Ya know what, I’ve never played a G&L bass that I didn’t lust after on some level. Even their entry level “Tribute” basses are pretty dang sweet. I own a few Fenders and a couple of Squiers, and I bet your G&L is the match for any of them. I don’t own one, but I plan to own a 2000 or an ASAT bass of some sort one day.
I’m not telling you to not get a Fender or Squier, but if you want to unload that G&L for $300, let me know. We’ll talk, at least.
Hehehe, she’s a perceptive lady, but not every GC is quite as depressing as the one you visited. Take her to the Neiman Marcus type of guitar store next time. She’ll either appreciate the charm of a ratty GC, or appreciate the level of service the extra dollar gets you at the swanky luxury places, or she’ll just learn to disdain guitar stores in general
And yeah, even if the guitar is pretty well set up (not always the case depending on your local GC), it’s not really set up for you. One of my favorite places to have guitar work done (now closed due to the owner retiring) would totally take you in the back, watch you play, and even go so far as further leveling frets to get it working for you (Really, all they had to do most of the time is raise the action some. I mercilessly beat on the thing. But they would go that far.). All included in their $80 set up fee. I’d kind of kill to find out where their techs went to work afterward. Because I knew that they could give me a fair shake at fixing any problems with an instrument I’d bought sight unseen.
I’ve been reading a bit on some other forums about short-scale basses.
Did you find that any of the ones you tried (well, any that you could stand to even attempt to play, assuming) had too much “slackness” in the strings? You know, from the comparative lack of tension.
That seems to be one thing that people complain about or try to find solutions for in the short-scale format.
Sounds about right! Sort of like Mozart or Bach…few opportunities to smear things together and put up a “wall of sound” as a first-line defense.
I have a Tribute L-2000. I’m not saying it’s not a good bass, but what I am saying is till today it is the only bass I have ever held. And for a newbie bass player, it’s a bit complicated. So, I’m looking to try other things and possibly simplify a bit until I learn bass tones. Also, not saying I’m an awesome player, but I’m not playing songs that are pounding out bar after bar of eighth notes. We do play some of those, but I think I’m fairly competent at a few more complicated songs like One Armed Scissor and Brianstorm. I know you’ll chuckle at that, but I’d rate myself an intermediate player with a lot of skill left to learn. Started off with a pick but getting better at fingers and preferring it for some of the songs that have a bit more groove to them.
If ever in north Spokane, drive on by.
These were trainwrecks. If Ibanez really ships new basses that buzz that bad, I would forever steer clear. It was a low-end bass, but still.
Thanks…I’ll look them up!
I can’t say that I played enough to know. I find my regular scale bass has a bit too much “slackness” with lighter gauge strings so maybe they won’t be my thing. Just want to try out a few other basses.
Totally understand, one’s gotta at least poke around and see if there’s anything better every once in awhile. I have a ton of basses, and I’d still love to own a L-2000. Tribute or not, every one I’ve played has been great.
If you’re interested in trying new things, my vote for the oddest basses with the most flexible sound (and it still doesn’t work in every context) are the Danelectro basses, especially the short scale ones with two pickups. They’re inexpensive, sound unique and play great. If you get a chance to try one out, do it!
Nah, you’re doing fine. You don’t have to be Rob Wright to be a good bass player. Pounding out 8th notes and doing it on time is a great way to be a bass player, and both of those songs are pretty well on their way to being Rob Wright-ish.
Hehehe, noted.
Yeah, that’s the shop’s fault, I’m sure. Having guitars on the floor with a totally non-usable setup is crazy, but I’ve seen it before.
I have a few short scale basses in my collection, such as the Danelectro mentioned above. They can seem like they’ve got sort of loose floppy strings when strung with lighter gauges or strings that don’t have a lot of rigidity. But you can always re-string it with strings you like and work on the bass. For instance, the 30" scale bass to my left is strung with Daddario flatwounds. No floppy strings there.
But I gotta do something about it’s bridge. The stupid height screws for the saddles back out when you’re playing it now, so it sabotages its own action. I’d just replace the bridge with a better one, but it’s a SX, and Fender replacement parts don’t normally fit those without adjustment.
I think it varies from one store to another. I never liked the GC in San Jose Ca when we lived there because they had a habit of never putting prices on anything.
On the other hand the one in Orlando Fl wasn’t bad: they even had a quite good guitar tech there for a while who did some decent work on a couple of my instruments. Haven’t been there for a few years though…
I had a Gibson EB3 quite some years ago. Didn’t really notice any string slackness, but it had a very restricted tonal range. Like an amplified fart, as Jack Bruce once said (he used to play one in early Cream days).
I don’t have very large hands, and at one time I worried about switching to a standard scale bass, but in the event I didn’t have any problem.
The thing about short scale basses is that there aren’t so many of them around, I think, which probably limits your range of choice somewhat? Maybe there are more available today, I haven’t really looked into it?
