The Piccolo Bass, 4 String, 5 String, String Setups, Update

This is an update on an old Blog.   Yes, apparently the Piccolo Bass concept is catching on.  It seems that Ibanez is making a 5-String Bass.  Yes, they string it with regular strings, but it is perfect for setting up as a Piccolo.  Here is a Review I wrote for it, followed by that Blog from years ago.

 

Ibanez GSRM25 Mikro 5-String Strung For Piccolo Duty

About 3 years ago I was doing a lot of practice with my 5 String Fender Marcus Miller (if you don’t know what that is, it is like an active Fender Jazz Bass but with a 7.25 inch radius neck), and it was a lot of fun, but I wish I had something with a higher voice.  Guitars aren’t the answer because only a Bass, with its 16.5 mm clearance between strings lets you get in between strings for some serious finger picking, where guitars have only 10mm of clearance which would keep you on the surface top of the strings you were attacking and you’d always be buzzing the other strings unintentionally.   Well, I got lucky when the sales guy at my local guitar shop, a friend of mine, gave me a heads up that there was such a thing as “piccolo” bass strings (about half the diameter of regular bass strings that are meant to be tuned an octave higher).  So I bought a fender Mustang 30 inch scale 4 string to prove in the concept.  They have “sets” of piccolo strings in round wound, but you can order single strings in flat wound.   So I went with flats.  With flats, if you oil them with olive oil, then after a few days the olive oil will congeal in the micro spacings between the winds and the strings will become almost perfectly smooth, which has a great feel, and you can slide between notes without unpleasant ‘winde screaching’ while retaining a more pure actual 'slide' between the tones.   But 4 string basses are limited, and I liked 5 String.  So I decided to convert my Signature Marcus Miller to Piccolo (the guys at the local Music Shop thought it was sacrilege) by removing the fat B and E strings, and them moving the A D and G strings to the 3 fattest slots, and for the two thin slots I bought a .032 flat chrome and a .020 plain bass string.   So that gave me a sort of “Piccolo 5 String” but it was tuned a bit low to A D G C F (on a 30 inch scale Bass the strings were already very very tight for a B E A D G tuning, which would have been impossible for a 34 inch scale, where those extra 4 inches is worth the two top frets -- a full tone lower).  The Marcus Miller Jazz Bass conversion  proved in great and I have been playing it that way for the last 3 years now.   But, yeah, that thing is heavy (scales at 11 pounds with my nice leather strap).  

