Need short scale bass info and reccomendations

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omtayslick

New member
I'm looking for a decent short scale bass for performance and recording. As a guitar player who plays occaisional bass I would like a short scale for comfort.

And I also need a sound upgrade from the $100 beginner model I'm messing with now. I need something that sounds decent, plays comfortably, tunes well, and has a good range of sounds.

Sorry, I'm not enough of a bass player to be in tune with all the nuances, but feel free to educate me. Would like to be under $500.
 
Depending on which range of sounds you want to play with, the EB-family (and it's clones) are nice, and there are some cool hollow-bodied and chambered, semi-hollow bodied basses that have different pickup configurations that give them a good range of sound options. I have an Epiphone Allen Woody Rumblekat, and Eastwood makes some pretty cool shorties. There are also some Brice and Agile ones on Rondo's site (but I suspect that cheaper may not be the most essential part of the equation for you).
 
I've got a Rondo shortscale Jazz bass that I've been very happy with. But I haven't really been using it as a normal bass (more of a guitar), so my experiences may not reflect yours.
 
If you are primarily a guitar player you will love how these play and feel
I just bought one in a long scale and love everything about it.
click pic

 
I had a great ivory EB copy short scale with 2 pickups, tone & vol controls.
back in the mid 70's it was hell to get the strings for it downunder.
Oh, Coronet - no name but it was good.
The guitarist in the band had the same make & style for rhythm guitar - add that to our velvet suits, long hair and a song list that ranged from ZZTop to Sherbet with some originals thrown in & we looked and were the period for pop schlop.
But the bass was quite good and at AUS$70 in 1974 quite expensive - it'd rate as a lawsuit made in japan good thing these days.
 
More info about the Epiphone Elitist EB3 SG Bass.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Epiphone-Elitist-EB3-Bass-Guitar?sku=518411

I bought one (cherry finish), like in the link that stevieb posted, but through American Musical Supply via their 3 payment plan. When it first arrived, the pickup selector switch was broken, but I contacted AMS for an RMA, and they even sent me a UPS sticker so I could ship it back at no expense for me. The replacement arrived ready to play.

In looking at the archived product description, for the Elitist model, I am reminded of another difference between the two, aside from the scale lengths, in that the Elitist models were made in the U.S. I also noticed that Gibson/Epiphone's short bass scale is 1/2" longer than Fender's short bass scale (Bronco, Mustang, Jaguar).

Matt
 
omtayslick said:
Yes. But it only shows the body of the bass. No headstock, etc.
Click to expand...

apparently you have no idea what I am talking about:rolleyes:
if you will scroll back up to the picture and left click on it will open up the page that will give you all the details of this Jay Turser short scale hollow body bass.
 
Yeah, it does not look short in the pic, but I know Epi makes a SG-type bass that IS short scale. A bit more digging will reveal it, I am sure.
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no, like i already said, the epi EB3 is not a short scale bass.

i'm just trying to help by preventing bad information.


it helps to do some research before posting things that are not true.
 
GONZO-X said:
no, like i already said, the epi EB3 is not a short scale bass.

i'm just trying to help by preventing bad information.


it helps to do some research before posting things that are not true.
Click to expand...

Apparently you didn't check out the link I provided, about the Epiphone Elitist EB3 SG Bass. If you had, you would have seen that it has a 30 1/2" scale neck, which unless I've had a stroke recently is the same as the Gibson EB3 SG Bass. There is the unfortunate part about the Elitist no longer being produced, but I'd tried out several cheaper non-Elitist Epiphone EB3 SG Basses (with the 34" scale neck), and they were close enough to the others, tone wise, that I eventually bought one, once I'd saw the price had dropped to $300.00.

I'm not necessarily trying to call you out, on this. I was merely providing information about what's out there, in the way of EB3 SG Bass choices. If one wants, they can buy a brand spanking new Epiphone EB3 SG Bass with the 34" scale neck, or if the can afford it the Gibson EB3 SG Bass with the 30 1/2" scale neck, but if one wants an Epiphone Elitist EB3 SG Bass, also with a 30 1/2" scale neck, they'll have to look for a used one.

Personally, I fell in love with the tones available from the EB3 SG Bass, when I nearly scored a used Gibson nearly 20 years ago. I had it on lay-away at a local store, and had made several payments on it, then something came up that dictated me spending money elsewhere, so I had no other choice but to give up the lay-away. It was probably 10 years later that I found out that Jack Bruce played a Gibson EB3, when he was with Cream, so I really can't claim to have been influenced by that, in my love for the EB3...I just tell people that "sometimes, when I'm playing around with my EB3, I'll start playing Sunshine Of Your Love, and pretend that I'm Jack Bruce with Cream." I love my Fender Precision Bass, as well, but if I really want to get lowdown, I'll grab my EB3. :)

Matt
 
VomitHatSteve said:
I've got a Rondo shortscale Jazz bass that I've been very happy with. But I haven't really been using it as a normal bass (more of a guitar), so my experiences may not reflect yours.
Click to expand...

+1 here - with that budget of yours you can get 2 or 3 short-scales at Rondo and still have money to upgrade if desired.

I recommend the violin bass (30" scale) - that'll sound nice with flatwounds
an SX P-bass (or they also have P/J) - for the "everything" - those are fantastic basses for the money (and then some)

and since you have the money and you record, also grab a fretless version of the P or P/J or J - always nice to record fretless.
 
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