Wet Leg / Short scale bass

[HelpImaRock]

People will say a lot of things.

Short scales aren't real basses.
Pick bassists aren't real bassists.
Double bass is the only real bass.

You're a ghost driving an electrified meat coated skeleton made from stardust, riding on a rock, hurtling through the inky blackness of eternity. Nothing matters. Play what you want.

 

[DRBP]

I heard the band Wet Leg playing live on a late night talk show recently. It looked like the bass player was using a (Mustang?) short scale bass, it sounded great. His amp rig appeared to be an older Fender tube set up. I have frequently heard that short scales don't sound as good as long scale basses. Any thoughts?

have you listened to Stanley Clarke lately…

 

[NorthTexasBass]

I mostly play 34" basses these days but short scales have a stronger fundamental and I actually prefer the D and G strings on a short scale.

You still run into dummies that say a short scale 'doesn't have any bass' or similar claims when they actually get 'bassier' than a 34" scale.

The JMJ that guy is playing is one of my favorite basses out there. It sounds more like a P Bass than a P Bass. Really cuts through a mix.

 

[bearhart74]

Excellent bass tone here...

 

[oranje]

Ya’ll keep talking smack on short scales you gonna catch these fists

 

[SactoBass]

You're a ghost driving an electrified meat coated skeleton made from stardust, riding on a rock, hurtling through the inky blackness of eternity.

IMO, that's one of the best (and most accurate) statements ever posted on TB.

 

[WG Plum]

Ya’ll keep talking smack on short scales you gonna catch these fists

Well-played.

 

[FretRiff]

Mike Watt plays a Gibson EB3.

Last several years he's played one of the two versions of his shorty signature bass.

Invalid Link Removed

 

[Jakeman]

For the kind of music I play, the places I play in, and the musicians I play with, the Fender Precision is king. If you show up with anything but a P bass, you’ll get funny looks and casual judgement. The conversations and debates among bassists around here are not about what kind of bass you play, but what year Precision you play. Since I first started playing the instrument back in high school in the 90’s, I played a Precision - one Precision in fact, my black ‘77. I had just started shaking things up the past few years, opening my mind to Gibsons and Rickenbackers, when it hit - my left hand and arm were messed up. Like, really messed up. Carpal tunnel surgery. A-1 pulley tendon release. Ulnar nerve transposition surgery. Healed up, physical therapy and all that, and started playing again - and I couldn’t make F work at the first fret. I couldn’t ride a B flat progression for any significant amount of time. I had to do what I never thought I’d do - I hung my Precision on the wall. And I turned to short scales. I can handle them. Well. The reach, the weight, all of it - it makes bass possible for me again. It started as a necessity, but you know what? For the kind of music I play, the places I play in, and the musicians I play with, it works. There is nothing quite like the sound of a short scale with the right strings and the right pickup, and people seem to dig it. Remember, it’s all ice cream - many different flavors, but it’s all ice cream.

 

[AngelCrusher]

Short scale basses have a different tone and vibe. I like it a lot . It is very pronounced. It’s not better or worse. Don’t get caught in that way of thinking.

 

[monsterthompson]

People will say a lot of things.

Short scales aren't real basses.
Pick bassists aren't real bassists.
Double bass is the only real bass.

You're a ghost driving an electrified meat coated skeleton made from stardust, riding on a rock, hurtling through the inky blackness of eternity. Nothing matters. Play what you want.

 

[Bar Band Bassman]

Alembic Stanley Clarke has none of the "limitations" mentioned above.

BBB

 

[Pep]

I heard the band Wet Leg playing live on a late night talk show recently. It looked like the bass player was using a (Mustang?) short scale bass, it sounded great. His amp rig appeared to be an older Fender tube set up. I have frequently heard that short scales don't sound as good as long scale basses. Any thoughts?

That's correct.

I disagree with this. If that were the case Justin Meldal-Johnsen wouldn’t have made it his regular player for the past 10 years.

 

[prndltech]

I’ll play my Nash mustang or a p bass or a 5 string bass or a 6 string bass… I don’t care what anyone thinks, if it works for the music then nothing else matters.

Short scales rock! I use mine any chance I can get away with it, no complaints yet!

 

[BassBrass]

A lot of 1/8th (or 1/16th depending on count) notes played with a pick in unison with the strumming in Wet Leg, (and full stop (silence), short scales are great at that. Then they stick a cool instrumental melody line on top (by the blond co writer). That and the spoken word by the performance artist co writer mixed with a spot of singing is kind of their formula. It's like these people are living on an island or something. The wall of strumming reminds me of early Stereo Lab without the 2 part vocal harmony and modulations.

 

[DJ Bebop]

It looks like he's taken a JMJ Mustang and beaten the crap out of it. They're a fun band.

Well, the JMJ Road Worn’s came that way

 

[DJ Bebop]

You're a ghost driving an electrified meat coated skeleton made from stardust, riding on a rock, hurtling through the inky blackness of eternity. Nothing matters. Play what you want.

 

[JIO]

Tell Mike Watt short scale basses don't sound good... (I double dare you)

 

[Ritter667]

Depends on the bass.

I don't think Stanley Clarke would have chosen to play short scale bass, despite being a very tall person with huge hands, who is also very accomplished on upright, if it sounded bad.

In fact he has stated in interviews that choosing to play short scale electric bass is about him preferring the tone you get from that.

Definitely different, but also very much depending on the individual bass, and not least personal preferences.

That short scale basses supposedly somehow should be inherently lesser instruments is a tenacious uninformed myth, predominantly sustained by old men that needs to compensate by the size of their instrument.

 

[BassBrass]

uninformed myth, predominantly sustained by old men that needs to compensate by the size of their instrument.

I see it in predominantly YOUNG men who have chronic debilitating self consciousness. They post here almost every day about how people make them feel about this or that, judging them, and more experienced people tell them they are cosmic dust and can make up their own rules. There comes a time when if you really look, you see that everyone has an opinion, and it's just their opinion, man. "It aint necessarily so" (an old song).