Yes Paul, you are bad! That banjo is an original bass from the 1910's. It still has its original calf skin head. It is a 36 scale. I've never heard anything like it. I use it with this ragtime band I play with. I'm still looking for a bass uke! LOL! EEWWWW....that picture post is revealing!
Jazzyvee: Yes, mine is a schort scale. I believe I talked about the shortscale-6 string thing in a former posted message (archived under the general discussion area 4/20/03- titled short scale/tuning). Floppy B strings are the average. You have to find one the is high tension like some by DR or Ken Smith. I've had those KS strings on when I bought the bass. They have been boiled at least six times and still sound great!! At this point, I don't know what the model KS the string is. I have also minimized the floppiness by changing the 'angle of incline' of the string from the bridge to the tailpiece. I've made the angle steeper. You have to file the tailpiece down and also recut the slots making them deeper. That does it well....one tite axxed B.
Making the neck longer would make the bass neck heavy. I don't notice a heavy neck on my SC bass.
