135

[RedGrange]

Does anyone make a 135 B string?

[Brad Johnson]

Sure. D'Addario, GHS, MTD, La Bella. What are you putting them on? I've been using .128's on just about everything and they've been working pretty well. YMMV

[Angus]

Yeah, D'addarios are taperwound if bigger than long scale. I think .135 is prime size for the B string, i think. I use .130 right now though, due to taperwound issue. Check out my thread here, "Heavy strings....too heavy?"

[This message has been edited by MegaAngus (edited August 02, 2000).]

[RedGrange]

I am putting them on a G&L L-2500... I like heavy top strings and light bottom strings.. I am thinking something like 40, 55, 60, 105, 135

[john turner]

i use a .135" low b made by dean markley. taper wound, excellent sound. i only wish dean markley made a string bigger than .150" for my low f#. the .150" works pretty well, but a bigger one would work better.

[RedGrange]

I should have worded the question does anyone make a 135 string that isn't taperwound.. I hate those things.

[john turner]

one thing to consider is that you are going to have much more success intonating your string - getting it in tune across the fretboard - with a taperwound than with a non-tapered - especially with a string that big. tapers also sound better and they hold up longer.

why do they hold up longer? because, with fewer windings over the bridge, the string stays tight longer. when all the windings go over the bridge saddle, they all get kinked and stretched at that point of stress. as the windings stretch and loosen, the string goes dead. this is especially a problem with strings with more layers of windings, like the bigger strings. with tapers, the only thing that gets bend is the core and at most one more winding, so there isn't going to be any loosening of the primary winding - the outside one - from the bridge, and the strings will stay lively longer.

what i like about the dean markleys is that they taper, but not down to the core. instead, they keep one winding over the core, so that the string isn't weakened severely. i've played other, exposed core taped strings, and i've broken them too - i pluck right by the bridge, and pretty hard sometimes. but i've never broken a dean markley, in the 4-5 years that i've been playing them.

i think rotosound makes an un-tapered low b, but i don't know how big it is. come to think of it, in an order from dean markley that i got last year, they accidentally sent me .128" that were untapered - they might have the .135" that way too.

good luck.