I’m definitely working through what I like in a Bass now that I’m one year into playing. I’ve tried a Schecter Diamond, Squire Jazz, Sterling Stingray short-scale and an Ibanez Mikro. I’m short with small hands - so I’m loving the short scales. 30" is perfect (the ~28" Mikro actually feels cramped.) Tone-wise I think I’m a J-bass guy.
So now, what are my options for a 30" Jazz.? There are some fairly hard to find Fender 30" Jazz basses out there but even though Fender calls them a “Jazz bass” they have PJ pickup configurations and so it’s not really the same. I see the Ursa 2 Jr from Rondo which is exactly what I’m looking for - but I’ve never heard of them and the price point seems like I’m probably not getting quality there.
Vintage Modified Jaguar? Does it sound substantially similar to a J because of two single coil pickups that look like J-J configuration to me?
And I’m as handy as a snake - so I’m not going down any DIY routes. Any suggestions?
Ashdown makes the Grail they had one on Reverb a few weeks back for 650.00 if would have had a maple fretboard I would have bought it. Public peace is two company’s in one… Makes great bass guitars there custom made. The Elwood by Maruszczyk are awesome. They have a configurator were you can build it before you buy it. www.public-peace.de
I actually have 2 Elwoods. 30" scale. I also have a Cazpar made by Mensinger there other company it also can have JJ pick up on it. There custom so probably you can have JJ on any model. Not sure if all models come in 30" scale. You can email Adrian. I have a distributor I used her in the states and he can get you a better deal. I have his email.
On Reverb these basses come from Japan look very much like Mustang basses. Search Atelier Z baby Z 4J. There a little expensive made in Japan. I actually saw there basses at the NAMM show 2 years ago . Great quality bass guitars. Yeah right you were at the NAMM show.
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Thanks so much. This is exactly the advice I was looking for; a bunch of suggestions, brands and makers I’ve never heard of and aren’t readily “google-able” because they get lost among the much larger volume makers.
That Elwood with the maple fretboard in burst looks pretty awesome. So that’s where I’ll start.
We need some kind of short scale afficionado badge so we can find and get advice from each other!
I’m guessing other custom manufacturer’s have similar options, but Marusszczyk lays it all out - the math says there must be 100,000+ possible combinations. And now it’s just 3 measly G’s for an absolutely custom 30" Jazz bass. (All kidding aside, I’m just glad to know that when the time comes I’ll be able to get exactly what I want in design, hardware, electronics and aesthetics - and although ~$3000 isn’t pocket change it’s actually less than I thought a virtually 100% custom would run.)
@Jazzbass19 Definitely just on the list! But realistically on the list - now that I know that 30" custom J-Basses are out there without much trouble to get them, I’m almost certain to get there eventually.
For now, I’d rather slowly sink that same amount into in-person lessons over the next year or two (now that we can all find vaccinated instructors). Maybe $30 for the instructor and $30 for the “short-jazz piggy bank” every few weeks. Then at some point I can reward myself for the hard work. When someone can say to me something like, “lets do a medium tempo blues in C minor” - and I can reliably pull out a reasonable walking bass line to go with it - that’s when I pull the trigger!
Cliff Bordwell make one awesome handcrafted bass for around same price or less. I have a custom S bass from him. If you message me I’ll give you a distributor for public peace here in the states and he’ll save a couple hundred dollars.
Only thing about Cliff there about 1 year waiting time till you get your bass. He can only do so many basses a year. He’s a one man show. Super cool dude to talk about your bass.
Doesn’t look like JJ is an option in 30". Their configurator has a scale option - but you can’t actually use it. It’s 30" for that Lionel and 34" for everything else. You can’t actually customize scale.
Yeah, that’s why I said it was just a P-Bass pickup. Nice basses though. Wasn’t sure how sold you were on JJ. I have JJ, but am open to all pickup configs really as I feel (personally) that it only matters a lot for slap (better on JJ) which is a style I don’t play. We all will probably have different opinions on this though. If you want a JJ then you should get one for sure.
