J & D Bass guitar JB Mini SBL Sonic Blue

Bought this as a bit of a gamble as there aren't that many short scale basses around. So far my impressions are mostly positive - it sounds and looks great! The setup on arrival made it pretty much unplayable though, and the strings feel very rough so will need replacing pretty much immediately. In the longer term it'll need a fret level too. I was prepared for a suboptimal setup but it's remarkable how bad it was - in comparison, my Ibanez TMB35 was pretty close right out of the box, and has much nicer fretwork and fit-and-finish in general.

That said if you don't mind a bit of DIY or budgeting another £100 or so for setup work and strings, this is pretty much the only short scale jazz bass available, and should be a great instrument. It also (IMO) looks better than a lot of the other short scales available; the silhouette is pretty much the same as a strat so it doesn't actually look like a small bass unless it's directly compared with something else. And the colour is great!

I was extremely surprised when this bass arrived for my son. He is 11 and I wanted a smaller instrument but the playability and quality are great for about €100. This is no toy bass. It is a proper instrument. I ordered sonic blue and the colour is defiantly a green but it looks fantastic, so no complaints needed.
10/10. Recommended.

Beautiful looking and very well finished, can only find one sharp fret and the intonation was near perfect.

The build quality of this bass is excellent and the colour really stands out. The short scale is great for a smaller guy like me and it has a nice growl to it

Great sounding and playing bass guitar.
Lightweight (2.9kg) and a great colour.
I particularly wanted a medium scale bass as primarily I play Guitar.
The intonation and set up is excellent.
I am getting a sound like Jet Harris (Diamonds/Main Title theme)......that great rumbling bass sound with plenty of high harmonics.