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Travel Electric Bass

Nealotes

Nealotes

Jan 8, 2018
26
63
#1
Hello All,

I am hoping to get some help with a purchase - I Travel most every week of the year and have recently also started playing in a group again (woo). So, I am looking to get a bass to bring along with me so I can practice in my hotel. Does anyone have a recommendation for a good travel bass? or recommendations for other alternatives?
 
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#3
Nealotes said:
Hello All,

I am hoping to get some help with a purchase - I Travel most every week of the year and have recently also started playing in a group again (woo). So, I am looking to get a bass to bring along with me so I can practice in my hotel. Does anyone have a recommendation for a good travel bass? or recommendations for other alternatives?
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Please tell me the name of your band is “(woo)”. If not, I may consider grabbing that idea for myself. Haha
 
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#4
Nealotes said:
Hello All,

I am hoping to get some help with a purchase - I Travel most every week of the year and have recently also started playing in a group again (woo). So, I am looking to get a bass to bring along with me so I can practice in my hotel. Does anyone have a recommendation for a good travel bass? or recommendations for other alternatives?
Click to expand...
As Jimmy above implied, there are two different approaches, a smaller, shorter overall instrument or one with standard or slightly reduced scale but as little extra length at the two sides (headstock, wood behind the bridge) as possible and a minimal body.
These two threads (but a little forum search will surely dig up more) contain lots of suggestions as far as the two types:
Travel Bass Guitar
Looking for a most portable bass
 
#5
Depends as mentioned by everyone, you can go with a short scale, but a good alternative is a headless bass as it's full scale and has no body to speak of- absolute minimum body, no headstock. Besides, it fits in something that looks like a rifle bag - no-one's going to pick on you when traveling.
 
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#6
i have a traveler TB-4P, and while it's on the smaller side, i'd say the traveler ultra light bass is smaller widthwise and much lighter. i've owned one, but i prefer the more "normal bass" feel and medium scale of the TB-4P. they say it will fit in an overhead, so there's that.

then there are those rubbery stringed, ultra short scale uke basses like the kala ubass or the much cheaper hadean version available at rondo
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and there's the ibanez mikro. i have a couple right now - i love 'em. not sure if they fit your traveling criteria, but they have a 28.6" scale, small and comfy body and cost less than either travel guitar travel bass.
 
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#7
It's not an electric strictly speaking... I recently picked up a U-bass (the Rambler). Played it just enough to realize the rubber strings suck and will never be usable for me. Thankfully Kala now makes a metal string set (with nylon core), just installed them yesterday. Feels much better, though time will tell if it gets much use. I plan to bring it when traveling; with the tiny scale and body it doesn't feel anything like a regular bass, but at least can use it to learn tunes and keep my fingers moving.
Another option would be to get a cheap and lightweight regular size bass with bolt-on neck, and detach the neck for traveling. Someone posted on another thread that they have dis-and-re-assembled their bass dozens of times without stripping the screw holes.
 
#9
Traveler Bass - all the way! 32" scale but feels like a regular scale and has a built in headphone amp:

48F21903-CF50-47B6-B22A-6D274D2A5047_zps6i9qnitf.jpg
 
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#10
I originally bought my Steinberger XL2A for this purpose, in the late 1980s, when they were no longer in fashon but not yet expensive collectables. But what I do now, if I'm on the road for non-music work or vacation and I have material I need to learn/practice, is find a music store or pawn shop at my destination that has some cheap used basses on the wall, and make the following proposition: I'll buy it from you for your asking price, if you will promise to buy it back at the end of the week for a few dollars less. This is, basically, a rental, and I've had shops say "hey, if you want to rent it for a week, I'll do that for $20". and that's what we do. But I've found that there are a lot of shops out there who don't want to formally rent gear, but who are cool with a buy-back-for-a-little-less scenario. Particularly when I point out that I *could* be a dick, buy it, then come back a few days later demanding a full refund for one reason or another, but I ain't that kind of guy. I've done this in places as random as Hawaii and Salt Lake City. Yeah, it costs me somewhere between $10 and $30 for the week, but, frankly, not having to hassle with the bass in airports is worth it. I just travel with my little AmPlug headphone amp and some earbuds.
 
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#13
The first time I needed to take my bass on a plane, I started the same research. Happened upon the Ibanez Mikro 5, which I bought as a throwaway. It's short (28") and fits in a guitar case, and if it didn't survive the trip I wouldn't be upset.

Unfortunately, it immediately became my favorite everyday bass. Now my Warwick Thumb is in the closet, and after 25 years of playing 34", the short scale is a total joy to play. I installed an onboard preamp (doubling the cost of the bass! up to $400 now), and the tone is killer.
 
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#14
Nealotes said:
Hello All,

I am hoping to get some help with a purchase - I Travel most every week of the year and have recently also started playing in a group again (woo). So, I am looking to get a bass to bring along with me so I can practice in my hotel. Does anyone have a recommendation for a good travel bass? or recommendations for other alternatives?
Click to expand...

IME I bought a Mikro 5 but was just too small for decent playability for me. I built a custom 5 based on a Steinberger Spirit which plays awesome and fits easily in the overhead of the plane. You can find decent deals on Steinberger Synapse as well which is nice with the piezzo pickup in the bridge and travels very nicely - YMMV
 

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#16
I just traded a Traveler Original Escape of a new amp. I really liked it but it got played less than any of my basses so it was the sacrifial lamb, so to say. It is still listed on Guitar Centers website. It played good and sounded good. The built in headphone amp was a big plus but I didn’t travel enough or need to quiet practice enough to keep it. It was a nice bass that can fill a big need for people ending one to practice while traveling. I would highly recommend traveler.
 
#19
I’ll just quote my own post from that other thread:

BassUrges said:
View attachment 1152531

Here's mine. $65 pawn shop bass, some scrap maple, aluminum head I cut out, a bit of stainless tubing and bronze sleeve bearings for a bridge, and a headphone amp stuck on the back with a primitive mixer to accept input from my phone.

34" scale, 35" overall, carry it through airports in a padded rifle case. Fits easily in an overhead bin.

I've added a bit of 1/4" wire (a toilet bulb rod, actually) to accept a strap.
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