I’m trying to find a short scale bass, and the only thing I can find is the Ybanez GSRM20 Mikro. Are there any others out there or is that it. Does anyone have a short scale instrument? Anyone know anything about the Ybanez? The reviews on the Guitar Center website are all very positive. Thanks!
Ibanez (like the other Japanese guitar makers) is a very high quality manufacturer. I’m glad you mentioned that bass because I am considering it for my next bass as well, a few months down the line 
People seem to love it and the reviews online are all great. Sounds great on Youtube but I have not been to a store to play one yet. I would love to hear others experiences as well.
I’m considering it because I decided if I get a second bass (lol who am I kidding, when I get a second bass) I want it to be pretty different from my current one. So I was thinking a short scale or a 5-string, and I found that one at a great price point.
This review makes it sound like it has great tone:
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4 string shorts are pretty easy to find… 689 listings on Reverb…
I’ve been scouring the internet for the last few weeks for a short scale 5 string… not so easy to find.
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Ditto that, @howard . . . 
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Welcome aboard, @pflesher . . .
There’s plenty to look at from the link that @Korrigan posted 
Good luck in your search and see you around the Forums!
All best, Joe
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Great post! I am just learning at age 60 and loving it. Great course, Josh!
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I bought a Horner and love it. It is short scale and has a narrower neck - great for my smallish hands. It is also very light weight.
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Welcome to the forums, @tlprether . . .
Good luck in Josh’s course and with your Horner bass, too!
All best, Joe
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Welcome to the forum @pflesher and @tlprether!
Like @Korrigan said, there are lots of short scale 4 strings to choose from! The Fender Mustang basses are particularly sexy… But yeah, also options from Squier, Hofner, Gibson, Eastwood, and more.
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Now this is totally weird - Ibanez doesn’t appear to offer the MiKro basses domestically here. They are on the US site but not the Japan site, and none of the Japanese retailer usual suspects have them (at least in their online stores). So if I want one here it would be like $500. Um, no. Too many other options in that price range (like, new Epiphones are way less), or I could just buy one in the US for $180 and carry it back at that price.
I’ll have to run by one of the stores and ask. Bummer, at the US price point that’s actually a pretty compelling little bass.
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Hmm. It also sounds like the Mikros have the same bass boost as the GSR200.
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I have the Ibanez Mikro. It is the shortest. Other SS bases are slightly longer. The result I found was difficulty playing in the high octave. With small hands it is difficult getting around the mounting fixture where the fret board connects. Otherwise it has great sound and holds tuning well.
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The fact that there’s a high quality short-scale 5-string for $200 is pretty damn compelling. It absolutely destroys the ESP tone-wise in this vid:
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It’s a kinda weird comparison - the ESP has a P pickup, and the Mikro has J pickups, so the P is gonna sound more muffly in comparison no matter what. He should have compared the Mikro with the neck pickup soloed to compare apples to apples.
But I do wanna check out the Mikro, it’s fun to play short scale with giant hands.
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Yeah that’s a good point - he tries a bunch of different settings but he keeps them the same on each so to get that comparison you need to listen to different parts of the vid.
He talks about it in a TalkBass thread and makes the point that he loves both of them
There’s a really excellent picture later in that thread of them side by side with full scale basses on one end and a Strat on the other:
I am currently loving the idea of a short or medium scale 5-string and that just might be my next bass. The Mikro is super short, at 28.6" - it must be tiny. Sounds really cute.
Lots of good options though. I want to go play with a Warwick short or medium scale somewhere because the RockBass lines are pretty reasonably priced.
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I went looking for a Mikro today and didn’t find one. I did find a ton (like, 10 or more) of cute used Yamaha MB-40 and RBX-40s in the same rough price range as a new Mikro, though. Very nice 32” P/J. I played one for a bit and it was super easy to play. Really, really light. Seems like a fun little bass. I was surprised by how much different the slightly smaller scale was.
I also found a whole bunch of inexpensive full size Warwicks but that’s another story.
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Man I keep thinking about those little Motion Basses. That’s a bad sign
I think the one I was playing actually sounded better than this one (minus the playing, of course), though I guess it was going through a big head unit and guitar store stack:
I also found out Ibanez is shipping a new 32" SR this year and it’s in the same price range as the SR300 and TRBX304:
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Sounds as if you’re coming down with “Guitar Acquisition Syndrome”, @howard
Take two aspirin and call me in the morning! 
All best, Joe
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HAHA, that Ibanez ad is so horrible! This comment on the video said it best…
People who are clearly models and not actual bass students - check.
Footage of people pretending to play that doesn’t match the audio - check.
Ibanez needs to take their commercial production back in house, apparently! Yikes.
Anyway, both those basses look cool! Can’t wait to review a bunch of short scales sometime.
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IT IS SO BAD!
I liked the other comment of “Is… is this an Apple commercial?”
Guitar looks pretty cool though. If it is actually an SR in that scale anyway and not just a misuse of the SR line name.
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