Elementary School Math

[Happy Face]

I saw some example of what kids are supposed to wrestle with on math proficiancy exams. (No spell check here ??)

But thanks to the theory of the hypotenuse, my personal selection of bass guitars makes sense. Due to my small hands, I need a short or narrow neck. Or some combination thereof. A skinny short scale is ideal, but I rarely notice when I swap over to my Rickenbacker.

BUT, I'll warn any of you to try a Rickenbacker bass before you try it. The difference between neck radiuses and profiles are pretty amazing.

 

[fronobulax]

My spell checker is built into the browser. I miss it when I use a different browser.

I was attributing small hand "problems" to scale length and eventually discovered, as you did, that neck profile is at least as important, if not more so. Luckily for me the neck profiles in my vast sample of Pilots (two) are the same.

 

[jte]

Having taught for so many years, I seldom found anyone who couldn't play a long-scale bass (assuming the neck/body joint was in a position that the first fret was so far away as to be impractical, like Gibson Thundebird). It's very much about using proper technique- keep your thumb down in the back of the neck, being relaxed, and practicing technique.

Having owned a few skinny-necked instruments, I found that the critical dimension is not the neck width at the nut (side-to-side dimension), but rather the depth of the neck front-to-back. I had a Fender Geddy Lee, which has a notoriously skinny neck- but it's rather deep front to back and that force my left wrist and elbow to move to a place that caused real problems with my shoulder. Going to my Fender VS '62 Precision, which is an very early model (I bought it new in April 1983, from the first batch of the US Vintage stuff that actually got out to dealers) was so much more comfortable. That bass has a neck that's a full 1.75" wide at the nut, but VERY shallow front-to-back.

John

 

[Happy Face]

Nteresting jte. I defer to you as a bass sensei!

In fact, when I put a Gibby EB-3 back into my hands after 20 years, it felt real familiar, but not so comfortable anymore.