Wet Leg / Short scale bass

[foothilla]

What about electric guitars? A point that's already been made, but which you've conveniently chosen to ignore. Do tall guitarists get laughed off the stage where you're at unless they play White Falcons?
Hey, go tell Randy short people got a new reason to live: move to LA and fill guitarist positions left open by beanpoles!

Look, I get it: your bandmates are shallow. I'd get self-conscious too.

A guitar is not a bass. It's a guitar. There's a visual standard of what people expect a bass (or a guitar) to look like. When you deviate from that standard some people will find it to be visually odd.

Using the opposite spectrum as an example, if you were a mandolin player and your mandolin was the size of a guitar, many people would find that odd and think, "why is that guy's mandolin so big?"

Finding something to be visually abnormal doesn't necessarily make one shallow. If looking a bit different doesn't bother you, great. If you are a guy who doesn't like to stand out as different, that's okay too.

 

[foothilla]

Being self-conscious about the size of your bass, the brand, the color, playing with a pick, not playing with a pick, etc., is no way to go through life.

You never disliked the color of an instrument? A brand of instrument? The shape of a headstock? A haircut? A tattoo or piercing? etc., etc...
People are visually stimulated. And people are often self-conscious as to how they are visually presented. If that's not you, then you have an advantage that many of us don't have.

 

[HaphAsSard]

A guitar is not a bass. It's a guitar. There's a visual standard of what people expect a bass (or a guitar) to look like. When you deviate from that standard some people will find it to be visually odd.

Bingo. It's entirely based on preconceptions: yours and your bandmates'. You're grossly overestimating the number of people who mind: the vast majority of casual gig audience only has a vague idea which guitar the bass is, let alone expect how big it has to be. (Same as how many/few classical concert goers can tell a cello from a double bass.)
By the way, I would find it fascinating to be inside the head of someone approaching a stage, seeing an instrument-slinger from afar, then at a certain point making out the number of strings and going from "alright" to "ew, it's a Mustang bass not a strat!"

Using the opposite spectrum as an example, if you were a mandolin player and your mandolin was the size of a guitar, many people would find that odd and think, "why is that guy's mandolin so big?"

That's literally* what mandocellos are, and they look (and sound) awesome to me!


* Well, almost: you can't have a scaled-up mandolin unless you also bring down the tuning, because normal steel strings approach and pass breaking points the longer the scale, at high enough open pitches - hence my mentioning a mandocello. Conversely, a standard-tuned mandolin with a guitar-sized body would pretty much need a mandolin-length neck, which would make it look very much UNlike a mandolin-only-larger.

But that's neither here nor there. Now, a contrabass flute held transversely? I guess I would find it weird, yeah. Not overwhelmingly so as long as the Hercules-armed musician sounds like they're accomplishing what they've set out to do, is my point. And not nearly as much as a 30" scale bass in lieu of a 34" one, was also my point.

 

[gln1955]

You never disliked the color of an instrument? A brand of instrument? The shape of a headstock? A haircut? A tattoo or piercing? etc., etc...
People are visually stimulated. And people are often self-conscious as to how they are visually presented. If that's not you, then you have an advantage that many of us don't have.

I choose what bass to play on stage based on what I want to play. I've gigged the cheapest of cheap basses to custom made. Never once has that choice been because I was concerned about how I looked to anyone in the audience. I do take into consideration things like color and shape, but it's in the context of what I like, not because someone else may approve or disapprove. I hardly think I'm alone in this.

I can't even imagine what haircuts and tattoos have to do with this conversation.

 

[foothilla]

You're grossly overestimating the number of people who mind: the vast majority of casual gig audience only has a vague idea which guitar the bass is, let alone expect how big it has to be.

Have you polled the universe? What number of people does it have to be before self-consciousness is justified?

I'm a big dude and love the feel of shortscales. But I've seen video of myself playing shortscales and I don't even like how it looks proportionately. Is it okay that I don't like how they look on me?

You might not be bothered by the look, but it certainly bothers you that others might be bothered by the look.
I seem to have unintentionally triggered some kind of Napoleon Bass Complex.

 

[foothilla]

I choose what bass to play on stage based on what I want to play. I've gigged the cheapest of cheap basses to custom made. Never once has that choice been because I was concerned about how I looked to anyone in the audience. I do take into consideration things like color and shape, but it's in the context of what I like, not because someone else may approve or disapprove. I hardly think I'm alone in this.

I can't even imagine what haircuts and tattoos have to do with this conversation.

