Hi James, I'm also from SA, but am now living in Europe and travelling to Canada whenever I can to see family. Firstly, I know what you're going through. It certainly isn't a great feeling when you find out that the instrument you love so much may be too big for you. I don't stand much taller than yourself at 5'6" but I've also had to really try and figure out what it is that makes a bass "easier" to play for me and what I need to avoid.
Generally for 95 percent of us out there, a string length of between 41-42" should work fine but there are of course people who simply need a smaller scale so there are old and new basses that have string lengths of around 40" that sound pretty good if not great.
You have to ask yourself what you want out of your bass and what kind of playing you're doing. If you said you want to become a professional bassist and one day play in the MET, a -40" scale bass and technique would not be a good idea for your career or sound
For you I think the most important thing is making sure the bass is set up really well. For me it was getting the strings placed fairly close together at the nut so I didn't have to reach too much for octaves and also making sure that the string height is not above 1 business card between the string and fingerboard, maybe even less if you can get away with it. You mentioned that you have the strings really low but what kind of strings are you using? If you do a lot of jazz (I know I'm going to get in trouble for suggesting this) but plain gut string at least on your top two strings will be much easier on the hand than steel. Really, it's like night and day if you tension issues in your hands.
I've played on tiny basses and big ones and right now I'm happy (after a lot of modifications, a lot of money spent and a lot of complaining).
The instrument I currently use has a 42" scale and it works really well for me. The ribs are very thin near the neck so it's easy for me to "get over" and also the upper bouts are fairly small (19") which help a lot if you aren't the biggest person around.
So, I think that sticking with 41-42" is a good idea and that you should try and address the set-up of your bass as well as look at your own playing. Do you have a teacher or someone you can play so they can give you feedback?
Can you send us a photo? That would really be helpful.
Cheers
Calvin
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