I’m with you there. I’m a big G&L fan and would love to have a bass in my arsenal. Gotta lay low for a bit though after showing up with my Marr Jaguar.
Hehe, I have an EB-3 - my current one’s an Epiphone long scale one, though. It actually sounds and plays really well, it’s only real shortcoming is that it’s finished like a piano. But you’d better be looking for that EB-3 tone, because it does that, and it does the EB-0 tone.
The EB-0 is “Welcome to Restricted Tonal Range Town, population: you.” I had a pretty great EB-0 when I was a kid. It played awesome! But you’d better want the sound that tuna can/mudbucker has to offer. It can do muddy if you have the tone knob up, and realllllly muddy if you turn it down. It was the perfect bass to feed into the Super-Fuzz, though, since it didn’t have any high end sounds getting in the way of the fuzzy goodness up high.
They really are a lot more common now. When I started playing around the cusp of the 70s/80s, to get a decent 30" or so scale bass your common options were to either track down a good Danelectro or a Fender Bronco, or just deal with the muddiness or throaty fart of the EB-0 and EB-3. Most of the other short scale basses were about the quality of entry-level instruments from Sears.
These days, it’s basically a smorgasbord of short scale basses. Danelectro has been resurrected and they put out a short scale bass every few years. Fender has reissued the Bronco, and it’s full-on great (I own one, but it’s loaned out at the moment). It competes with my P-Basses, since shorter scale instruments normally have more fundamental note and therefore more thump, it out-comptes all but that short scale SX P-bass copy in that department. And all of the major manufacturers seem to be making lots of short scale models: G&L, Music Man, Yamaha, Guild even makes one that’s a workable bass.
Hehe, get into a band that rents a practice space. Then you can just store it there.
(I’m kidding, don’t do that)
I have to go to the “big city” again this weekend and I found another store that I hope does some very basic playability setups on their instruments. I don’t think it has Danelectro though (I can’t find that Danelectro even lists their dealers), but I’m hoping it has some variety that will allow me to try a few out without getting pissed off.
That’s like my Squier Tele and the G&L bass. Good news is they will look good forever. They wear very slowly. My old Harmony Rocket got like one thin coat of something that seems to have evaporated over the years.
Not exactly…the difference between your modern Squier Tele/G&L Bass and the Harmony Rocket is the actual chemicals being used. Modern instruments use either a polyurethane or polyester finish, usually gooped on pretty good. Vintage instruments used a nitrocellulose-based finish which is much thinner. It also wears away much more quickly, which is why the polys were developed in the 60s and 70s. Back then, people just weren’t into natural relics, like it sounds the Rocket is starting to do. ( I love relics)
Yeah, I don’t know the process exactly, but it’s probably some kind of Akhilles-type situation where they dip the body into the poly goo all at one go. To take some of the shine off my “number one” Squier Tele, I put a greenie-type scrubbing disc on an electric drill and ended up buffing some of it off.
Not to make it look “cool” or “relic,” but it was just so much poly on it, that it displeased me, and I was kind of bored and looking for something to do after taking a file to some of the jagged fret ends. They didn’t treat the neck the same way, though, which bespeaks the company’s great restraint.
The other music store was a complete opposite of the shit Guitar Center. Basses were setup and played great. They even offered to adjust things for me mind blown emoji
They didn’t have a huge inventory and nothing short-scale. At this point, I’ve been playing my G&L enough that I think I’m adapted to “long” scale. My finger stretch can reach what I need to.
I did play proper P, J and PJ basses, and if I had to choose I would go straight P-bass. However, there wasn’t anything that convinced me that my G&L wasn’t good enough for my skill level or what I hear coming out of it (@scabpicker says “told ya so”).
I need a bass amp. The garage we play in (yes, we are a real garage band) has a bass amp that works fine for our weekly sessions: It’s a 100W, 15" Ampeg (BA-115). When I play at home I play at low-levels through my guitar amp but want to get something I’m not scared to play through lest I blow things out, and also can use if we actually play live. I played Fender Rumbles at Guitar Center as well as the better store and they sounded great but it is hard to know how it will sound with two guitars and a drummer (you can’t really turn things up) and I loved how light they are as well. I’m leaning towards the 200W version for the 15", but I’m still debating.
If Guitar Center has one on hand, go back there to try it out. You can turn up in GC. I went there to try out a GK 4x10 cab once. They had a GK MB500 head like mine, so I just plugged theirs into the cab, turned it up to stage volume and ran through a quick verse of “Fuzzy 'n Wild”.
When I got done, I turned around and the folks on the other end of the store were staring at me. So, yes, that cab is “loud enough” and it didn’t crap out when I drove it hard. I’ll take it! I don’t advise doing it for real long, but they won’t normally throw you out for being loud in there.
And yep, I told you that G&L was the equal of pretty much any Fender. I have 3 Fenders, and still lust after a G&L.
