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Permalink Reply by darryl kernaghan on January 12, 2018 at 2:53pm

https://www.stewmac.com/FretCalculator.html,                             this will work, just enter  bass instead of guitar

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Permalink Reply by Roland Wood on January 12, 2018 at 3:52pm

Thanks Darryl, I'll give that a shot.

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Permalink Reply by Titch the Clown on January 13, 2018 at 5:18pm

Ubass (ukulele bass) scale length is 50 cm or 20 inches but you need the big fat silicone strings. 

Before he had the hofner McCartney played a regular guitar with piano strings on it 66cm or 26inches. Not many do that by choice these days. 

On a modern bass guitar, 30" (76 cm) or less is considered short scale, standard (also called long) scale is 34" (86 cm) for a 4-string and 35" (89 cm) for a B-E-A-D-G 5-string, and extra-long scale basses of 36" (91 cm) also exist.

These are the sorts of numbers you need to put into the stewmac or fretfind2d fret calculator. 

The other issue is compensation. These fat strings need a lot to compensate for being bent plus having a high action to give them room to vibrate. The stewmac calculator gives some info on where to put an adjustable bridge. 

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Permalink Reply by Mark Miller on January 24, 2018 at 7:46am

Just make it fretless . The notes will find themselves

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Permalink Reply by John Sawyer on January 25, 2018 at 6:45pm

I have made 30 and 34" scale fretted and fretless... 2 string... no truss rods...

Make what you want!

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