
5,110
17
las vegas. nevada
www.adriangarcia.net
Disclosures
Endorsing Artist: Nordy Basses, Schroeder Cabs, Gallien Krueger Amps
#1
to me it is! I am pretty amazed how much of a difference it makes to have the right scale and spacing. In my recent experiences with a couple of six strings, I am quite surprised at how much better I do with a 34.5 scale than a 35 and a 19mm spacing vs 18mm. I know it seems like nit-picking, but there is no question about it- I can play this 6 like it's a 5 with an extension. It makes or breaks a slap technique and generally, I feel like there will be no adjustment period. Shame, because I sold a gorgeous, wonderful sounding bass by a living legend but the replacement is just as beautiful, way more comfortable for me and I am in more familiar sonic territory.
Anyone else a stickler for scale and spacing?
 
#4
Compared with the 15-16.5mm I prefer, I get totally lost on a 18-19mm spaced bass. I hate it, in fact. I play with thumb-ind-mid-ring, and my technique just gets totally thrown off if the spacing is bit.

Playing on 4 strings is usually pretty uncomfortable for me.

I like 33", I prefer 34", I used to like but can no longer stand 35", and I really like 36". Go figure.
 
#5
My preferred scale length is 33" - I can barely handle 34" which is weird because I play piano and have an unusually wide span on that instrument (wider than some classically trained pianists I know). I can also play a 42" scale double bass with no problem.
 
#6
adrian garcia said:
to me it is! I am pretty amazed how much of a difference it makes to have the right scale and spacing. In my recent experiences with a couple of six strings, I am quite surprised at how much better I do with a 34.5 scale than a 35 and a 19mm spacing vs 18mm. I know it seems like nit-picking, but there is no question about it- I can play this 6 like it's a 5 with an extension. It makes or breaks a slap technique and generally, I feel like there will be no adjustment period. Shame, because I sold a gorgeous, wonderful sounding bass by a living legend but the replacement is just as beautiful, way more comfortable for me and I am in more familiar sonic territory.
Anyone else a stickler for scale and spacing?
Click to expand...

Hey Adrian,

Did you buy AJ's F Bass BN6? Gary
 
#7
Spacing doesn't bug me. Have some intermediate spaced instruments and one wide. I enjoy 'em all. I have a friend who spaces all his 5 and 6 strings really wide.

As for scale, I play 30-35" scale basses on a 4. On 5+ I don't really care about the scale as long as the low B sounds good. Some configurations require the extra inch to have a solid low B, some know some cool tricks to get it out of 32-34" scale basses.
 
#8
I'm finding it to be less of a big deal...more about the instrument itself, to me, than the scale length. That said, I think 35"-36" is to big for me. However, between 33"-34" I can tell the difference but don't really have a preference. I think 34" is the ideal to me. Leo got it right in MANY ways.
 
#9
Spacing is a big deal for me, but I am trying to decide about scale length. I had a cheaper bass with 34" scale that was harder to play than my current bass, which is 35" scale, but when I recently played a better bass than my current one with 34" scale, it felt more comfortable. I will have to figure this out before I order my next bass (which will hopefully be my last one [at least for a few years]).
 
#10
I prefer 19mm spacing but it seems to become less relevant as I get better. I am a midlife newbie with about 2 1/2 years in playing bass the second time around. I just purchased a Carvin AC40 and found that it was quite easy to get used to the smaller spacing but I still prefer 19 and would love to someday have Carvin take thier AC50 but during production make it a 4 string. My other 3 basses all have 19mm but the 5 string is a 35" scale. Haven't experienced a major difference in scale but I am sure with more experience that a difference will be noticed.
 
#11
I know what you're saying. I had a 5 string Bongo and a Warwick FNA Jazzman 5. I was able to get up to 17mm spacing on the Warwick with the adjustable bridge, but it was still narrower than the MM. Although the tone on the Warwick was killer, I traded it on a SR5 for the spacing compatability. I sometimes wonder if I should have traded the Bongo for another Warwick. :hmm:
 
#15
Gintaras said:
I prefer 19mm spacing but it seems to become less relevant as I get better. I am a midlife newbie with about 2 1/2 years in playing bass the second time around. I just purchased a Carvin AC40 and found that it was quite easy to get used to the smaller spacing but I still prefer 19 and would love to someday have Carvin take thier AC50 but during production make it a 4 string. My other 3 basses all have 19mm but the 5 string is a 35" scale. Haven't experienced a major difference in scale but I am sure with more experience that a difference will be noticed.
Click to expand...

What? All normal 4 strings, the AC40 included, have 19mm (or roughly 3/4") spacing- that's industry standard. A 5 string Carvin neck with 4 strings on it would be more like 21mm, which is huge.
 
#17
To me, spacing is critical. I prefer wider spacing. I never liked J-bass necks when I was playing fours: I stuck with P-basses and Stingrays. Now that I'm playing fives, I gotta have 19mm at the bridge and 1-7/8" at the nut. I've owned narrower basses (Modulus, Lull), but try as I might I just never got comfy on 'em.


Scale length is not a big deal. I can deal with 34-35" equally well. Actually, I recently tried a Dingwall and didn't seem to have trouble down low on the B (37", I think?)

FWIW, I have very average hands... definitely not above average in size.
 
#19
For 6's & 7's, I've really gotten used to 35" scale and 18mm spacing. Never anything less than that, it's just too tight for me. The GT7's are much too closely spaced for my tastes.

But for both 4's & 5's, scale length is not important but 19mm spacing is ..... :cool:
 

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