Mmmmm, Mosrite Bass vs. Fender P-Bass.

[oipunkguy]

here's an idea. how about you try out a mark II mosrite bass from fillmore? it's a mosrite bass, but a slab body ventures 2 design, but it has a single p bass style pickup in it. sounds like a perfect marriage to me

[Haole Jim]

Physics.

A Precision Bass has a 34 inch scale. The Ventures is 30 1/2 inch. Therefore the strings on the P have to be at higher tension than on the Mo to achieve the same pitch. The same diameter string at a longer length and higher tension also has additional mass.

Personally, 'love the short scale bases for exactly what they offer; play it as a melody or low-parallel-melody one, like Jack Bruce did in Cream with a short EB-0 and Fender VI instrument, like a tenor saxaphone.

Play a 34 inch when one wants the "original electric bass" experience.

[Nokie]

Physics.

A Precision Bass has a 34 inch scale. The Ventures is 30 1/2 inch. Therefore the strings on the P have to be at higher tension than on the Mo to achieve the same pitch. The same diameter string at a longer length and higher tension also has additional mass.

Personally, 'love the short scale bases for exactly what they offer; play it as a melody or low-parallel-melody one, like Jack Bruce did in Cream with a short EB-0 and Fender VI instrument, like a tenor saxaphone.

Play a 34 inch when one wants the "original electric bass" experience.

I think yours is the best explanation, Jim, as to why pickups really aren't gonna get ya where ya wanna go. I make the scale length argument when folks look for pickups that will make their Strat sound like a Mosrite or vise versa.
-Marty

[Brian]

Thanks for all of the replies. . . I build cars and can tell you anything you want to know about early Ford suspensions, but when it comes to instruments, how and why they sound the way they do I'm completely in the dark.

Lots of good info here, that when I think about it makes perfect sense, thanks again.

[jfine]

The scale length does have something to do with it, but an even more important factor is pickup placement. Single-pickup Mosrite basses, like Gibson EB-O's, have the pickup right up against the end of the fingerboard, where it will pick up mostly fundamental and not much overtones (harmonics), and the overtones are where your definition comes from. I guess the rationalization was that it's a bass, so it shouldn't have any treble at all. If you look at the pickup placement on a Precision (or a Mustang bass, for that matter), you'll see that it's closer to the bridge than to the neck, in a position to pick up more overtones. That's how the aforementioned Jim Rodford was able to get a pretty well-defined sound with his short-scale Mustang bass. Back in the mid-'70's, I played in a country band with a bass player who used a Gibson EB-O through a Kustom head into a Sunn 2-15" cabinet, played with her thumb, and set the treble all the way down. She got a tone resembling a 500-pound marshmallow falling off a ten-story building...

[paulramon1962]

Back in the mid-'70's, I played in a country band with a bass player who used a Gibson EB-O through a Kustom head into a Sunn 2-15" cabinet, played with her thumb, and set the treble all the way down. She got a tone resembling a 500-pound marshmallow falling off a ten-story building...

This made me giggle. I kind of want to hear this.

[surf-liner]

I agree with the idea of changing simple (and cheaper) things first. I use GHS Brite Flats on both Mosrite and Mustang basses. On the Mustang, I usually dial the tone off a bit so the sound is not too bright.