Here it is, the Wee Bass. Out of the box the strings were slack so I tuned it up and surprisingly found intonation to be close enough* and the truss rod set just right so there’s some relief. Even the saddle height is fine.
*as with most short scales I’ve played, the intonation of any note is sensitive to your plucking. This thing must come with maybe a 90 for the E string because it physically looks small and it can easily be plucked out of tune if you pluck too hard.
It is incredibly compact and light, but it feels appropriate for the size of the instrument. Not so light as to feel like a toy, but not super heavy like some shorties I’ve encountered. Makes my Bronco feel kind of hefty.
It has the only type of knobs a P bass should have, flat top barrel knobs.
There’s some discoloration on the headstock, as well as what seems to be polishing compound deposited in the crevices all over the bass.
The neck wood is extremely pale but the satin finish is way better than a glossed neck any day.
The nut appears evenly cut, but the slots might be a touch high. It doesn’t really matter to me given the incredibly low tension of the strings.
The tuners look to be the size of Gotoh GB7s and seem just fine. Real elephant ear paddles look so much better on the Fender headstock than Y paddles would.
There’s adhesive on the fretboard by the 3rd fret inlay. The fretboard is also pale, looks dry, and has sharp slightly sprouted frets. The frets themselves are noticeably much more brassy in color compared to every other bass I own.
There’s some machining(?) marks on the volute that don’t bother me when I’m playing.
The solid white pickguard screams cheapo. There’s that weird little notch in the pickup route. The pickup looks cheap... you can just tell a cheap pickup from a nicer one by the quality/finish of the plastic shell.
As with most Fender/Squier basses I’ve encountered, many of the pickguard screws are driven in crooked. I was able to tighten most of them to eliminate the awkward gap between the screw head and countersunk hole.
The bridge is typical cheap pot metal stuff and is simple to replace. What’s disturbing is how the screws appear to be driven in crooked and the center one has a gap between the screw head and countersunk hole. I was able to tighten all the bridge screws almost half a turn without using a ton of force.
Are these strap buttons for ants? I’ve never seen strap buttons so slender before—I can picture this thing just falling off every strap in existence today. These will be replaced.
Overall, I’m not gonna complain. I feel like it’s a good deal
if you’re in the market for a SSS (sub [or super] short scale). I got it to go silly modding a cheapo and because I want to use it for big fat fonky riffs like some of Joe Dart’s early Vulf jams.
It’s fun to play, you can shred it like a guitar, and it sounds good
with the tone rolled down. It sounds cheap and ganky when you turn up the tone. The bass is super sensitive to plucking finger location. There is a noticeable difference plucking over the EA coil and the DG coil on any given note on any string—much more pronounced than on a full scale P. This makes sense since the whole string is so much shorter, it compounds all those nuances.
The strings, like all Fender rounds, are crap. They just feel and sound cheap and they’re really light. I don’t mind the tension, as I was expecting it, but will be seeking out something a little thicker.
From the bottom end of the bridge to the E string tuner is almost exactly 31.5 inches. My plan is to drill for a string through bridge and try to get ferrules that hold the string balls as close to the backside surface of the bass as possible so I can use regular SS strings without the full string diameter winding onto the tuning post. Until then, I am going to look into using some washers or
something as a spacer to feed the strings through before the bridge to eat up some of the extra length.
For mods: The tuners are fine for now. The pickguard is just too ugly, but I need to decide if I’m going to spray paint it or something. My Bronco already has a BWB pickguard, so I can’t go black on black again. The pickup is not great, but the pots and jack seem OK. That said, why not drop a few dollars upgrading the whole wiring harness?
