I’m conducting tests on my Glarry mini piccolo bass guitar ‘conversion’. For these two recordings I’ve installed Dean Markley Blue Steel Strings for electric guitar, using the thickest four strings from the set, EADG.

I paid $50 for the tiny bass from Craigslist, and $5 for the string set from the big Roseville flea market. So this is probably the cheapest rig possible. The amp is my old Roland Bass Cube.

The Dean Markley string gauges are ~10p thinner than the D’Addario special piccolo bass strings I installed on my Japanese Univox Hi-Flyer short scale vintage bass: 52, 42, 32, and 20p.

The Blue Steel strings (LT above) being: 42, 32, 24, and 16p.

Sounds better with Bluetooth speakers or headphones than with your phone or tablet’s tiny speakers.

And my playing hardly does the bass and strings any credit. Recorded by Samsung Voice Recorder on my Samsung A14 phone.

The tune is from my bass textbook Progressive Bass, by Gary Turner and Brenton White. The Roland amp provides some light chorus, delay, and possibly compression. The amp’s effects give some depth to the sound and tend to hide my finger fumbles to some extent. Funk drum line.

At 25% of the price of D’Addario’s special piccolo bass strings, the Dean Markley Blue Steel ‘Cryogenic Activated’ electric guitar strings sound very nice. I may keep them on for a while and try recording using different amps and settings.

Here’s what I’ve spent on the rig so far:

Glarry mini bass $50

Markley Blue Steel strings, $5

wide padded strap $20

Fender strap security washers: $2.50: Total = $77.50.

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