Did my used short scale bass come with long scale strings?

[change-jug]

I bought a Lyle 5120 hollow body bass off of ebay. It`s the same as a Epiphone 5120. When it came to my house I notice a few odd things about it,which I mentioned in another thread. One of odd things I noticed was that there was about 3-4 inches of extra string wobbling around past the tuners. Like you some times see with guitar players. So I unwound each string and snipped off the excess then re tuned the bass. Well it feels like if I tune the low E up past D something is going to break.
When I re strung the D and G strings they felt super floppy and sound like total crap once I got then in tune. The A string is giving me no problems...yet.
So my question is-why do these strings seem all over the place? I have yet made it down to the store to buy some short scale strings. I hope that will drastically improve the situation.
Ideas?

[Pilgrim]

Make sure to install the strings correctly - insert the end into the post, bend 90 degrees, then wrap from the top DOWN so that the tail end of the string comes as close to the headstock as possible. I have the Univox version of the Matsu hollowbody, and there's nothing unusual about the tuners or setup, except you need medium scale strings on a 30" scale bass of this type.

Install the strings, get the tuner windings correct (you want at least 3-4 winds) and let them settle in for a few hours. They'll stretch at first.

OH - and if the string feels too tight, use your EARS. Tuners don't know whether you're tuned to the correct E or an E one octave too high - it just knows E.

[change-jug]

Thanks! I was about to buy short scale strings until I saw your post! I agree with using your ears,but I`m used to the tone of drop D and that`s where the string is at. Trying to tune up to E just feels "hard". Like I`m really exerting force on the tuning peg to get it up to E.
Also,who knows how old those strings are. I`m sure a nice set of new strings will help a bunch!

[change-jug]

Hey Pligrim!(jeez I sound like the Duke saying that!) What kind of strings did you use for your Univox? Round wounds or flats? Have you tried both? I`m curious and not sure which to string it with. Advice?

[FunkMetalBass]

Look at the tuner - how many winds of the string do you have? It could be that the string is just grinding against the nut holding the peg in place and may require that you snip off more excess string.

It could also be junk tuners that just need a little WD-40.

[change-jug]

I was thinking of spraying them with WD-40 but wasn`t sure if that was a good idea or not. I`ll give it a try.