Short Or Long Scale

When it comes to bass guitar sizes as far as scale goes , We are usually talking about the length of the neck of the Bass Guitar.

With The typical scale usually being 34 inches measured from the saddle on the Bridge to the Nut on the head stock. This measurement is right for many top

brands on the public market. Like your Fenders ,Music Mans, Epiphones, Some Gibsons etc.

This is the common scale length most builders build to. And same goes with Bass Guitar String builders too. So it goes to say most of us Bass Players feel

comfortable playing a bass with a 34 inch scale length. We have learned to use this scale length without regard to the size of our bodies.

For Many players tho this scale length has actually slowed us down in our learning and in our flexibility moving about the neck.

Lets face it, not all people are made the same. And Im sure most of us Bass Players already know

there are alternatives to the 34 inch scale length of Bass Guitars.

For one is the 30 inch scale length . The 30 inch scale length has been around many years,

And a good number of Builders have consistently used the 30 inch scale with great success.

One such builder is none other than Gibson, For years they have built and put on the market the E B Series of bass guitars.

We have the Famous E B 1 Bass by Gibson That looks like a 4 string bass version of their very popular Gibson S.G. Guitar.

But there are  other scale lengths out there too. The Ashbury Bass, For a long time made by Fender, But also produced by gretch.  And tried buy a couple others as well.

This bass is not only unique in Scale Length, It sports silicone rubber strings and special piezo pickups to collect the sound of the rubber strings,

As steel or all metal strings would not make any sounds come from the ashbury bass because of metal strings require a electromagnetic pickup system to pick up and duplicate the sounds produced by the vibration of steel or metalic strings.

And The Ashbury just does not have this type of system. But the rubber strings makes it fun to play.

The Ashbury Bass is a scale of only 18 inches. But don’t be fooled by the small size of this bass guitar.

The Ashbury Bass  Produces a huge sound kinda like a full size Upright Bass Makes. People are usually shocked to hear such a big sound from the ashbury bass.

Now take the full size standup bass or Bass Viola as they are called, Although you would not play one of these in a way you would a guitar.

They do have a different scale length, And this can very from 41.3 inches to 43.3 depending if you have a 7/8 size or a 3/4 size or even a 4/4 size, Yes the Upright Bass Viola has a few different scales of its own.

And there is more many regular 5 string Bass Guitars can be found in a 35 inch scale length, And there are many brands of Bass`s that are made with 6 ,7, and even 8 strings,

And many of these long scale speciality Bass`s come in scale lengths of  35 inches ,36 inches ,and even 37 inch scale lengths, And alot of these are special custom built Bass Guitars,

One thing to be aware of when thinking about playing a long scale Bass Guitar, Is the fact about can you get strings for these Special Scale lengths ? Or would you have to have custom strings made for your bass all the time,

This could get real expensive. Bass strings already are on average about 4 to 5 times more costly than guitar strings. This could lead to a very expensive string habit…….. Something to consider

All in all alot of real tall people with very long arms, Might find the need to get a long scale bass guitar, And if you do , You can feel confident there probably is a size out there just for you.