Help in the headless dept

[yellofury]

I have an 89 Washburn Status Series 1000 headless bass
and right now I have on it a set of Status Hot Wire Nylon tapes in 40-100 light gauge


The nylons do a great job in taming the high end of the Status pickups and make a great fingerstyle tone
But now I want to unleash the top end and I'm thinking about switching back to rounds on the bass

I was thinking about ordering some HotWires Rounds in 40-100
I really want to stay in the light gauge since this bass is setup for it and when I when I tried 45-105s the neck bowed like crazy
and I want to be able to switch out from flats to rounds and back fairly easily (which any who owns a Steinberger or Status knows that string changes takes a matter of seconds not minutes)

My concerns:
shipping is from the UK how long will that take
cost is in British Pounds vs US dollars
there are other dbl ball end strings out there like Rotosound and GHS
are they better???

thanks in advance

[Meatrus]

Originally Posted by yellofury

My concerns:
shipping is from the UK how long will that take
cost is in British Pounds vs US dollars
there are other dbl ball end strings out there like Rotosound and GHS
are they better???

thanks in advance

The shipping time should be no longer than two weeks, (I ship to the US at least once every week), packages normally reach the US in 7-10 days though. Obviously the £s will be more than the $s, so do a currency convert first, to make sure how much will be paying.

Which strings are better will be down to personal preference, so there is no wrong answer. Elites may be another option, I tried them on my headless a while ago with good results.

[yellofury]

thanks

I may go this route since its not that expensive
atleast not as much as the DRs I usually fork out dough for

[yellofury]

OK so it was a tad pricey
the website gave a rough estimate of 19 bucks shipping
which in the conversion goes to about 29 bucks
still not too bad considering its shipping from the UK to Florida

In the end I went with the Hot Wires because I was so impressed with
the nylon tapewounds

[yellofury]

Ok I just got the Hexcore Rounds ( I thought I ordered the Premium Rounds but doing a return to the UK from the USA seems to be a hassle)

I searched here on TB
but I cant find any answers:

First: are the silk ends supposed to go in the traditional headed/ stump side??
Second: Why are hexwounds feel like they have more tension? I got the lighter guage
100s but they feel more like 105s?

So far Im getting a bad feeling about this

EDIT:
OK so I am an idiot
Status has made these strings idiot proof by making 2 different sized ball ends making it impossible to screw up
Hopefully these strings will settle but they do feel a lot tighter than the Vintage Tapewounds I had on before from Status

So far I aint diggin them

[Meatrus]

Originally Posted by yellofury

Ok I just got the Hexcore Rounds ( I thought I ordered the Premium Rounds but doing a return to the UK from the USA seems to be a hassle)

I searched here on TB
but I cant find any answers:

First: are the silk ends supposed to go in the traditional headed/ stump side??
Second: Why are hexwounds feel like they have more tension? I got the lighter guage
100s but they feel more like 105s?

So far Im getting a bad feeling about this

EDIT:
OK so I am an idiot
Status has made these strings idiot proof by making 2 different sized ball ends making it impossible to screw up
Hopefully these strings will settle but they do feel a lot tighter than the Vintage Tapewounds I had on before from Status

So far I aint diggin them

Lol, I went through the same questions when I got mine, it turned out stringing the headless was much easier than I thought.

Sorry to hear you arent happy with the strings after going through that, but hex core will normally have more tension whatever the brand, so it shouldnt have been too much of a shock.

Whats the sound like?

[yellofury]

Well after tweaking the bridge and saddle height
this is becoming quite the slap monster
and for once I feel comfortable boosting the treble 100%
I have the settings completely reversed with the Hot Wires Nylons:

tone - cut 25-100% depending
vol- 100 %
pan- bridge 100% or 50/50

Hexwounds:

tone - boost 100-75%
vol- 100%
pan - 50/50

I just used the drop down menu at the Status website
I didnt read the fine print DOH!! seems the premium rounds only come on the single ball end long scale
no matter after tweaking the string height and setup I feel a lot better about these strings
my thumb however is super sore from playing so much

the sound at least to me sounds like a cross between a Lakland DJ and a Kingbass
maybe because the strings are fresh but it definitely slaps faster than my Musicman
which is a shock to me

[Meatrus]

Your not helping my headless gas , I have thought about the one I sold a lot recently, it was a Hohner Jack 5.

Glad to hear your happy with it now.

[yellofury]

heres some video clips

My playing is sloppy at best
nothing planned but you get a gist of the sound even through the crappy iPod mic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V03wLMIeQow

and a comprison with my other basses:
http://www.youtube.com/user/yellofur.../1/MrGVp6UTVpc

[synaesthesia]

Can't say I am familiar with the washburn variant, but I have a couple of Status headless necked basses and they allow the use of normal (i.e. not double ball end) strings with a grub screw locking the string down. It works very well, does your headpiece not allow that?

[yellofury]

yes it has the notches for the double ball end as well as the screw to clamp down on the string.

So far I have only used the double ball ends for my bass

[Meatrus]

Originally Posted by yellofury

heres some video clips

My playing is sloppy at best
nothing planned but you get a gist of the sound even through the crappy iPod mic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V03wLMIeQow

and a comprison with my other basses:
http://www.youtube.com/user/yellofur.../1/MrGVp6UTVpc

Nice videos, I really like the sound of them! Dont be too hard on yourself about the playing, it sounded good to me .

[yellofury]

thanks bro!