Low B string on a 30" scale bass, anybody ever tried it?

[astro]

Do they make 30" scale 5 string basses with a low B? I'm curious to know if a low B string would work on a shortscale bass. Anybody ever tried? Is the scale length too short to have enough tension to tune it that low?
I'm thinking of getting a Squier Bronco bass to tune BEAD but if someone"s already tried and realized that it didn't work I won't bother!

[Embenny]

I haven't done it, but if you can have an .86 low E on a Bass VI (albeit an unsatisfactory one), there's no reason you can't add a .130 or thicker low B. Plenty of 30" basses are used in drop-D, and there are some 32" 5-strings out there, though I haven't seen any 30".

The only thing is that you might not like the tone. Personally, I find many 34" 5-strings have flubby, unsatisfactory B-strings. I'd be shocked if you were happy with the tone of a low B on a 30" scale, even if the intonation was ok (which would be another challenge).

So...can it be done? Yes. Will you like it? Probably not.

[Rob]

I've got a 28.5" Jaguar tuned to a low B. It's a little slack with regular Bass VI strings, so I've got heavy flatwounds on it now. Feels pretty good, and sounds the part.

[Embenny]

I've got a 28.5" Jaguar tuned to a low B. It's a little slack with regular Bass VI strings, so I've got heavy flatwounds on it now. Feels pretty good, and sounds the part.

I'm pretty sure he's talking about the low B of a 5-string bass...not the "low" B of a baritone. One octave down. Unless you have like a .150" string on there, I'd be shocked if you could get that going on a 28.5" scale.

[Rob]

I'm pretty sure he's talking about the low B of a 5-string bass...not the "low" B of a baritone. One octave down. Unless you have like a .150" string on there, I'd be shocked if you could get that going on a 28.5" scale.

Yeah, that makes a lot more sense. Reading comprehension fails me late at night. And I agree that it would be difficult to get a good sound out of it. I've always loved the feel of a short scale bass, but the only one I've ever owned was a constant struggle to make it sound like it wasn't a toy -- to my ears, at least.

[astro]

I did indeed mean a low B like on a 5 string bass.

I found this online:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/bass/iba ... ass-guitar

It's an Ibanez Mikro 5 string shortscale bass. I find it fugly, but if I happen to find one in a store I will try it out to see how the low B sting sounds and plays.

One problem I didn't consider until now: do they even make short scale low B bass strings? If they do, I haven't found any for sale. Which would suck for owners of the above bass if they break their B string!

[Logrinn]

I found this web site that seem to offer a lot of good information about strings for short scale basses.