The Last Bass Outpost
Gear Discussion Forums => Fender Basses => Topic started by: lowend1 on August 06, 2012, 06:10:16 PM
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http://www.fender.com/products/search.php?partno=0325212507
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well, that's friggin' ugly. i wish fender would stop these combo platter basses. they must be under the illusion that they are creating something totally new. :sad: :rolleyes: :bored:
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A mudbucker and J combo on a Tele guitar body doesn't work for me. And medium scale? Bleh.
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A mudbucker and J combo on a Tele guitar body doesn't work for me.
How about this (http://www.fender.com/en-IL/products/search.php/?partno=0325202506) then?
(http://media.fmicdirect.com/squier/images/products/guitars/0325202506_frt_wmd_001.jpg)(http://media.fmicdirect.com/squier/images/products/guitars/0325202507_frt_tbn_001.png)
Personally I was never a huge fan of the Tele guitar body. But I predict a success - especially with guitarists.
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That's better. You're probably right that it will be popular with guitarists, although not as much as a 30" scale would.
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I differ. I like the new models, and because I'm a cheapskate, I'll be watching for one of the single-pickup models to hit Ebay used. At about $200 I'll grab one and check it out. I've had a yen for a tele-style bass for some time, and those look just right.
I don't really need the double-pickup model with the humbucker, so I'll watch for the classic single pickup version.
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I like it except for the jazz pup. They never look right, or sound that good, on basses other than a j bass. I've always had a soft spot in my heart for the tele body shape. if I were to buy a guitar, it would be a tele. I would buy the black one! I don't have a problem with the 32" scale. I'm playing my short scales more and enjoying them. For gigging, I've moved to the Hoffy Club and the Gretsch ThunderJet.
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That's an odd creature, but kind of cool. Definitely like the single pup version better, but a mud/P (split) combo might be cool. Seems like the neck is sunk pretty deep into the body. :-\
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Seems like the neck is sunk pretty deep into the body.
That's because it's a standard sized neck with a deeper body joint to make it short scale. I finally got to try some of the new Squiers last week. The Frank Bello signature model is just killer, and while I initially dug the single mudbucker VM longscale, after awhile, it became apparent that it was more low mids than actual big bottom like a Gibson mudbucker. This thing (http://www.fender.com/en-IL/products/modernplayer/models.php?partno=0241600539), was a blast to play, so much so that I would not even plug it into an amp and made in China to boot. It's neck is on par with a Lakland, no joke. The only bad part is that its finish is a gorgeous transparent black and not the weird brown it looks like online, and it needs a light colored pickguard.
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I like 'em they look a little weird but I like weird stuff ;) I agree the J pup would not have been my choice, now the single coil and the muddy would have been cool! Don't see to many 32 inch scale basses these days. I can't wait to try one!
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I'll be interested to see whether it balances at all....
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I'll be interested to see whether it balances at all....
I play a NR Thunderbird what would I care? ;D
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I'll be interested to see whether it balances at all....
Strap button above the 13th fret and some significant body mass behind the bridge, this could actually balance well if the body is not too light, or with Hipshot Ultralites.
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Strap button above the 13th fret and some significant body mass behind the bridge, this could actually balance well if the body is not too light, or with Hipshot Ultralites.
You are already making my bank account nervous. ;)
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My dad used to tell a corny joke about Chief Running Water and his three sons, Hot, Cold and Luke ("him not so hot"). IMHO medium scale is like Luke - not so hot. Worst of both worlds. Lacks the short scale richness and ease of playing, lacks the long scale cut, boom and punch. Bleah.
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My dad used to tell a corny joke about Chief Running Water and his three sons, Hot, Cold and Luke ("him not so hot"). IMHO medium scale is like Luke - not so hot. Worst of both worlds. Lacks the short scale richness and ease of playing, lacks the long scale cut, boom and punch. Bleah.
An exception to that rule: Gretsch 5123, proudly 32" scale....
(http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j306/apowell1/Electric%20Basses/Gretsch%20G5123B/P1010109-1.jpg)
(http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j306/apowell1/Electric%20Basses/Gretsch%20G5123B/P1010112-1.jpg)
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An exception to that rule: Gretsch 5123, proudly 32" scale....
I finally got to play one at my local GC last week.
They're gorgeous.
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That's because it's a standard sized neck with a deeper body joint to make it short scale.
??? ??? ???
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Medium scale is indeed limp, neither here nor there. Like Dave says, the E already sucketh the big one, but the D and G do not yet make up for it.
But that aside, I like the Tele guitar shape - no doubt genetically stamped by Status Quo - and always thought the Tele Bass shape dilutive.
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I prefer the Tele bass head to the present "standard" format on the P or J...
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An exception to that rule: Gretsch 5123, proudly 32" scale....
It's beautiful, all right. It's still medium scale though. Some basses of a certain scale will always sound better than others, and yours might be the best medium scale money can buy, but you can't escape the physics of scale length.
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and always thought the Tele Bass shape dilutive.
There's an exception to that rule ....... [Maxwell Smart modus] would you believe it's from dzjermanie [/Maxwell Smart modus] ...... :mrgreen:
(http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/1662/mrteetobaccoburst.jpg) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/841/mrteetobaccoburst.jpg/)
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It's beautiful, all right. It's still medium scale though. Some basses of a certain scale will always sound better than others, and yours might be the best medium scale money can buy, but you can't escape the physics of scale length.
Fair enough. Personally, I don't hear anything lacking in the sound generated by the scale lengths of any of the 30, 32 or 34" basses I have. I just consider any differences in sound to be part of the character of that instrument. But to me it's the difference between chocolate and caramel - both are great, just different.
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My 32" Gretsch 5123 sounds great and has plenty of low end. I'm really happy with it.