Anyway, that same salesman recently spotted the Ibanez GSRM25 Mikro 5-String.  My local shop did not have one in stock, and Ibanez was currently waiting for its next production run and so my shop couldn't order one in, but the Mikro was in stock at Musician’s Friend.  So I got one.   I was curious as to what a really high voice would be like with my style of playing and so at first I strung it with regular guitar strings (had I had to run small finishing nails through the small guitar string retainer buttons because the guitar buttons were so small that they would just slip through the little bass's bridge string retainer holes.  Oh, if 'you' should decide to try out playing a Mikro with guitar strings,  remember to bend the nail into a loop and trim with wire cutters so that the gagged ends of the nails don’t scratch your shiny brand new bass).  I got the Mikro intonated and set up the truss rod adjust just right, but, well, those very thin strings are very grabby on my old calloused finger tips, and, well, the voice was too high.  Experiment over!  So I decided to string it for Piccolo duty.  I peeled off the strings from my Fender 5 String and put them on this 28.5 Scale Micro.  The only problem I had was when  I was beginning to wind the .080 “A” string (which can tune to B in the Mikro because of the much shorter scale) when the central core of the string broke (you know the core breaks because the string just buckles to a sharp angle, still hanging on by the windings).  I figured trying to wrap such big windings around the tuners had something to do with it with the break, and so because I still had enough string to connect to the tuner, I peeled down the chrome windings (you just ‘unwind’ it), and it strung on just fine).  Then I put a fresh set of strings  on my Fender MM, that is, I used a set of 4 Regular Bass Strings, Chrome Flats, and a .032 Chrome Flat so that the Bass would be tuned to E A D G C.   I have the little Ibanez tuned like a 5 String Picollo should be tuned , that is B E A D G (.080, .065, .045, 032, .020P) .   The little Ibanez is passive which sounds thin after having played an Active Marcus Miller, which is why I also bought the BOSS Equalizer GE7 Pedal, which in addition to having 7 slide pots for equalization is also a pretty good pre-amp.   Well, the package sounds great.  The Truss Rod adjust works.  It intonated along the full length of the neck.  I was able to play the songs that I had been playing with my 34 inch scale Marcus Miller and the sound quality was, well, it seemed just as good.  And it is light as a feather (7 pounds with big leather strap.  It seems less than half as heavy as a big standard 5 string which is 11 pounds which is only 4 pounds heavier, and I think that is because while 'weight' is 'weight', lifting requires 'force and work' which are 'square functions', that is, as weight doubles, the lifting effort squares to 4 times.  In that sense, we can think of the Mikro's 7 pounds as requiring 7 squared or 49 'Grunt Units' while the Standard 5 String at 11 pounds lifts up at 11 squared or 121 Grunt Units, which is just how it feels.)   Oh, by the way, I had assumed that the string spacing was standard for a Bass at 16.5mm, but when I was looking into the possibility of swapping out the saddles for a more traditional look, I actually measured the saddle widths of the Mikro and they were 16mm even (the saddles I was measuring them against were 18.5mm). You know, I thought the string gap was a little close when I was playing it, but since I wasn't catching my fingers, I thought I had been delusional.  But, as it works out the strings being half a millimeter closer caused no harm.  But perhaps the reach to the fattest string is a little bit easier now.  So maybe the none-standard bridge and string spacing is a blessing in this case.    

........

I was delighted when I learned there was such a thing as the Piccolo Bass.  I play a number of stringed instruments, especially instruments in the Guitar Family.  But the Stringed Instruments that I can Play most expressively are the Basses (… but of course there are the Violins, but I’m always afraid that I will poke somebody’s eye out with those pointy little bows…).   The primary Reason accounting for this more-than-ordinary ‘Expressiveness’ in the Basses is that they have Way More Clearance between their Stings.  One can really get one’s fingers in There without fear of bumping into the wrong strings, and this really helps with regulating the Feel and Intensity of one’s Playing – one can go from a mere whisper by just gently rubbing the side of a string to the ‘bullet shot’ of hooking a finger under the string and giving it a good hard pull, and all without touching the Volume Knob.   That kind of Expressiveness needs a bit of ‘elbow room’.   With Guitars, well, the strings are so close together that one is tempted to always use Picks, and since it’s so difficult to isolate individual strings, well, nearly all playing is done in chords and intervals, which Sounds Great… when that is what you want, but sometimes wouldn’t we rather enjoy Finger Picking out some lovely little lilting melody or some subtle and intriguing Arpeggio?   So for some Songs, some Styles and some Sounds, well, the Guitar is simply Not exactly the Right Instrument, though we must all admit that a great many Guitar Players manage to do rather well against those Limitations.    But the Bass is not exactly perfect by any means either, is it?... and it’s kind of obvious what Its Biggest Problem is – it’s simply Too Low.  What good is having an Instrument with sufficient Clearance between the Strings to be Melodically Beautiful if all the Notes come out sounding like a distant thunder? 

But, let me start my Story -- there I was, practicing the Bass, doing the best I could, but knowing that nearly everything I could do on the Bass was too darn Low from where it ought to have been.   So I kept wondering what I could do about it…

I was almost ready to buy a Seven String Guitar, so I could install just 4 Strings, leaving every other String Slot empty, and that would have given me Twice as much Clearance between Strings as any normal Electric Guitar.   But that seemed like a bit Too Much Clearance (Electric Guitar strings are spaced about 10mm apart, while Basses are 15mm or 16mm).  Then one day I got lucky when a Salesman at the local guitar shop had heard about something that he thought I would be interested in and he researched it out for me – he told me of existence of the Piccolo Bass.  Wow!... For me, the Piccolo Bass Idea represented an Instrument in the Bass & Guitar Family with close to Optimum Tonal Range AND with plenty of clearance between strings.

