I haven't noticed much in the way of forearm pain, but the area of my palm, right around the thumb, gets to killing sometimes. Being a beginner who has smallish hands, I suspect I'm gripping the neck too tightly and putting too much pressure on whatever string I'm playing. Just stretching back and forth between the first and third frets is a real bitch for me, even when trying to use my pinky to do it. I think it's that exact scenario that leads to most of my pain. I have a feeling that I may also have my action set way too high, but I just get a lot of rattle if I lower the strings much. Not sure if it's something I'm doing, or if my Ibanez GSR190 is an even bigger piece o' shit than I thought. I've considered looking into a short-scale bass, but I find myself being ashamed of the idea. I guess I kinda see it as being akin to learning to drive in a car with a manual transmission. If you can drive stick, you can drive anything. Also, I've heard that short-scale basses just don't sound nearly as good, for some reason.