Wouldn't anyone play a metric bass?

[gln1955]

The recent threads about scales got me thinking that I'd never seen a bass built on anything but Imperial units for the scale length. Even the top notch European builders spec their scales in even inches with an odd number metric equivalent listed. It's remarkable that this is so engrained in the industry that builders who use metric for everything else in their lives would design basses with inches.

I'm sure someone will bring up some metric European basses to prove me wrong and that's OK.

 

[RickyT]

What difference does it make? If someone told you their bass was 88.9cm would you not play it? Would it be more enticing?
It's just the norm.

 

[Craig4003]

It's because the musical instrument business is international. The USA is the biggest single market and if your product isn't measured in inches most Americans will have no idea what size it is but will have the suspicion that your product is somehow a threat to their way of life and the purity of their precious bodily fluids.

 

[saabfender]

Because it would be confusing to lazy, small American brains like mine. How many centimeters in a deciliter? Stupid Europeans and their hoity-toity elitist units of measurement. They think they're so smart.

 

[AHaze]

Have a look at the Ric website. Scale length is listed first as 84.5 cm with 33 1/4" listed behind it in brackets. Sorry America, you lose!

 

[Rib 13]

darn...I thought this thread was going to be about the band Metric

 

[Slater]

Who has an 87cm scale bass?

 

[NMTB]

Valid question. Countries who do not officially use the metric system are marked in red:

 

[Craig4003]

This graph, however, is more to the point:

 

[saabfender]

A soccer ball? Really?

 

[/\/\3phist0]

A soccer ball? Really?

Don't you mean Football?
(It's what every other country calls that sport) you know, the same places that use the metic system.

 

[saabfender]

Football is a real man's game that leaves men battered and crippled for life. Soccer is what suburbanites take their not-particularly-athletic kids to play on the weekend. See the difference?

 

[gregouille23]

@saabfender, I am afraid you re not even joking So let me fix that for you:

In the US, Football is a real man's game that leaves men battered and crippled for life. Soccer is what suburbanites take their not-particularly-athletic kids to play on the weekend. See the difference?

There is a world out there you know right? And in this world, pretty much every kid kicks around a ball. A soccer ball as you would call it

 

[Flamingo21]

The recent threads about scales got me thinking that I'd never seen a bass built on anything but Imperial units for the scale length.

I live in one of the metric countries, and I sometimes come across a bass spec sheet that gives a metric-only scale.

And whenever that happens, I run to my measuring tape (which has both metric and imperial markings) to find out what scale they are talking about.

So yes, I think imperial scale lengths are ingrained in today's world. Certainly in mine.

 

[ProfFrink]

"Why would anyone play a base that isn't metric?"

Fixed it for you

 

[NMTB]

This graph, however, is more to the point:

View attachment 3232566

There ya go. 75% of the world economy operates with the metric system.

 

[Dan Knowlton]

Have a look at the Ric website. Scale length is listed first as 84.5 cm with 33 1/4" listed behind it in brackets. Sorry America, you lose!

Not so far, we haven't!

Dan

 

[el murdoque]

My bass has a 35" scale and a string spacing of 19mm.

I don't know why, but in scale lengths, inches it is.

 

[dxb]

String gauge and speaker diameter are measured in inches too.

 

[Leo Thunder]

A 39.37" scale bass? Nah, that's a clumsy number.