The only Piccolo Basses I have heard of so far are the Short Scale (30”) 4 String Piccolos.  Their Strings are the SAME Notes as the 4 thickest Strings on the Guitar – E A D G.   I would suppose that Many a Musical Sceptic would suggest that a Piccolo Bass is “Just Like a Guitar, only Two Strings Less”.  So why not just get a guitar!?  Well, that Objection is certainly True Enough, if taken solely in view of its own tightly focused Logic.  With that being the case, well, if there is any justification for the Existence of the Piccolo Bass at all, it has to be because of its more Optimum String Spacing. 

The Piccolo Basses I have heard about are converted Fender (or Squire) Mustang 4-String Basses.  They come as regular ‘Low-Note’ Basses, and so you have to swap out the strings to make the ‘Piccolo Conversion’.  D’Addario sells  a Set of Strings for the Piccolo 4 String – the Skinny G (.020) string is a Plain Wire String (sounds Great!) and the other three strings are Round Wound (.052, .042, .032)– which is not so great if you like Flat Wound.  But if you don’t mind ordering strings singly, you can get Flat Wounds in .050, .040, and .032 (Ernie Ball and D’Addario sell them) – I strung my own Mustang Piccolo with Flats (Ernie Ball .050 and .040, and a D’Addario .032) and I am quite pleased with how it worked out. 

Oh, there is a kind of a Lucky Peculiarity with the Set of Strings that D’Addario sells for the Piccolo Bass – that while the String Set is designed to have the correct Tension on a 30 inch Scale (to be tuned to E A D G), the strings are actually “Long” Enough to be installed on a 34 inch Long Scale Bass… which is most Fender Basses.  But those Strings are REALLY Tight even on the shorter 30’ Scale, and so I would be afraid to tune them to E A D G on a Long Scale Bass – either the Strings would Snap or your Poor Finger Tips would go raw and bloody trying to pluck at the rigidly stiff things.  I read over the Famous D’Addario String Tension Chart PDF for several hours trying to see if I could identify any suitable strings for a Long Scale Piccolo Bass (tuned to B E A D G)… well the Deal Stoppers there are the two thinnest Strings, the D and G, as there are no Long Scale Strings about ‘a half notch’ lighter than the .032 and the .020P.  So if you wanted to Convert  Long Scale Bass to Piccolo duty it seems that one would have no choice but to drop the Tuning a full Note (two Frets) lower.   Such a Drop Tuning would give you a 4-String Long-Scale Piccolo Bass tuned to D G C F*.  If you had a 5-String Bass, it would become an A D G C F.   The Splendid Coincidence about A D G C F Tuning is that a Standard Bass ALREADY has an A D and G Strings… you just have to move them from One Side of the Neck to the Other.  I already converted my 5-String Fender Jazz Bass – it works and sounds great.

*Note:   After playing the Fender 5 String 34 Inch Scale Piccolo Bass turned to A D G C F with the string tension feeling about medium to tight , going back to the 30 Inch Scale tuned to E A D G where the string tension is Really Tight and Stiff, I retuned the Short Four String Piccolo down to D G C F.  I lost a bit of Top Range, but I gained in comfort.   

