B302-A

axiology

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Hi,
My first post on the bass forum. I just acquired this 1978 B302-A -made out of ash instead of mahogany like the B302. It's got a bit of finish cracking, buckle rash and the G's on the knobs are missing. Nice rich, clear, deep low end on the E string. I love this bass. Being a guitarist, bass is not my main instrument, but I play it for my recordings. I've been using a short scale Fender Mustang bass up until now. This is a big improvement over that. The Fenders E string tone was somewhat weak - Is that a problem with all short scale basses I wonder?

Andrew
http://www.axiology.ca

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fronobulax

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Welcome.

Define "weak", please. All my basses are short scale and I am hard pressed to answer your question, perhaps because I haven't played a long scale for nearly 35 years. It could be something to do with right hand technique if you think one string is "weaker" than the others but who knows?
 

krysh

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welcome from germany :)

sorry, but don't know about the short scale stuff, only have longscale basses 8) . (yet)
 

axiology

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What I mean by weak is - on my Fender short scale the notes on the E string below about the 5 fret don't have a very clearly defined pitch to them. I wouldn't say It starts precicely at the 5th fret but just becomes more so the lower you go on the string. You could almost play any note down there and it would be hard to tell wrong notes from right. More of a low thump than a pitched tone. It's the same with new strings or old. I had thought this might be because of the difference in string tension between long scale and short scale basses.

Andrew
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fronobulax

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axiology said:
You could almost play any note down there and it would be hard to tell wrong notes from right.

Gee, isn't that the Holy Grail for bassists? No one knows whether you're right or not.

Now that I have a description I will go play and see if I agree. Off the top of my head, I usually use "muddy" or indistinct to describe what you just did. I call my JS II "muddy" but attribute that to 30 year old flatwounds and/or the Guild humbucking PU. I don't don't notice anything like that with the Starfire (30 year old roundwounds but the Hagstrom Bi-sonic PU) or playing the B4E acoustically. It could be something to do with solid vs. hollow body since that is one more thing the JS and your Fender have in common. Anyway I'll go play, when I get a chance and try and listen to pitch and not tone.

FWIW, the Jack Casady Signature bass is a 34" scale. Since he is one of the players who put the Starfire on the map, you have to figure that he had his reasons and knew what he was doing.
 

jp

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axiology said:
I had thought this might be because of the difference in string tension between long scale and short scale basses.
I think that perhaps, this may be true, although I do not have this issue with my basses. Other short scale basses I've played have had clear well-defined tones on that frequently played part of the neck. I favor short scale basses because of the lower string tension, and both my electrics basses are short scale. The higher string tension may enable a stronger tone with more resonance and definition. Perhaps this is just the nature of the Fender Mustang bass?

Also, is this only when the bass is amplified? Could be the pickups not transmitting those lower frequencies properly.
 

danerectal

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I've had much the same issue with all the shorites I've played. Dreamlander has a JSII and king_pizza has a Squier Bronco. The Bronco may not be the best example, but with a '75 Musicmaster pickup in it, it sure bucks. Either way, the E string always seems too loose to ring out like a long scale.
 

fronobulax

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I played and paid attention to the B4E primarily because doing so removed the PU and electronics as a variable. To my ear the chromatics on the E string were clean and distinct. F did not sound like E nor F#. Since I don't have a long scale to compare to it would seem that short scale alone, is not the factor causing the indistinctness, but I am just speculating. A test might be to play with someone else and deliberately hit a wrong note and get some sense of how bad it sounds. A real good test would be to scare up one of the 34" scale JS IIs and compare. That seems to me about as close as you are going to get to identical basses except for scale length.

In addition to string tension, I expect the nut and bridge might be factors.

My gut feel is that the short scale probably is contributing to the indistinctness, in general, but not all short scale basses demonstrate the effect due to other factors such as string type and composition, nut and bridge adjustments and materials and perhaps even solid vs hollow body.
 

hieronymous

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The strings might be really old - could be worth throwing on a new set.

I dug up this short recording of one of the recent CIJ Mustang Bass reissues, with fairly new LaBella strings: "next to last" I ended up selling the bass which I kind of regret.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, don't give up on short scales! I love 'em!
 

axiology

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I may have been exagerating a bit, the sound on the lower frets of the E string of my mustang bass is not totally devoid of pitch - just relative to the B302-A it's not as well defined and clean sounding. There are of course other differences between the two basses, not just scale length that may contribute to this. For one thing I modified the mustang years ago, replacing the original p/u with a dimarzio p-bass pickup, with a coil tap. The strings were replaced not to long ago - I actually prefer the sound of it with grungy old strings.

Andrew
http://www.axiology.ca
 
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