Anyone ever had a set of Rotosound RS77's they couldn't intonate?

bigbajo60 · #1 10-03-2010, 06:08 AM

I ask because I just could not for the life of me, get the G string on a set of RS77LD's (45-65-85-105) to stop being ridiculously sharp at the 12th fret on my Rickenbacker bass. The E and A were near perfect with the saddles where they were... the D was a bit flat, and pitched right up with some adjusting of the saddle... but the darned G was so sharp at the octave, that it was almost halfway to being a G sharp!!! Pulling the saddle all the way back didn't even get it close to being right!!!

It's too bad too, 'cause the tone of the strings, while they were on there, was just awesome!

Was it just a bad set?... or is this an "issue" with these strings?

ggunn · #2 10-03-2010, 09:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigbajo60

I ask because I just could not for the life of me, get the G string on a set of RS77LD's (45-65-85-105) to stop being ridiculously sharp at the 12th fret on my Rickenbacker bass. The E and A were near perfect with the saddles where they were... the D was a bit flat, and pitched right up with some adjusting of the saddle... but the darned G was so sharp at the octave, that it was almost halfway to being a G sharp!!! Pulling the saddle all the way back didn't even get it close to being right!!!

It's too bad too, 'cause the tone of the strings, while they were on there, was just awesome!

Was it just a bad set?... or is this an "issue" with these strings?

What fixed this problem for me was very simple (it was a B string in my case); it was setting the witness point on the new strings. It seems just about everyone in the world knew about this but me.

steamthief · #3 10-03-2010, 11:19 AM

What is the witness point? I've never heard this term before.

bigbajo60 · #4 10-03-2010, 05:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ggunn

What fixed this problem for me was very simple (it was a B string in my case); it was setting the witness point on the new strings. It seems just about everyone in the world knew about this but me.

I too have had strings "settle" into near intonation once I've gotten the witness point set, but it just wouldn't happen this time.

Oh, and Steamthief... the "witness points" are the exact places where the string breaks/bends over the nut and bridge.

Kaspar Vadsholt · #5 10-03-2010, 06:21 PM

Flatwound strings in general are susceptible to the pull of the magnets of the pickups. Try lowering the pickups and see if this helps.

steamthief · #6 10-03-2010, 06:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigbajo60

I too have had strings "settle" into near intonation once I've gotten the witness point set, but it just wouldn't happen this time.

Oh, and Steamthief... the "witness points" are the exact places where the string breaks/bends over the nut and bridge.

Thanks for sharing, I never knew that!

bigbajo60 · #7 10-03-2010, 11:12 PM

I've now loaded up a set of LaBella Deep Talkin' Flats that I had forgotten I had "squirreled away"... and that set intonated perfectly! It's not quite the tone that those Rotos had... the LaBella's are a bit darker, but you can't have it all I guess.

I'll be trying another set of Roto 77's sometime in the near future, just to verify whether the set that gave me problems just had a bad G string. Whatever happens with that 2nd set, good or bad, I'll update this thread just to let y'all know.

ggunn · #8 10-06-2010, 05:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by steamthief

What is the witness point? I've never heard this term before.

Someone else answered you, but setting the witness point is done by firmly pushing down on the strings just inside the bridge saddles and nut. The reason it affects the intonation, I believe, is that the stiffness of the string makes it bow up slightly as it goes over the bridge saddle, and the string "thinks" that the saddle is closer to the nut than it really is. Sometimes when this happens you can't move the saddle back far enough to compensate - not that you'd want to; the string will eventually conform to the saddle on its own.

Anyway, that's what fixed the set of Rotosound Swing 66's on my bass.

F-Clef-Jef · #9 10-07-2010, 11:48 AM

Anyone come up with a good solution to this? Very interesting!
I don't understand how this could even happen unless string gauges were completely and radically different. I mean, physics is physics, right? Has your string height changed dramatically? Did you switch from a non-wound-core to a wound-core, which would change your string height, among other things...
I've never heard of such a problem and I've been playing bass for over 35 years and with dozens of different basses.
At any rate, I hope someone solves this one!

bigbajo60 · #10 10-07-2010, 01:59 PM

I also thought that physics would eventually win out, but that string just wouldn't settle.