We report on a tapping-mode tuning fork with a short fibre probe sensor for a near-field scanning optical microscope. The method demonstrates how to fabricate the short fibre probe. This tapping-mode tuning fork with a short fibre probe can provide stable and high Q at the tapping frequency of the tuning fork, and can give high-quality near-field scanning optical microscope and atomic force microscope images of samples. We present the results of using the tapping-mode tuning fork with a short fibre probe sensor for a near-field scanning optical microscope performed on an eight-channel silica waveguide.