Bass #3

[kdh]

I'm 55 years old. When I was 11 I played trombone as my dad did and I decided to play bass, as my neighborhood of split-level ranches outside of Boston already had a drummer and a guitar player.

Bass 1: Fender Musicmaster. Red. Sold for $100 to buy #2:

B2: 1978 (CBS) Precision Bass. $280 without a case. Ash body, maple neck, a tree of an instrument. DiMarzio pickup, wired out volume and tone controls to go straight to compression, an MXR dyna comp. Rotosound roundwounds. Good sound for Geddy and Squire covers in my glam band in the 70s and 80s, and some bass-centric originals about physics.

Bass 3: Still play with those guys. Fun. I have always wanted a straight through neck on a minimalist bass that is all about accurate reproduction of string vibration. I'm thinking short scale Essence. I'm small, and the end of the neck has always been a stretch.

I'm over the moon thinking about how perfect this community is for my dream bass.

[tbrannon]

Welcome.   Read up.... there is a ton of great information on here to be had.  So much knowledge and freely shared with all. This is my favorite corner of the internet.

[jazzyvee]

Welcome the forum. There is an area for essence basses here. I'd suggest having a good read here and find out what these basses can offer you.
http://club.alembic.com/index.php?board=693.0

Even with a short scale alembic bass it can still be a stretch to the first position as I know with my short scale stanley clarke  signature it doesn't feel much less of a stretch than my elan 4 bass. But one of the things you may see in different pictures of alembics is the bridge is sometimes located closer to the end of the body which would make first position closer to your body and make for an easier stretch. That is something I have no doubt you could specify on an new build alembic. I vaguely recall reading it here years back as a way of getting the striking zone in the right place for playing slap bass.

Let us know how you get on with your search.