Oh, I sort of accidentally stumbled upon Something that maybe not everybody knows already.  You see, because I am now practicing with both a 4-String Short Scale E A D G Piccolo, and a 5-String Long Scale A D G C F Piccolo (two frets Lower than  a “E A D G”), I was a bit surprised when I found that I could jump between the two different Tunings and Scales with such ease, and I was unwilling to just suppose that it was because I was somehow ‘that good’.  You see, incidentally, I have been studying Math  (can’t play music All the Time), and it occurred to me to compare the Two Different Tunings and Scales with some precise Exponential Mathematics… and then a straight edge ruler just to Make Sure.   It turns out that while the Tuning of Each Piccolo Bass is one Full Note apart (two frets), the Fret Sizes for the SAME ACTUAL Notes are practically identical (for instance, the 12^th ‘Double Dot’ Fret on the 30” Scale Piccolo is a ‘G’, and that fret is virtually the same size as the ‘G’ Fret on the Long Scale Piccolo which is played two frets further down).   What we can Infer from that is that IF you plan to have both a Short Scale Piccolo and a Long Scale Piccolo, well, you shouldn’t worry that you may have to drop the Tuning of the Long Scale Bass down a couple of notches, since such tuning actually Preserves the Same Spacing between the ‘Fret Notes’ from One Bass to the Other… you just have to slide up or down the neck depending on which Piccolo you pick up to play.  

Oh, by the way, that Same Note-to-Fret close similarity exists for the other Common Guitar and Bass Scales – Using the Long Scale 34” Bass as our reference, the next Scale down is the 32” Medium Scale Bass (a Half Step or One Fret Higher),  then comes the 30” Short Scale Bass (2 Frets Higher), the 28 ½” Baritone Guitar Scale (3 Frets Higher), the new 27” Electric Baritone Guitar Scale (4 Frets Higher), and of course the Guitar at 25” which is 5 Frets or a ‘full String’ higher.  Theoretically you should be able to use the Same Strings on every one of those Scales, just tuning to the Higher Note made possible by the Shorter Scale (But on the Practical Level, Strings in the 25” ‘Guitar Scale come in a greater variety and are far more affordable).

So, with all that being said, I am relatively Happy with my Piccolo Basses – the 5-String Jazz Bass and the Little 4-String Mustang Conversions,  But What If I Could have Anything I Want…and if it did not already Exist, I could just snap my fingers to make it magically appear ?   Well, such a Thought makes me wonder whether the Piccolo IDEA is really the best of All Possible Ideas, for an instrument intended to be played in its Intended Style?   Yes, the Piccolo Bass is a great deal better than Nothing.   BUT if I could design the Optimum Instrument for that ‘Kind of Thing’, well, and it would be on the same 25” Scale as ordinary Electric Guitars and it would use 5 regular scale Guitar Strings.  Well, I suppose there should be a 4-String Version for the people who find the Narrower 4-String Neck ‘Faster’ and more ‘User Friendly’.  The 4-String application would not require a wider neck to permit 16.6mm of Clearance between Strings, but a 5-String would need a Neck the same Width as a 5-String Bass.   Also, Such an Instrument could be tuned ‘One String’ or even ‘Two Strings’ higher than the Piccolo Bass.  It would certainly be more versatile in its tuning options and possibilities.   With the Wide String Spacing, such an Instrument would be Expressive in a Whole Different Way than the usual Electric Guitar.  The World could use an Instrument like that!   Just look at how the Music Industry works now… nobody wonders that a Lead Guitar Player is playing essentially the SAME Instrument as the guy playing Rhythm.  The Lead Guitar Player must necessarily be cramped inside the Limitations of his Instrument.  Really Creative and Expressive Music, when it IS done nowadays, well, it has to be done with all that Acoustic Stuff, because the Acoustic People have a larger choice of Instrumentation, but, well, then you lose the Electric Sound… and Everything you can DO with Electric Sound.   So, anyway, I think there is a Gap in the Potential for Electric Music, and that a 4 or 5-String  Instrument with Wide String Spacing but on the Same Scale as the good ol’ Standard  Guitar could jump into that Breach. Hmmm… what to call such an Instrument?   With the String Spacing of a Bass but being of the same size and appearance as a Guitar, well, such a Cross Breed could be called a ‘Bass-tar’ – wouldn’t That be a catchy enough Name?

Well, to conclude… since Anything Better does not seem to Exist yet, I DO Hope the Piccolo Phenomena Catches On so that People can begin to see the Stylistic Possibilities for That Kind of Instrument.