Does a quarter size acoustic bass exist? A good Intermediate bass book

C

carsoste

New member
Hi,
I've been playing bass for about a year now. I started learning to play so that I could be able to overdub bass tracks onto recordings of songs that I've written on guitar and piano and have been making good progress. Since, I'm a relative novice on bass, I've got two questions that I was hoping someone out there could answer. First, when I'm traveling somewhere for just a short period and not gigging, I take a 1/4 size acoustic guitar with me and that works great. Is there such a thing as a 1/4 size acoustic bass guitar? If so, how much do they typically cost? If so, what's a good site online to purchase one from?
Secondly, I've been learning to play bass with a book entitled," The Ultimate Beginner Series Bass Basics," by Alfred. It teaches one everything from basic fretting and picking techniques to common bass lines, and ends on teaching slap and pop techniques. Does anyone know of a good teaching bass book that I could purchase that follows up on the things taught in this book possibly at an Intermediate level? If so, what is it called?
Well, those are my questions. I hope that you can answer them.
Thank you.
carsoste
 
carsoste said:
Hi,
I've been playing bass for about a year now. I started learning to play so that I could be able to overdub bass tracks onto recordings of songs that I've written on guitar and piano and have been making good progress. Since, I'm a relative novice on bass, I've got two questions that I was hoping someone out there could answer. First, when I'm traveling somewhere for just a short period and not gigging, I take a 1/4 size acoustic guitar with me and that works great. Is there such a thing as a 1/4 size acoustic bass guitar? If so, how much do they typically cost? If so, what's a good site online to purchase one from?
Secondly, I've been learning to play bass with a book entitled," The Ultimate Beginner Series Bass Basics," by Alfred. It teaches one everything from basic fretting and picking techniques to common bass lines, and ends on teaching slap and pop techniques. Does anyone know of a good teaching bass book that I could purchase that follows up on the things taught in this book possibly at an Intermediate level? If so, what is it called?
Well, those are my questions. I hope that you can answer them.
Thank you.
carsoste
Click to expand...

Surely you mean 3/4 size. A quarter size guitar would have a scale length of between 6 and 7 inches. :D
 
Fernandez makes (made?) a small bass that is, as I recall, 3/4 size and has a very small "standing elephant" shaped body.
 
ggunn said:
Surely you mean 3/4 size. A quarter size guitar would have a scale length of between 6 and 7 inches. :D
Click to expand...

The fractional scale is just a naming convention, not actual proportions. I have a 1/4 scale guitar for the kids, it has a 17" scale length. You'll find the same sort of convention with the whole string family.

For example, there are 1/2 and 1/4 scale string basses (upright). The 'normal' size for an upright bass is 3/4; you don't often see 4/4 uprights outside of specialty use in orchestras.

Acoustic bass guitars are a different matter; there might be one out there but since there isn't a student market for short-scale acoustic basses they are probably hard to find. There are plenty of short-scale electric basses at 30", I think that's about 1/8 size for a string bass.

It might be possible to convert an acoustic guitar to a short-scale bass, but I imagine that would take a bit of work.
 
Thanks for all the gret replies

Hi everybody:
Thanks for all of the great replies. That ashboury bass looks cool and sounds pretty good too from what I've heard. Guess I've got to start saving for one.
Thanks again.
carsoste
 
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