Haircuts and tattoos are random examples of contested aesthetic preference.
If you have no aesthetic preferences with basses, great. That certainly makes choosing a bass much easier for you. But trying to convince others that their visual preferences are wrong is futile. Humans are visual. To each their own.

If you want to get hired in a big city, your appearance does matter. Like it or not, the music business is a very visual one.

 

[HaphAsSard]

certainly

Soiiiiitenly...

 

[foothilla]

By the way, to the OP, I am sorry this thread got hijacked into a discussion about looks. I typically won't engage in this type of subjective debate. But the outrage over that one little harmless comment I made is literally fascinating me at this point.

 

[Wood and Wire]

Some people don't care what their instrument looks like, but many do. I had a Maruszczyk Cazpar headless that I used to take to rehearsals, because it was easy to take on my motorcycle. Bandmates were relentless about how odd the bass looked. I understood why, it didn't look like a traditional bass, particularly on a guy that is 6'4".

He cared what the bass looked like (that's why he played a Mustang), but he was 6'7" by the time he was 13 (died when he was 17), so he'd gone through the whole awkward, clumsy teenage phase, and was completely accepting of the fact that he made everything look small.

 

[Guitalia]

Oh, the old "who cares what you look like" argument.

I know people think it's cool to say that. I used to tell myself that. But the large majority of people care what they look like on stage, and they very much care what their instrument looks like. I've come to accept that some vanity is normal for most of us.

Therefore, you chose bass, since you'd look silly on stage playing a guitar with a 25" scale or thereabouts.

 

[Guitalia]

Some people don't care what their instrument looks like, but many do. I had a Maruszczyk Cazpar headless that I used to take to rehearsals, because it was easy to take on my motorcycle. Bandmates were relentless about how odd the bass looked. I understood why, it didn't look like a traditional bass, particularly on a guy that is 6'4".

As the old saying about playing in bands goes, you have to know the rules before you can obey them.

 

[HelpImaRock]

Being self-conscious about the size of your bass, the brand, the color, playing with a pick, not playing with a pick, etc., is no way to go through life.

 

[brocco]

All I need

 

[RomanS]

Not that I would care, but my short scale Guild Starfire bass is longer and wider (a lot wider) than my Fender Precision; same for the Squier Rascal, Gretsch hollowbody bass, Epiphone Rivoli, and a bunch of others. Short scale doesn't equal small size...

 

[foothilla]

Not that I would care, but my short scale Guild Starfire bass is longer and wider (a lot wider) than my Fender Precision; same for the Squier Rascal, Gretsch hollowbody bass, Epiphone Rivoli, and a bunch of others. Short scale doesn't equal small size...

Yea, I was talking about the average solid body shortscale bass, not the big semi-hollow and hollowbodies. You don't see too many players using those big mud machines these days.

 

[RomanS]

Yea, I was talking about the average solid body shortscale bass, not the semi-hollow and hollowbodies. You don't see too many players using those big mud machines these days.

There's nothing muddy at all about a Guild Starfire with Bisonics.
I've got the Starfire I with the bridge pickup only, and it's very open, growly, and punchy, more so than my Precision Bass - the pickup is pretty much in the same spot as that on a MM Stingray, and with that solid centerblock all the way from the neck to the bottom edge, it doesn't sound very "hollow" at all...

Also, the Squier Rascal IS a short scale SOLIDBODY, with about the same overall size as a J or P.

 

[burpgun]

There's nothing muddy at all about a Guild Starfire with Bisonics.
I've got the Starfire I with the bridge pickup only, and it's very open, growly, and punchy, more so than my Precision Bass - the pickup is pretty much in the same spot as that on a MM Stingray, and with that solid centerblock all the way from the neck to the bottom edge, it doesn't sound very "hollow" at all...

Also, the Squier Rascal IS a short scale SOLIDBODY, with about the same overall size as a J or P.

I’ll second that: I’ve got a Starfire I with the P style pickup and it is the brightest, grindiest bass I own. I was kind of shocked to be honest. And I used to own a Jack Casady that was like a slightly darker Precision, no mud there either.

 

[foothilla]

There is pretty much an exception to every rule. Most of the hollowbodies (and semi-hollowbodies) are cool, but very muddy. They are rarely played on stage these days, primarily because they struggle to cut through a mix. There are other exceptions, like the tiny Lakland Skyline or the Mensinger Joker.

My size and mud statement were generalized. A Starfire with a rear position pickup pinned, and the entry level Rascal, are exceptions,...not the norm.