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It's not about lack of low end, and I don't think Uwe meant that either when he said the E sucks. For lack of a better word, it's about the presence.
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Presence? I accept all presents with open arms; sometimes they're firearms.
(http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j306/apowell1/Groucho.jpg)
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??? ??? ???
Rather than make a different neck for the shorter-scale bass that would have proper upper fret access. Fender used the same neck and body as its standard 34" Squiers and simply joined the neck deeper into the body to facilitate intonation. I have a "second" Mexi-Fender Precision that is a 35" scale because the neck joint was cut 1" too shallow at the factory. In the case of these basses, the body cutaway is 2" deeper than normal.
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Rather than make a different neck for the shorter-scale bass that would have proper upper fret access. Fender used the same neck and body as its standard 34" Squiers and simply joined the neck deeper into the body to facilitate intonation. I have a "second" Mexi-Fender Precision that is a 35" scale because the neck joint was cut 1" too shallow at the factory. In the case of these basses, the body cutaway is 2" deeper than normal.
If they use the same length neck, they'd have to fret it at different places to accommodate the different scale - right?
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^ Of course. But still the 32" Tele neck has the same number of frets as a standard 34" scale P neck. If it were a standard long scale neck there would have been 2-3 more frets there.
Plus, you can't use a long-scale neck and simply sink it 2" deeper into the body: you would have to shape the back of the neck so that the heel starts before it joins the pocket.
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It's certainly possible to use the same size neck blank for different scale lengths, but as Ilan says, they would have different numbers of frets. On a 34" scale 20 fret neck, it's 23.291" from the nut to the 20th fret. On a 32" scale neck, it's 23.020" from the nut to the 22nd fret. This new bass only has a 20 fret neck, so in this case it can't be the same size neck blank as 34" scale neck.
For any given scale length, anytime the neck is sunk further into the body (to improve balance or for style or any other reason) either the bridge has to be moved back or the neck has to be longer and have more frets. For example, a 32" scale 20-fret neck is 21.921" from nut to the last fret. That means there has to be 10.079" between the last fret and the bridge. You move that neck pocket deeper into the body, you have to move the bridge toward the butt end of the bass by the same amount because you have to maintain that 10.079" difference. But if you used a 32" scale neck with 22 or 24 frets, the distance you need between the last fret and the bridge will be shorter, so you wouldn't have to relocate the bridge as much or maybe not at all.
Hope that makes sense. The caffeine hasn't completely kicked in yet.
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If they use the same length neck, they'd have to fret it at different places to accommodate the different scale - right?
Exactly.
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^ Of course. But still the 32" Tele neck has the same number of frets as a standard 34" scale P neck. If it were a standard long scale neck there would have been 2-3 more frets there.
It's easy enough to recut fret slots for the shorter scale. I'm just saying that they used the same sized neck, rather than different size neck blanks. The last three frets on the 32" Squier are basically inaccesible because of this.
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It's easy enough to recut fret slots for the shorter scale. I'm just saying that they used the same sized neck, rather than different size neck blanks. The last three frets on the 32" Squier are basically inaccesible because of this.
Trust me, that is no impediment to me at all. I'm not even on speaking terms with those frets.
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It's easy enough to recut fret slots for the shorter scale. I'm just saying that they used the same sized neck, rather than different size neck blanks. The last three frets on the 32" Squier are basically inaccesible because of this.
They didn't use the same sized neck in this case. It's a 32" scale bass and the pic shows it has 20 frets. If it were made from the same sized neck as a 34" scale, you would see about 2" of unfretted wood past the 20th fret.
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The skeptic in me says "Squier" and maybe they didn't care about intonation. That neck just looks WAYY to set into the body. I'll have to go see if there are any at the local Guitar Satan.
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The skeptic in me says "Squier" and maybe they didn't care about intonation. That neck just looks WAYY to set into the body. I'll have to go see if there are any at the local Guitar Satan.
Squiers are the Fenders offering the most value IMO. I'd bet my house (true it ain't worth much) the VMT intonates. On a 32" Fender style neck, the heel normally attaches at about the 15th fret. Nothing has looked wrong to me as I've been watching this thread, except for the entire concept ;D. Still doesn't.
On my 32" Stratobaster, there's about a 1 inch shorter neck pocket than what I'd consider normal because I followed the existing smaller guitar pocket to be able to use an unmodded strat P/G. Fender used a full size bass pocket on the VMT is my guess. All the frets look to have decent access compared to, say, a Reverse TBird.
(http://i976.photobucket.com/albums/ae241/cata1d0/STRATOBASTER/DSC02169-1-2.jpg)
The sloppy back, note original neck hole.
(http://i976.photobucket.com/albums/ae241/cata1d0/STRATOBASTER/P1010727.jpg)
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The skeptic in me says "Squier" and maybe they didn't care about intonation. That neck just looks WAYY to set into the body. I'll have to go see if there are any at the local Guitar Satan.
I think it is set further into the body, at least it looks that way to me. But that doesn't mean it's the same neck blank as their 34" scale models. It can't be in this case.
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I think the presence argument falls down in my mind as I find the greatest influences over presence are the gain and EQ controls on my Mesa rig, IMHO of course. 8)
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You can exercise a lot of control through your rig. Still, different scale lengths sound different, there's no way around it.
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Have fun getting a piano rrring tone from a non-long scale E string. Impossible on a shortie - the harmonics just aren't there - and close to impossible on a 32" except maybe for the first two hours with a set of new strings.
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I played the one pickup version for a couple of minutes. It has three bass sounds, which are something like double bass, bass and tictac bass(?). The fattest position is great and usable. The middle one is nice to. More clarity and punch. The third one is too thin.
The body is bigger than a Tele guitar and in real life it looks quite nice.