Bass Players! Question about short-scale strings.

[DrummerMan]

Why does it seem like specifically "short scale" bass strings are lighter in gauge? I would think that the shorter scale would want thicker strings to go down as low without getting too floppy, right? but the heaviest short scale strings I've found start at like .045, where as I'm used to regular bass strings around .050.

That whole McCartney thread got me thinking about putting some of the black nylon strings on my wife's bass, which is a short-scale purple Danelectro monstrosity that pretty much sits unused in the closet currently. This would hopefully give me a nice alternative sound to my p-bass. Anyway, if I go along with the gauges of standard short-scale strings, like .040-.090, then I would want to get something similar in the black nylons, I'm assuming, which would mean getting high "B" through "A" strings (.043-.093) instead of "G" through "E", which would be .060 - .115.

Again this goes back to the whole concept not making much sense to me. I'd rather not be playing on light strings, but I want to get the right string for the instrument.

Could somebody clarify what I should do here?

[dubsymmetry]

I have a jerry jones longhorn bass4 (which is like a danelectro, only handbuilt) and I use the strings jerry recommends - the d?addario exl170s.

http://www.daddario.com/DADProdDetail.a ... Class=ACBA


G 0.045
D 0.065
A 0.080
E 0.100

the way I understand it, the scale length makes a huge difference in which thickness of the string is ideal to get a fundamental, but also enough sustain. I might be only partly right or completely wrong.

[thieves]

i never really thought of it that way... my house is full of short scale fenders... both guitars and basses. i use 11's on my cyclone and duo-sonic, but i use the mustang bass strings on our mustang and bronco basses. my guess is that thicker gauge strings would just be too much for such a small fretboard. we have a song where we've got to drop d the bass and it gets really floppy at that point, but still playable. at regular tunings, though, the tension is fine for me.

i'd really like to hear a well-informed explanation on this, too. i never realized i was putting heavier gauge strings on my shorter guitars and lighter on the bass.

[analogcabin]

Give the Thomastiks a whirl.
The best cotton pickin' strings on earth.

Flat or Round wound

[DrummerMan]

Give the Thomastiks a whirl.
The best cotton pickin' strings on earth.

Flat or Round wound

Well, that's actually what I use on my P bass, which generally gets me everything I need. For the Dano, I'm looking for something kinda specialized, though. I've played the black nylon strings on someone's bass before and really enjoyed how they sounded, but had totally forgotten about them until that McCartney thread, so I thought it might be something fun to try.

[newfuturevintage]

Short scale strings tend to be lighter in gauge. I typically use 45-105 for long scale and 45-100 for short scale.

Can you even find short scale tape wounds (I've never looked)?

Oh, haven't read the Macca thread, so I don't know if it was discussed, but I would chime in that one of the side effects of tape wounds is they insulate you from the instrument ground. While I like the mellow tone the strings give, I find this causes additional buzz that's irritating.

[CraigS63]

There is some kind of physics-nerd-rule, where as a string gets thicker for its length, it vibrates less like a string and more like a struck metal bar (with funny bad-sounding harmonics). So maybe floppy is better (that's what she said).

[vier-personen]

now I remembered what a luthier once told me.. he said that he doesn?t understand why all this jazz guys keep coming with heavy gauge strings on their double basses, because softer strings often work better for a growly tone with a lot of sustain..

[Dr Rubberfunk]

i never really thought of it that way... my house is full of short scale fenders... both guitars and basses. i use 11's on my cyclone and duo-sonic, but i use the mustang bass strings on our mustang and bronco basses. my guess is that thicker gauge strings would just be too much for such a small fretboard. we have a song where we've got to drop d the bass and it gets really floppy at that point, but still playable. at regular tunings, though, the tension is fine for me.

i'd really like to hear a well-informed explanation on this, too. i never realized i was putting heavier gauge strings on my shorter guitars and lighter on the bass.

Which is what I think I've done on my short scale EB - the one I mentioned in the macca thread. I had to do a hatchet job on the nut (apologies to all the luthiers reading! ) to get the strings to sit in properly, and the intonation is all over the place. The guitar could do with a proper set up, but I've kinda got used to the 8 miles high action and crazy intonation, and manage to get a few lines out of it every so often. I just bought the short scale set without thinking about gauge - a friend bought a standard length set of nylons for his jazz bass, but didn't get on with the tone, whereas we quite dig the little Tokai's sound. It's definitely different to my P-Bass.

The Tokai is on the track 'Part Of Me' on my myspace player if anyone wants to hear the nylon strings in action ... 'Live Wired' has the P-Bass with round-wounds of indeterminate origin

[calaverasgrandes]

in my experience a 45 "g" string is normal, anything bigger than that is out of the ordinary on a regular scale bass.
I think part of why you use softer/lighter guage strings on a short scale would be that they are traditionally intended as "womens and childrens instruments".
A standard guage string will have to be at lower tension to acheive concert pitch on a short scale bass than a long scale bass. so its easier for little fingers to mush the string to the fret. I would think it would be better to have a set that was starting on 30-35 and ending on 80-85. But thats just my approach. I noticed when I was using heavy strings and heavy picks I was gettign zero sustain, my wrist hurt, and I was always breaking strings! So I always like to go for med-light strings on every instrument.

(my apologies to any women or children reading this thread)

[playinbass]

I have the La Bella "Dan Electro" flats on my dano / silvertone bass...these are supposed to be the same gauge they made for these basses back in the day. They are VERY light 42, 53, 60 and 79. They DO sound great and record very nicely, but I tend to like heavier, thumpier strings.

With these strings the action is very 'floppy'...almost to the point of sounding out of tune with some heavy plucking.....especially the low E....way to soft for my taste, but really easy to play. Almost like a tuned down guitar.

I'll probably switch to a heavier gauge for stability when these things get too old, but then again, at the rate I change strings on my basses that'll probably be in about 2525.

Gerry

[calaverasgrandes]

i dont know if they exist but check and see if DR makes a short scale.
Their whole gimmick is that they compress their strings so you have more mass for a given guage. a 45 is akinto a 50, a 100 similar to a 110.
I dont know if its true but I loves their bass strings.