i have a short scale Ibanez Mikkro, that i love...

and i paid $120 new for it, with a gig bag.

i used it to record the bass tracks on 3 of the last 10 songs i had on my latest album.

if i were to upgrade the pickups, and get a fret dressing, it'd be a killer bass.

Sorry Rain, I didn't answer...I don't consider myself a bassist
but I play a Geddy Lee.

Bapu has a great point. The SR500M lists a 1.496" nut width - My bass
measures 1.505".

I also have Trilian. I had it when I bought my bass.

From a size/effort standpoint, bass is a much more difficult instrument to play. It's the nature of the beast - scale lengths are longer, string tension is much higher, "low" action on a bass might be really "high" for a guitar player, and strings (especially roundwounds) will rip up your fingers if you don't have calluses. So make sure your expectations are in order.

There are also technique differences - for instance bass players will sometimes just use the first, second and pinky fingers to cover 3 frets rather than stretching. And bass players wouldn't generally wrap their hands all the way around the neck either. And you learn to unconsciously pivot on your thumb to do position shifts (small and large) rather than leave your hand in place (you're probably not playing chords or staying in the box). 

Having said that, shorter scales can be helpful to some, but there are some compromises involved. I don't see skinny necks as particularly beneficial, though many people prefer them. And I always recommend basses with easily replaceable/upgradeable Fender-style components.

Hi,

Here's for me!

http://www.status-graphite.com/status/frames/index_home.html

The 5 string for me!
 
Or I might endup getting this one instead:
 
http://www.fender.com/products/americandeluxe/american-deluxe-precision-bass
For now I have an EB-3 (Epiphone/cheap Gibson) which is the long scale version of the EB-0 ... sadly, both of these do not have anywhere near the quality or ability of the original EB-0 that I regret letting go ... and I really think that th epegs in the other direction had something to do with it. It sustained better, too!

Of course there are other possibilities.  Everyone knows how popular the bass theme for Seinfeld is, yet that is actually played on a synth!

craigb


Of course there are other possibilities.  Everyone knows how popular the bass theme for Seinfeld is, yet that is actually played on a synth!

Not sure if the music is what made the show popular. One of my favorite shows of all time and I HATE that slap bass!

Lots of great suggestions guys! Short-scale may be an option - plus, my wife always wanted to learn to play bass, but a full size one would be way too big fore her. Getting one that we can both use would be terrific.

I'm currently using Scarbee most of the time, but, it's a drag to play realistically on the keyboard, considering that, being a guitarist, I could get the track nailed much more intuitively and quicker using the actual instrument. I entertain no illusion that I'd record great bass lines, but, you know, just something that works and sits in the back nicely. It'd actually be easier to come up w/ something that flies under the radar than it is w/ sample and a keyboard - there's just a lot of work to achieve something that won't call attention to itself w/o being too repetitive or unnatural.

Plus, writing grooves on bass is so much fun. :P

Yeah, shortscale are certainly more female friendly. I have a tiny friend who got into playing bass and used a full scale for years (mine actually). The thing was almost as tall as her. It was pretty hilarious watching her play (she's quite good though... I taught her a bunch of stuff when she started and she took to it very very well). Eventually she got herself a shortscale bass that fit her WAY better. I picked it up a couple of times and you could just fly on that little thing. I didn't really like the slackness of the strings though but it sounded good.

I'm confident she'd be pretty good, pretty quickly, being that she's a musician already, can read music, has good ear and great sense of rhythm. But yeah, she's tiny, even w/ high heels. She could probably hide behind a Fender Jazz. ;)