I have now changed my avatar to the full length shot - with my pal Bruno the dawg.
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The Squier Mini Precision Bass Club
- Thread starter sabre79
- Start date
I have now changed my avatar to the full length shot - with my pal Bruno the dawg.
What do you think?
I think it is a perfect fit. Loving it.
Seller does a very nice job. Shaped these very nicely.
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Very much of it, yes.
Fender could still pull up their socks, and commission someone to make specific strings for the Mini-P.
Or a major string maker could decide to give it a whirl.
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As now currently both Ibanez, ESP, Jackson and now also Squier (Fender) offers a 28,6" (28,5" for the ESP) scale bass model in their lineup it seems like it would be about time someone would make strings specifically fitting this scale length.
As it is now to my knowledge only Ibanez offers a single set fitting this scale length, and those are not exactly great strings either.
I noticed the other night that the Mini is just like a Precision with a wide 1.75" neck scaled down, same proportions, so although the nut is only 1.5", the rest of the bass is scaled down accordingly and I don't feel cramped. The same goes for the Bronco, just a bit bigger. Basically they both have a squarish 1st fret, as opposed to the long and narrow 1st fret of a long scale Jazz neck.~
It's interesting that you like the wider nut on a regular P, but not on the Mini-P, which has the same nut width as a Jazz.
I can tolerate a narrower nut width better on a longer scale neck than on a shorter one, but still prefer wider in general.
Enough space ? - Prob'ly not.
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If I could like your post 100x, it would not be enough !!!
And I own none of these basses [had a Mikro for a while].
As for the Ibanez strings, they are pre-cut to fit an Ibanez Mikro - According to Volker's hands-on experience, the G is too short for a Mini-P.
EDIT : I do not think that I knew about the ESP ones.
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Yes, I ran the math after you mentioned this earlier today, and it's true, it comes to ever so slightly under 1.5", if you multiply 1.75" x 28.6 / 34.
My brain gets it, but my hands would not, based upon recalling my brief period with an Ibanez Mikro.
I think that I could be OK on a Bronco, with its 1.6" nut and 30" scale, especially a Shell Pink one !
My Gibson SG bass has a 1.6" nut and 30.5" scale, and it felt not too out of place, last time I played it.
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If I could like your post 100x, it would not be enough !!!
And I own none of these basses [had a Mikro for a while].
As for the Ibanez strings, they are pre-cut to only fit an Ibanez Mikro, according to Volker's hands-on experience.
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I own both a GSRM20 4 string Mikro and a GSRM25 5 string Mikro and they are both mind boggling great basses considering the low price they are sold for.
Both had as good as perfect fretwork from factory, especially the 5 string can get insanely low action, lower than I ever would go, without any fret buzz, and the 4 string can still go low enough to fit my personal preferences perfectly.
Further more the 4 string got about the most stable neck I ever had on any of the basses and guitars I've owned and holds tuning extremely well.
Only thing about these basses that I am not exactly crazy about are the stock pickups, that in my opinion frankly sucks, especially the J pickups on the 5 string, but that can relatively easily be fixed, though of course that is going to increase the price, but in my opinion these basses are totally worth a proper pickup upgrade.
The 4 string was my main for several years (up until less than a month ago where I decided to go back to playing full scale bass and took a plunge into the deep end buying my first 6 string bass, an Ibanez ST306EB, which I now consider my main bass), initially having a set of EMG Geezer Butler P/J pickups installed, and current just a DiMarzio Model P with the J pickup disconnected.
I consider having the 5 string routed for 2 blade soapbar humbuckers and converting it to a 6 string, like sort of a Fender Bass VI type instrument, but with much less cramped string spacing.
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Doubtful.
Remember, TB is only a small fraction of the bass playing world. Further, if I recall the math, us Mini P players are only 0.000022% of TB.
Many people never change their strings. Ever.
Those of us adventurous enough to own a Mini have mostly found decent 3rd party strings, be they off-the-shelf, special order, or windings on the tuner post.
The customer base for 28.5" scale specific bass strings is quite small, and already has a "major player" (Ibanez).
From what I gather, custom (round)wound strings are in the same general price range as DR Neons, Thomastik, Deep Talkin' Bass, and their ilk. So they're not that bad an option.
