“What the Heck is a Piccolo Bass?” 

I never knew I needed a piccolo bass before this video

I think the strings on piccolo bass are pretty strong. If you look at some live recordings of Manowar's Joey Demaio, in the end of the concerts He twist and bends the strings before he rips them off.

Excellent overview of the what & why of piccolo basses! I used to try and tune 34 scales with piccolo strings but never really had great results, and then I finally got a 30 scale, and now i love it. I now have 2 brice 30 scale piccolo basses (a 5 & 6 string). I also love your answer to “why not just play guitar?”. Exactly, I suck at guitar! :) Glad to find your channel, and your piccolo bass sounds great 👍🏻

I have first heard a piccolo bass through charles berthoud. He has a standard size Le Fay Herr Schwarz with D-tuners in red with piccolo strings. He usually uses C-G-C-G or B#-F#-B#-F# tuning or anything with the same intervals. His work astonished me, especially the usage of the d-tuners as well. I literally had never heard a bass sound like that before ever in my life. His songs "Luna" or "Gravity" show how much power a piccolo bass has. And he had the idea of piccolo bass from Grant Stinnett and maybe Micheal Manring. Grant's "Run of the angels" uses the same tuning and he even has the same bass, except in black

I love a Corvette with black hardware, looks sick and sounds even better. Great vid.

You have definitely inspired me to convert one of mine to a piccolo bass.

Love the concept of B.O.A.! Definitely using that! Great video!

"well why dont you just play guitar? well i suck at playing guitar" 🤣 Im a guitarist that sucks at playing bass, so i play a 6 string bass for the familiarity 😂

i love experimenting with weird instruments Mark Sandman/POTUSA/Starcrawler style, having guitars with less strings and basses tuned really high. Definitely would love to try a piccolo bass, see how it works with a more regular guitar rig.

Thanks for this !

I agree with everything you said especially on the do’s and Don’ts like don’t try to tune up an octave on a long scale with regular bass strings. Get a short scale with genuine piccolo bass strings so you can get the expression of a lead instrument. I have a sterling stingray with a nice array of pedals which I never had before so we bass players can have fun with toys too. Next on my radar is a Warwick Corvette short scale like yours. I used to own one and It’s a much better (more costly too) bass but worth every penny.

Why is no one commenting about the fact that he is playing a short scale Warwick bass? 😍

cheers, mate! 🎉 definitely thinking about it. been looking at basses, plectrum banjos, and ukuleles. thinking now about a violin bass with piccolo strings

Nice explanation and great sounding playing...

For quite a few years, I've wanted to have a longer (than a strat) scale 4 or even 5 string guitar because I'm a big dude (6'8" 275 lb.) , and unless I'm playing sitting, I look like a dork playing a ukulele when I play my telecaster. Also have large hands which sometimes makes certain chords or playing lead in the high register difficult. I found out that several string makers make piccolo bass string sets. Voila! I'm totally sold on this concept.

Awesome video cool playing

Hmm I think I want me one, great video, great information

Joey DeMaio has entered the chat.

I've been playing solo acoustic gigs on my Alvarez acoustic piccolo basses for about 15 years now - because I also suck at guitar! It's that whole pick thing. I don't like a middleman between me and what I want to play, lol.

Reading about Joey from Manowar's bass brought me here. Great video.

it's a bass with guitar strings

I like Midwest emo and math Rock so I like playing chords and tapping on my bass, I might get piccolo strings because I hate having to use a capo on a pretty high fret

I have a Danelectro Hodad bass that I converted to a Piccolo . . . sounds very cool with Lipstick pickups!

How did I miss this?

Another video of you play3,please? I don't know how I missed this one!😯

Nice introduction to the piccolo bass - thanks! I use a Chowny SWB short scale as a piccolo, and I have a second one tuned as a tenor (ADGC). Since almost any (preferably short scale - to keep string tension reasonable at the higher pitch) bass can be used as a piccolo, some discussion of strings might have been useful, since in the end, that’s what defines the piccolo bass. The only piccolo string set I’ve been able to find are GHS Boomers. I’d be interested to know what you use.

Piccolo Bass. The most oxymoron instrument I have ever seen.

I currently have two Squier Affinity Jaguar Basses. Was thinking of getting a Squier Sonic Bronco Bass and converting that to be my own piccolo bass.

I need to see what a piccolo bass sounds like with an octave divider

Stanley Clarke slaps on piccolo. Therefore, COOL.

This Is the way to resurrect my basses.. i'll go piccolo!!!!!

