Just received the extra short scale bass I had custom made by Blue Star Guitar, Bruce Herron in Michigan. All in it cost $717.14. Beautiful craftsmanship, came out great, with a couple of caveats.
It's a short 22" scale, 34" long total. I had it done natural with chrome and white (I even bought a white strap). I ordered all the hardware from China, and sent it to him along with LaBella TruBass 30" nylon coated flatwound strings. To allow the 30" strings to fit a 22" scale, he made string-through holes under the bridge and a chamber on the back with anchors, covering it with the pickguard material. Now I can use any 30" strings I choose without modifying them. One problem I didn't foresee, I asked for white fret markers, but in lower light they are pretty much invisible, especially on the side, so I ordered aftermarket stick-on markers.
He custom made the bridge plate and had it chromed. I also asked for a removable thumb rest that matched the pickguard, which also came out great. Caveat here is a substantial hum that goes away when I touch the bridge or control plate. Bruce suggested either using strings without the nylon coating, or reversing the polarity of the pickup, or maybe replacing the cheap Chinese pickup with something better.
Another caveat is the insert Chinese made tuner I sent him. I didn't want to use a headstock tuner and took a chance that inserting this tuner in the side of the body would work, but being that the tuner was made for acoustic instruments, it just doesn't pick up the vibration. So instead, I bought a new D'addario headstock tuner, pulled off the bottom clamp, drilled a small hole in the corner and attached it with the lower pickguard screw. It flips up to turn on and works perfectly.
It's a short 22" scale, 34" long total. I had it done natural with chrome and white (I even bought a white strap). I ordered all the hardware from China, and sent it to him along with LaBella TruBass 30" nylon coated flatwound strings. To allow the 30" strings to fit a 22" scale, he made string-through holes under the bridge and a chamber on the back with anchors, covering it with the pickguard material. Now I can use any 30" strings I choose without modifying them. One problem I didn't foresee, I asked for white fret markers, but in lower light they are pretty much invisible, especially on the side, so I ordered aftermarket stick-on markers.
He custom made the bridge plate and had it chromed. I also asked for a removable thumb rest that matched the pickguard, which also came out great. Caveat here is a substantial hum that goes away when I touch the bridge or control plate. Bruce suggested either using strings without the nylon coating, or reversing the polarity of the pickup, or maybe replacing the cheap Chinese pickup with something better.
Another caveat is the insert Chinese made tuner I sent him. I didn't want to use a headstock tuner and took a chance that inserting this tuner in the side of the body would work, but being that the tuner was made for acoustic instruments, it just doesn't pick up the vibration. So instead, I bought a new D'addario headstock tuner, pulled off the bottom clamp, drilled a small hole in the corner and attached it with the lower pickguard screw. It flips up to turn on and works perfectly.
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