So educate me on the advantages of having a short scale bass?
They are more punky sounding, more subject to enharmonic
distortions, and some peeps dig that. You might just as well
ask why 34" is more prevalent than 35" for long scale basses.
For a long time, I tuned all my basses to DGCF, which is really
the same as short scale except it offers two low notes on each
string that are absent from the actual 30" basses. IOW, if you
capo a 34" DGCF bass at the 2nd fret, it's an EADG 31" bass.
All the "short scale notes" are in the same place as on a short
scale EADG bass ... there just happens to be 2 extra notes on
each string, up near the nut [without that hypothetical capo].
Acoarst the tension feels a bit different, not better or worse
but merely personal preference for some players.
Another reason for a 30" scale is the ABG. Some happen to be
34" scale but those suffer from excessively long reach to the
cash zone, and also from neck dive due to the very light body
and lack of a top horn. Even with a solid body, if the body is of
the "Les Paul" shape, the shorter neck helps alleviate the dive
and long reach resulting from the strap pin at the neck heel.
The St Vincent shape is equally problematic.
OK. Thaz "Short Scale 101". There'll be a quiz next Tuesday