So yeah, no. I don't expect to see GHS Mini Scale Precision Flats or Ernie Ball Mini Slinkys anytime soon.
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I emailed Scott at Stringjoy about this. It's a tough market for string makers, because less basses are sold than guitars, and the scale lengths change more widely than most electric guitar strings. Plus, bass players tend to keep their strings on longer than guitar players.
That said, if you'd like them to make strings specifically for 28.6ish scale basses, drop them a line and let them know. It's a business, so if it makes some business sense, they'll do it.
I'm not brand specific about this. We gotta let them know our interest, and buy their strings when they offer what we ask for.
I think I'm going to write him about shipping to Germany as soon as I get paid.Does anybody know the bore diameter of the stock tuners on the Mini P?
If I buy this bass I plan to swap the tuners for the Gotoh GB350 which have a 16 millimeter bore diameter or the Gotoh GB707 which have a 14 millimeter bore diameter.
I would like to avoid any elephant ear tuning machines and those Gotohs look like the best way to go but I don't want to have to enlarge the existing holes or drill new ones.
If I buy this bass I plan to swap the tuners for the Gotoh GB350 which have a 16 millimeter bore diameter or the Gotoh GB707 which have a 14 millimeter bore diameter.
I would like to avoid any elephant ear tuning machines and those Gotohs look like the best way to go but I don't want to have to enlarge the existing holes or drill new ones.
Pretty sure someone here said the GB707 are a perfect drop-in, sorry I don't remember the name of the user.
That was me. GB707s are a Perfect drop in replacement - both the diameter and the alignment of the screw. No drilling required.
If you wind up going for it, if you have the means, it would be great to get the weights of each tuner.
I failed to weigh them before the swap, but I'm pretty sure the 707s are lighter than the stock tuners.
I really like the look and feel of the compact 707s.
This is a picture of just the first tuner swapped:
GB707 close up:
I just recently purchased one of these and converted it to be played left-handed for my 8-year-old son who wouldn't leave my Fender Precision Bass Jr alone. But before I turned it into a lefty, I spent some time with it and it was actually pretty badass. Definitely not as nice as my fender which has a gloss neck with skunk stripe, 3ply pick guard and string through body bridge but the addition of the tone control was cool, as the original Fender version only features a volume knob. Seriously contemplated on picking up another one for me and retiring the Fender for a while.
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I have no doubts that the Mini-P sounds decent.
Shrink my hands to match, and I'll think about it.
There is no sane reason to do what makes a person uncomfortable.
There are plenty of other bass[es] in the pond [joke] - and bass guitars too.
And as I'm sure you know, the Bronco is 1.6" at the nut, which is as narrow as I can comfortably go, and it is 30" scale.
More details to come in a longish post about my basses bought and tried during the last several years, after playing only a Ric 4001 [1.6875" {1+11/16"} at the nut, 33.25" scale] since 1974.
Oh, and I just did buy an instrument.
How about someone congratulating me for THAT !
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Congratulations on your new bass!
I hear you about finding a smaller neck uncomfortable. I do find it less noticeable on the Mini P than on other 1.5" due to the fact the whole instruments is a smaller size. The neck is so much closer to your body that my fretting hand is at a different angle than on a normal short scale, which seems to help.
But if it's not for you, it's not for you. Although I have a feeling that if a used one popped up online at a reasonable price you would give it a shot.
I will probably go for it and will weigh the tuners and will report.
I am only waiting for the (virtual) Winter NAMM just to see if Fender will bring a version of the Mini P with a maple fretboard, if not I will buy the laurel fretboard one.
I am also hoping for an American Professional Mustang with just one pickup (to me the American Performer with the added J pickup looks wrong) and the option for top-loading and thru-body stringing.
And, I am also hoping to see some FSR of the Precision with a decent pickup (cannot stand the V-Mod) and more similar to the 2012-2016 American Standard which in my opinion were the best Precision basses ever made by Fender (I regret having stupidly sold my 2014 American Standard Precision).
2021 is the 70th anniversary of the P-bass, so it might be interesting to see what new P-bass models will come out, maybe also MIA short scale, who knows.
Anyway, I just have to wait until end January and then I will make a definite decision.
That would certainly be a first for Mustang basses. They have always been either thru-body OR top-loading.