I just set my Hofner violin bass with piccolo strings and having a lot of fun. As I sing my own songs is great to comping myself with chords 👌🏻 thanks! Do you agree with piccolo strings sound better in a short scale bass?

Are there any 6 string piccolo basses? Would be pretty funny

Sounds really nice. What strings do you use?

i put piccolo bass strings on my zon 5 strung A D G C F but i could never get in to playing it. i though it would have been cool to play it with an octave effect..

Wonderfull Video. I have a few questions. 1. What are the gauges and tuning of the piccolo bass? 2. guitar E, A, D, G? 3. Also for 4, 5, 6 string basses? **I have a 6 string tuned with bass E, A, D, G, C, F, with gauges 100. 85, 65, 45, 28, 22. 5. Is there someone doing higher than F? maybe Bb? These being bass tuning/octave lower then guitar. I'd appreciate any feedback.

Any brian bromberg albums you can recommend with a piccolo bass

Hey man, just thought I'd share my own piccolo bass story- my first bass was some china-made p bass clone that somehow played pretty darn well without any significant set up. However, when I got my 5 string I found myself not having a need for the 4 string p bass as I simply preferred the string spacing and range of a 5. I decided to pick up some piccolo strings just to see how the worked, but after trying them on a regular 4 string (34 inch scale length) I realised the E standard tuning wouldn't work at all, so I tried putting it in drop B, and now it functions exactly how any sort of drop-tuned guitar would for metal! who needs those top strings anyway when all you do is chug??

I've been thinking about getting back into bass (haven't played in years, since I gave my last one to a very talented lad who was in my church worship team) and the piccolo sounded interesting to me. My brother is a guitarist, and our good friend is a bassist. So I was wondering about a piccolo bass, but tuned down a bit. Maybe even using the two highest string of a standard bass, and the two lowest piccolo strings. Kinda getting into the cello range almost. Any experience with stuff like this? Am I crazy? Haha Sounds very nice. I love the tone a bass body provides

commenting on this to beat the algorithm😁👍

I bought a 6 String Bass recently I’m going to turn it into a Piccolo Bass I too, am a “Stanley Clarke freak” 👍 About a DECADE before you “I wanna play for you” Where I first heard of Jeff Beck 😇 Instantly became my FAVORITE MUSICIAN EVER!! I had a Pedulla Buzz Bass…. (not the best thing to LEARN ON!!🙄) “Lined of not” I quickly became frustrated… (I would NEVER be ‘Jaco’ 😉) I played better Bass on Keyboard anyway!!! But, “BASS” was missing…..I saw the 6string…. I was listening to Stanley….HAD TO HAVE IT!! Watched RU-vid LEARNED “LONG SCALE BASSES” made the HARMONICS ‘SING’✨✨✨✨ I’ll find out SOON ENOUGH!!😉

Very interesting video, thanks. Do you play it through a bass or guitar amp?

Wait isn't this like a 4 string guitar then? Or did I miss something? Like isn't bass octave lower than guitar and this is again octave higher so back to guitar?

lol JINX! 😆😆😆😆

If a piccolo bass is an octave higher than a standard bass, could you get away with using the low E, A, D and G strings of an electric guitar? It's basically the bottom 4 strings of a guitar in E standard, isn't it? Have you seen the piccolo bass that Joey DeMaio of Manowar plays? It looks like standard scale bass length, but the strings are spaced closer together so the neck isn't as wide, and it has a whammy bar. It enables him to shred like a guitarist would do.

so its like an electric guitar without the first and second strings?

I have a westone bass I changed to piccolo I like playing chords mostly on it trying to compose music in the fusion style, but being it's only four string you have to shift around which I don't like

inb4 8 string piccolo bass

I'm still waiting for an answer to the question "what is a piccolo bass" . String gauges for example.

How about converting a guitar like a Strat into a piccolo bass? I was thinking using the heaviest jazz strings I can get, maybe 14-70 baritone strings, and tune those up. Would that be safe?

We can see plenty of how he sounds but what does the bass sound like?

Any idea what effects Wayman Tisdale used on his piccolo base to get his characteristic sound? I wondered if it was some type of flanger.

ah yes, four string guitar

I wish you guys would just shut up and PLAY THE BASS!!!

A short bass tuned an octave higher than normal tuned bass. I guess it's best described as a bass trying to sound like a guitar. But still it has it's own sound. I like it's tone. But would not waste my time on one. Bass is LOWEND period.

It's not a bass, because it doesn't produce sounds in the bass frequency. It's more like a ukulele.

Most senseless instrument ever. Like a crippled guitar 😂