Medium scale strings

[cliffkeller]

I have a custom bass made by a San Fran area luthier. it is similar to an alembic w EMG pickups.
One of the reasons i like this bass is it has a shorter neck (good for a guitar player like me). the scale is 33" from the nut to the holes where the strings go through the body at the bridge.

This is shorter than a typical bass. Any tips of strings to go with this? The guitar shop told me to just use normal length strings, but i have also heard that a shorter neck needs different strings.

Your thoughts?
thanks
cliff

[analog_freak]

There are a couple of posts on this topic if you do a search and type "medium scale strings". Basically, D'Addario and GHS have medium-length strings.

One bass maker whose instruments are 30.5" scale but string-through-body tells me that short-scale strings won't work on his basses, medium-scale strings (D'Addario) are best, but one can use regular length round-wound strings in a pinch and cut them such that there's not too much string being wrapped around the tuner post. A long time ago, I had a Mustang bass and used to do this, and I don't recall any problem. But that was long ago before I knew what I was doing.

[JustDavid]

Regular length should be fine. 32 is the usual medium scale, so 33 & body through (all the way I presume) should almost make you 34 equivalent.

Worst case the E might have full windings when it hits the tuning machine & some tuners might not be fully happy with that. I'd give 1 in 20 odds that you'll need 10 minutes of filing the tuning machine.

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