Bass Guitar Neck Scale

The topic of bass guitar scale length comes up often when we talk about anything related to bass guitar playing. For the newbie this may be a bit confusing so I’ll try and simplify it. The neck scale of any stringed instrument refers to the length of the strings between the nut and the bridge. The smaller this distance is the closer together the frets and notes are. This length also determines how tight or loose your strings need to be and how thick the string should be for optimal tone.

Unlike six stringed guitars which have relatively standard neck scale, the bass guitar scale can be anywhere from 30″ to 36″ long. These different lengths have an effect on the tonal quality of your strings. The lower the tone is the longer the neck should be for the best sound, and vice versa. (Note all the different lengths of instruments in the violin family). A low E string on a shorter scale guitar has to be little looser then on a longer necked guitar to reach the same pitch and therefore will have a smoother sound on the longer neck. The reverse is true for the higher strings: a G string on a longer neck bass will need to be much tighter than on a short scale bass and will not ring out as much.

Some people may believe that if you have smaller hands or are really a guitar player that you should stick with a smaller scale bass. I disagree. I myself have relatively short fingers and have played guitar as my primary instrument for over 30 years and have no problems adapting to a longer scale bass. My bass of choice is a Fender Jazz (long scale - 34″) and that choice is for it’s tonal quality, especially on the low end.  The 30″ scale bassess in my opinion simply don’t cut it if you’re playing on the bottom all the time. 

As a general rule, 4 string bass guitars work in just about every scale, 5 strings should stay in the longer scales (34″ and up”) and 6 string basses should be 32″ or 34″, nothing longer or shorter, to have a decent tone. Where you play on the neck should also influence your decision: if you tend to play the higher strings go with a short scale because the high strings on a  longer scale bass guitar will have a very staccato sound. If you play in the lower end like country and blues, I would never play anything shorter than  34″ scale bass guitar because the low end will sound a little sloppy on a shorter scale bass.

Now with all of that being said, you can overcome any of those tonal issues by using custom string sets instead of standard. If you prefer the short scale you can smooth out your bottom by using thinner bottom strings which will have to be a little tighter than standard. If you play a longer scale bass you can smooth out your upper strings by using thinner upper strings which will have to be a little looser than standard. An experienced player can get the sound he wants just about out of any bass. Of course all these string changes also affect how you pluck your strings, so it becomes a very complicated matter. For the true newbie I would always recommend the 34″ scale guitar to start, since it’s the best all around scale, and then once you know the instrument a little better you may want to switch over.

One last cautionary tale for those players who may find themselves in a situation where they are playing other people’s instruments. I was once in a small band that went out to see some friends play. At the time I was the lead singer and bass player. The group on stage saw us in the audience and called us up to play a few songs. Never turning down a chance to be in front of the crowd we naturally agreed. The bass player handed me his guitar and we launched into our first song.

Of course since I’m singing I’m not looking at the guitar at all and I keep hearing these awful out of tune notes coming from the stage. It took me a while to realize it was me! Here the bass player handed me a short scale bass and I was over reaching on basically every fret past the 2nd one, sometimes playing the next note instead of the one I wanted. It was horrible trying to fight between getting my face in the mic correctly or looking at the guitar so I wouldn’t play the wrong notes. It was with out a doubt the worst experience I ever had on stage. We ended up playing three terrible songs before I could extricate myself from the stage.

Remember this story anytime someone hands you their bass.