Yes, I'd imagine the SC probably does have a similar feel to the hornless bass you've already tried. In fact, probably more so. At least, that's my experience. A lot of people who've tried my SC, with no previous experience of Alembics, describe it as feeling neck heavy and unbalanced, precisely because of the lack of a long horn. To be honest, I find the feel of Alembics suits me just fine - I tend to play with the body of the bass shifted a little to my right side, and the neck somewhat in front of me, rather than the usual 'straight across the body' stance. So short-horned basses, such as my Alembic, my Steinberger and my Status Kingbass all feel nice to me. In fact, the more traditional long-horned basses now feel somewhat awkward ... It's something you just get used to, I guess.
As for the scale, the shorter the scale, the easier it feels, I find - lighter string tension and less of a stretch between frets. With most basses, there's a loss of quality of tone with a shorter scale, but the quality of Alembic electronics seems to counteract that in my experience, so the sound of an Alembic never seems compromised by a shorter scale.
Incidentally, most SCs are 30.75 scale, I think. While you may not actually notice too much of a difference in feel from a 34 to a 32, you definitely will notice it moving from a 34 to 30.75!
Finally, regarding buying outside of the US: if you're in the US, surely the shipping charges from the UK, and the fact that the UK owner will have had to pay a premium for the bass in the first place (pound versus dollar, and international shipping charges from the US), would probably mean that you'll be paying over the odds for this and could probably find a better deal closer to home. But that's for you to decide - a bass is worth whatever you're prepared to pay for it, after all.
Good luck, and I hope you find what you're looking for soon enough, if this doesn't turn out to be it!
K.
