Great for anyone wanting a more comfortable, better balanced bass!

For much of bass history, they’ve been BIG. And short scales had been cheapie student models or old designs from the ‘60s that - though cool - sounded like crap, with no sustain and a muddy thud. There were a few better ideas, some of which cost nice used car prices, but no real market when we jumped into it in 2004 with the Cortobass. It was all the size, balance, and playability advantages of a shorter, lighter bass - but with NO compromise in tone!

The “Scale length” is the length of string between the nut and the bridge saddle - the “speaking length” that vibrates when played. Fenders became the industry standard at 34”. Most shorts are 30 or 30.5”, and our design is a proprietary 31”. We also optimized the comfort by keeping the bridge back to the bottom, so the neck moved in for less reach and better balance, among many other things. When you put on a Birdsong, our 1st fret is around a full-scale bass’ 3rd!

For size comparison, here are some Birdsong 4 and 5 strings with some other, standard long scale basses. The lady is Birdsong co-founder Jamie Hornbuckle back in 2006, she’s 5’3” tall. Scott’s pictured testing a Cortobass in 2007. He’s 5’3” too. It looks like a normal bass! On a bigger player, they feel like guitars. While many shrink existing designs with no compensation for what goes away tonally, and others slap together short scale offerings for some more market share or “re-issue” money with no fixes for old issues still in the designs, a Birdsong was designed “From the sound up” to be a GREAT bass that just happens to be smaller.