I've been eyeballing this compact bass for a while now thinking it a perfect fit for a spot of campfire noodling.
As the years roll on and the old war (read 'sports') injuries rear their ugly head I have been on a mission to collect only short scale basses for reasons of comfort with less stretch of the left arm.
Being only new to bass guitars, I initially started with mainstream 34" instruments but very quickly worked out that, although I love the sound and feel, I could not comfortably reach the neck end for any periods of time.
Tempted to pass it all up as a 'no can do' I tried a 30" Mustang in my local music store and immediately realised that , although it turns out didn't like the shape of that bass, I did like the short scale feel - and that was the beginning of the end.
It seems like I am afflicted with permanent bout of GAS these days as I have myself convinced that the reason I sound like S#1T is that I haven't found that 'ideal' bass guitar... So I will keep buying, selling, and collecting, while I continue to sound like S#1T.
It started with the Fender Mustang I purchased that faithful day but ended up returning to the shop within 3 weeks.. I did love the sound of the mustang but couldn't come to grips with the lack of forearm and belly relief. the edges just felt too square for me.
I got an opportunity to mess around with a friends Gibson SG and discovered it was a great fit so I set my sights on acquiring one. While waiting for an authentic SG to show up in stores or on Gumtree (sim to craigslist in Aus), I also ordered a Ibanez TMB-30 on a whim and was fortunate enough to find it very comfortable, and very good value for money. Thankfully a 120th anniversary Gibson SG found its way home with me soon after - and my collection began.
The Traveler bass.
All the while this little Traveler TB-4P bass was playing on my mind solely for reasons of having a compact package to take away camping (a big part of our gig these days) which occupies minimal space in the camper trailer.
I must say from the outset, I am surprised and pleased with the quality, weight, comfort, feel, playability, and general look of this little bass. When I say little I mean LITTLE. These things measure less than 35" overall length yet are 32" scale and accept all 34" scale strings. A tiny package with a big sound and acceptable variation in tonal range. You will note in the pics that it is only a couple of inches taller than my wife's tiny Yamaha 3/4 acoustic travel guitar while being a good 5>6" shorter than my 30" scale Ibanez and SG basses.
The bass came with reasonable round-wound strings but with my limited experience I probably wouldn't know, however, I have come to prefer the feel and forgiveness of flat-wound and tape-wound strings, so a new set of DiAdario tape-wounds were fitted in pretty quick order. Fitting the new strings was a mission in itself but I will cover that later if it is of any interest to anyone. To me it sounds much better with the new nylons than with the original strings as I felt they were too bright and less 'bassy' than I prefer.
There is a headphone jack with an inbuilt preamp which means the headphones work straight of the 9v battery in the guitar. GREAT for sitting around practicing without having to drag the amp and cables out. I also bought a little Roland AC+DC (battery powered) Cube Bass-RX amp and have used it with the TMB-30 while camping to great effect.
The quality of tone from the 'Duncan design' (take that how you will) pups is quite acceptable but obviously doesn't offer the tonal range available from the twin pups setups on the TMB-30 or the SG. That said, it does a fine job for what I intend on using it for.
String adjustment is something that takes a short period of time to get used to but is reasonably intuitive in that the machine heads are laid out in the same '2x2' order as on my SG, and while I have read of others complaining that their fingers sometimes find the machine adjuster holes, this hasn't presented a problem for me yet.
All in all, I am very pleased with this bass and would recommend it very strongly as a compact practice bass for an 'on the go' enthusiast.
I hope this has been of help or interest to any considering the same instrument.
As the years roll on and the old war (read 'sports') injuries rear their ugly head I have been on a mission to collect only short scale basses for reasons of comfort with less stretch of the left arm.
Being only new to bass guitars, I initially started with mainstream 34" instruments but very quickly worked out that, although I love the sound and feel, I could not comfortably reach the neck end for any periods of time.
Tempted to pass it all up as a 'no can do' I tried a 30" Mustang in my local music store and immediately realised that , although it turns out didn't like the shape of that bass, I did like the short scale feel - and that was the beginning of the end.
It seems like I am afflicted with permanent bout of GAS these days as I have myself convinced that the reason I sound like S#1T is that I haven't found that 'ideal' bass guitar... So I will keep buying, selling, and collecting, while I continue to sound like S#1T.
It started with the Fender Mustang I purchased that faithful day but ended up returning to the shop within 3 weeks.. I did love the sound of the mustang but couldn't come to grips with the lack of forearm and belly relief. the edges just felt too square for me.
I got an opportunity to mess around with a friends Gibson SG and discovered it was a great fit so I set my sights on acquiring one. While waiting for an authentic SG to show up in stores or on Gumtree (sim to craigslist in Aus), I also ordered a Ibanez TMB-30 on a whim and was fortunate enough to find it very comfortable, and very good value for money. Thankfully a 120th anniversary Gibson SG found its way home with me soon after - and my collection began.
The Traveler bass.
All the while this little Traveler TB-4P bass was playing on my mind solely for reasons of having a compact package to take away camping (a big part of our gig these days) which occupies minimal space in the camper trailer.
I must say from the outset, I am surprised and pleased with the quality, weight, comfort, feel, playability, and general look of this little bass. When I say little I mean LITTLE. These things measure less than 35" overall length yet are 32" scale and accept all 34" scale strings. A tiny package with a big sound and acceptable variation in tonal range. You will note in the pics that it is only a couple of inches taller than my wife's tiny Yamaha 3/4 acoustic travel guitar while being a good 5>6" shorter than my 30" scale Ibanez and SG basses.
The bass came with reasonable round-wound strings but with my limited experience I probably wouldn't know, however, I have come to prefer the feel and forgiveness of flat-wound and tape-wound strings, so a new set of DiAdario tape-wounds were fitted in pretty quick order. Fitting the new strings was a mission in itself but I will cover that later if it is of any interest to anyone. To me it sounds much better with the new nylons than with the original strings as I felt they were too bright and less 'bassy' than I prefer.
There is a headphone jack with an inbuilt preamp which means the headphones work straight of the 9v battery in the guitar. GREAT for sitting around practicing without having to drag the amp and cables out. I also bought a little Roland AC+DC (battery powered) Cube Bass-RX amp and have used it with the TMB-30 while camping to great effect.
The quality of tone from the 'Duncan design' (take that how you will) pups is quite acceptable but obviously doesn't offer the tonal range available from the twin pups setups on the TMB-30 or the SG. That said, it does a fine job for what I intend on using it for.
String adjustment is something that takes a short period of time to get used to but is reasonably intuitive in that the machine heads are laid out in the same '2x2' order as on my SG, and while I have read of others complaining that their fingers sometimes find the machine adjuster holes, this hasn't presented a problem for me yet.
All in all, I am very pleased with this bass and would recommend it very strongly as a compact practice bass for an 'on the go' enthusiast.
I hope this has been of help or interest to any considering the same instrument.
