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The Short-Scale Six-String Club—for the original six-string basses!

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#241
My Burns Barracuda has a bit wider spacing than the Schecter Hellcat VI

I think the Shergold Marathon 6 has wider spacing

The Hellcat can definitely sound like a bass on the low register. The Barracuda can too, at least with the neck pickup (this may just be an effect of my bridge being too high, making the strings a little far away from the other two pickups). I play bass as well as standard guitar, and I play mostly with a pick although I sometimes play bass and guitar with my fingers for certain things. I don't find the string spacing to be an issue, but maybe that's just because I'm accustomed to it. If I had thicker fingers, maybe I'd have more of a problem...
 
#245
lunarpollen said:
Damn it i can't find my tape measure anywhere... I guess I need to pick up a new one... I wonder if it's hanging out with all the picks that have gone AWOL in my apartment over the past few years....
Click to expand...

No problem, whenever you get a chance.

I measured a normal sized acoustic the other day, and it was exactly 2" from center to center at the bridge.

Have you heard of anyone making a short-scale 6-string bass that is tuned E-E, but still has a "normal" spacing (whatever that is) for playing with the fingers like a regular bass? If it is a bit narrower then the fullscale 6's that would be OK, but 2" is a bit on the narrow side.
 
#246
I measured with a ruler and it does appear exactly 2 inches at the bridge... how curious!

The other day, we had a practice and our friend (who will be filling in on drums for an upcoming show our regular drummer can't make) recorded the practice (to learn the drum parts) on his nifty digital recorder thing. it was his first live recording he'd ever done, just two mikes suspended high off to the side of the room, but it picked up everything with such amazing detail (for a practice recording, anyway... just the sound of our amps and the live drums in a living room). Due to this being his first time recording a live band, he didn't have the compression set right, so there is some "breathing and pumping" during louder parts, but otherwise overall it sounded surprisingly nice. I will hopefully get a CD copy of the recording tomorrow, and maybe I'll be able to have some sound files to share. I played my Barracuda the whole time...
 
#247
lunarpollen said:
I measured with a ruler and it does appear exactly 2 inches at the bridge... how curious!
Click to expand...

Hey, Thanks for the info, so I guess the Fender VI, the Schecter Hellcat, the Burns Barracuda, the Gretsch Jet Baritone, and probably the Danelectro all have the same spacing as a standard guitar.

I read that the neck on the MusicMan Silhouette is 2-1/4 wide at the 22nd fret, so the string spacing is probably not much wider on that one either.

Does anyone have a MM Silhouette bass they could measure? or an OLP MM5 (MM Silhouette bass clone). I wonder if these OLP MM clones any good? considering they are quite cheap. Of course the MM Silhouette bass is definitely not cheap.

I am quite surprised that no one makes a 30" scale 6-string bass designed for finger style playing. They just assume that if bass players want more strings, then you must want to go lower, and that means long scale. Or play with a pick.

Maybe building one is the way to go, except I know absolutely nothing about it.

On the upside, I'm getting better at playing basslines on my acoustic guitar! Who knows, maybe I could get used to that narrow string spacing after all.

BTW lunarpollen, have you had that Barracuda long enough that the novelty has worn off yet, which one do you like better, the Barracuda, or the Hellcat? Personally, I think the Hellcat looks better, but if I had to choose, I would go with sound first, and then build quality.
 
#248
Richard.S.Smith said:
Hey, Thanks for the info, so I guess the Fender VI, the Schecter Hellcat, the Burns Barracuda, the Gretsch Jet Baritone, and probably the Danelectro all have the same spacing as a standard guitar.

I am quite surprised that no one makes a 30" scale 6-string bass designed for finger style playing. They just assume that if bass players want more strings, then you must want to go lower, and that means long scale. Or play with a pick.

Maybe building one is the way to go, except I know absolutely nothing about it.

BTW lunarpollen, have you had that Barracuda long enough that the novelty has worn off yet, which one do you like better, the Barracuda, or the Hellcat? Personally, I think the Hellcat looks better, but if I had to choose, I would go with sound first, and then build quality.
Click to expand...

I play my Burns 6 stringer with my fingers it is standard guitar scale and in the 60s the neck was narrower than our guitarists Strat.
The attached shot is of me at a jam session with Russ Dennet ex (Human League guitarist), overall the bass is shorter that his Jackson.
 

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#249
Bassman62 said:
I play my Burns 6 stringer with my fingers it is standard guitar scale and in the 60s the neck was narrower than our guitarists Strat.
The attached shot is of me at a jam session with Russ Dennet ex (Human League guitarist), overall the bass is shorter that his Jackson.
Click to expand...

Perhaps you are right, maybe it is just a matter of getting used to it, I don't play slap bass anyway, and one of the main reasons I like the idea of a short scale six is so that you can use familiar guitar chord patterns with the left hand, and that only gets easier when the strings are closer together.

Still having trouble deciding which one to get though, Gretsch, Schecter, Burns, perhaps, I think I'd go for the MusicMan if they weren't so expensive, but the OLP MM5 looks a bit too cheap.
 
#250
the MM5 is not bad, trust me. I've had one for ages. The bottom E seems pretty solid to me. Although be aware you can't really use Fender VI strings on it cause the ball ends are too big. EB does make a silhouette set though, and they are cheaper I think than the Bass VIs.

The best thing about the MM5 is the little bit of money you have to put into it initially. If you don't like it, sell it, you can probably get close to the same amount you paid for it. Heck there were a couple that sold on ebay this last month for $189 plus $30 shipping.
 
#252
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#253
Bassman62 said:
In the early 60s we Always refered to it as the stretched 'Jaguar' which it very much resembled, the first time we saw a name band in the UK using the Bass VI was the Hollies who had Graham Nash (CSNY) in the band.
Click to expand...

The first time I really noticed one was when Jack Bruce used one on Fresh Cream.

They do look like Jags. I just used one of mine the other night at a gig and it seemed to cut through the mix better than some of my other basses. The only down side is that the G-string seems a little thinner in sound than the average four-string.
 
#254
guitfiddle0409 said:
The first time I really noticed one was when Jack Bruce used one on Fresh Cream.

They do look like Jags. I just used one of mine the other night at a gig and it seemed to cut through the mix better than some of my other basses. The only down side is that the G-string seems a little thinner in sound than the average four-string.
Click to expand...

That is the downside of the standard 0.45 'G' String these days, I tend to use a 0.55, in the 60s the standard fender 'G' string was 0.54.
I've always found the G to be weak, with the 0.55 you definately get more out of it.
 
#255
I played my first show with the Barracuda last night.

I'm definitely happy with it so far. I like it more than the Hellcat, soundwise. I still need to get the bridge height issue addressed, but that can wait for now.

I got lots of compliments about how it looked and sounded last night. There were some issues (probably due to the stage construction and wall locations) with getting a nice even sound from where I was situated... I have another show tonight at a very different venue, physically, so I am hoping I'll get a more balanced sound tonight.
 
#256
maybe i missed it, but has anyone used the gretsch 28 inch scale baritone as a short scale bass (i.e. with short scale bass strings)

no one local has a schecter, but the gretsch would be available to buy, change strings and test drive..

but if the consensus is that the 28 scale is too short, maybe its not worth the headache
 
#258
geddyentwistle said:
maybe i missed it, but has anyone used the gretsch 28 inch scale baritone as a short scale bass (i.e. with short scale bass strings)

no one local has a schecter, but the gretsch would be available to buy, change strings and test drive..

but if the consensus is that the 28 scale is too short, maybe its not worth the headache
Click to expand...

It is not too short although the nut grooves will be too narrow for Bass strings.
 
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