I can't decide whether to spend $250 on an Ibanez Talman TMB30 or spend over $1000 on select tonewoods from Warmoth. I've also never played a short scale bass so I don't even know if I'll like it, but I feel my trigger finger itching and I need an intervention.

They can sound good. Lots of 60s guys played them--McCartney, Bill Wyman, Jack Bruce. Fred Smith played one in Television. Tina Weymouth sometimes. Dawn Smithson got a great sound out of her Mustang bass in Jessamine. Generally kind of plump tone, full but not rich exactly, not ringing with not many overtones.

I have always played bass in quite loud bands, and I never felt like a short scale would sing properly and compete with a half-stack (or two) or heavy drums. If you look at the people up there...none of those bands have heavy drums or super loud guitars.

Personally, I do not like loose action on a bass, and the feel is way floppier on a short scale. I suppose you could size up strings, but I already use heavies so yeah no.

That's my best effort to talk you out of it, but they are fun to play and depending on what you're trying to get...YMMV.

Do it! for Holger.

I just fuck around with mine at bedroom levels, so administer as much salt as required with this opinion, depending on your specific requirements, but I do love my cheap Chinese-made Hofner Violin bass. Not a great fit for heavy heavy music, but it's a lot of fun to play, and that elastic thud it packs is kind of addictive. Needed some fettling out of the box to get the action comfortably low, but beyond that, it sounds good, plays well and weighs nothing. Oh, and the semi-pseudo-upright sound from that pickup butted right up to the fretboard is a classic bass tone for a reason.

I'm a short scale player. Born out of the fact that I never had a full scale bass that didn't have a fucked up neck. Mustang basses are nice. They feel good and not too dinky like some 30" basses can. The Squier Bronco is my jam. It is, for all intents and purposes, the modern Musicmaster. You can get one used for $100-$150 quite easily. Off the bat, it will need new tuners. I have one that's souped up with an old Schaller p bass pickup and drilled for huge Gotoh tuners. Another, I put the Bronco neck on a 60s Elektra jazz body with the same big tuning machines. I play that one all the time. Very comfortable. I like the big/standard size body with the short scale neck.

I haven't played a Talman, but I know folks who do like those Ibanez basses and they get a great sound. If I were you, I wouldn't start with the Warmoth stuff if you're not totally sure of what you want. That could be an expensive and time consuming way to find out you don't actually enjoy the short scale.

You could pop into most stores and find some to play; the Talman, Mustang, Bronco, there's also the DC Les Paul Jr. bass they put out recently. I played one of those for a minute at a GC and it was cool but felt very foreign. Picked up a Squier Mustang after that which was half (or less) the price and it played like a dream.

Nut width is a thing. I had a Squier Mikey Way Mustang with a comp stripe and sparkle finish that looked awesome, but the nut was just way too narrow. Fingering at the first 3 frets felt cramped. The Bronco is wider and much more comfortable, as was the regular Mustang I tried. I can't really speak to any others, but that's another good reason to try before you buy. Or to at least know what width is comfortable to keep in mind as you're shopping around.

...I just looked it up, and apparently the Mikey Way Mustang had the same 1.5" nut width as the Bronco. That's also the standard Fender Jazz nut width. But I swear the one I had was smaller. It did not feel right.

Split the diff and get a squier bass vi?

Most people I know who play these put flatwounds on them. Is that a correct assessment? Do they get too guitar-like with bright strings?

Throwing in another opinion. I mainly play guitar, but I have fondled a few basses in my day. The only short-scale I've ever really spent any time with, is a gretsch electromatic (I think a Junior Jet?) Anyway, it played fine, don't have much to say about the tone, as I honestly don't remember. As for playability, short-scale is fun in that you can get around the fretboard quick, but you really have to have the right string size and setup to feel right and not be buzzy/floppy.

penningtron wrote: Most people I know who play these put flatwounds on them. Is that a correct assessment? Do they get too guitar-like with bright strings?

Bass VI or short scale?

I don't have much Bass VI experience but I always use round wound strings on my short scale basses.