| Need a new string for the first time in 15 years...help needed.
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Hello,
I am new here. I sometimes find some info on these forums, but have never thought about registering till now.
I guess this post will include some info about me as well as my question.
To make a long story short:
I cannot find 0.120 flatwound anywhere. Any suggestions? I need someone who makes a 0.120, a 0.105, and a bunch of other numbers like 0.060 and 0.080 for the two high strings. I figured I could find a sissy-gauge 5 string set that has a 0.120 low B or sumthin', but no dice.
To make a short story long:
I can't believe it, but I busted a string the other night (E) while playing a gig. Luckily it was right at the end of a song, and only a few songs from the end of the set, so I was able to finish using them skinny-lookin' ones that I never use normally.
These are the first strings I put on when I first learned the bass 15 years ago. I learned on my dad's fretless Music Man Sabre, but he would not let me take it to school for music classes, so he let me use his little one, which was cheap and beat up anyhow. He was a guitar player, but had some basses as well. The bass is a '76 Musicmaster that he bought new. (Gotta love the frigging Strat pickup under the pickup cover! I laughed so hard the first time I saw that!) The strings I put on the little guy are (were) flatwounds made by God knows who back in 1994. I only played the bass for one year, then got my own version of my dad's Sabre: a fretless G&L L-2000. Since I learned on the fretless, I never liked (and still don't like) roundwound strings, though I have recently (in the past year or two) discovered the beauty of frets, and at this time for the sounds I want, I play with frets for everything. I don't know why I never used them before! I just got used to what I learned on, I guess, and stuck with it.
I have always wanted heavier strings, especially on this dinky bass, which can get a little flompy. I have a newish La Bella 0.110 Deep Talkin' set - on my Fender Precision, with nice high string height and foam ear plugs for mutes at the bridge saddles, and though I love the feel of the G and D (on the rare occasions I play them), the A and the E are too loose for me, even with the strings jacked way up in height and the mutes under the strings. I use a finger or thumb for the Fender, and a purple or blue Tortex plec on the little guy.
So, I am kind of up in the air about what to do. Both of these suckers need to be restrung IMO. The Fender needs a heavier A and E and the Musicmaster has rusty and broken excuses for strings that most people would only find suitable for hanging oneself, not playing music. The Fender can't be used to do the Musicmaster's job, as the action is waaaay too difficult for the style of music I am doing with the bass (band called the Bloody Brains, BTW, and yes, I did try the Fender played with fingers for three hours in the first practice, and nearly had an exploding hand Ren and Stimpy style...which is why I pulled the little guy out of mothballs after 13 years). For the Musicmaster, I want to go to heavier strings for tone and to hopefully keep the E from breaking again. I need flats for both.
So, for both basses, I think the low end of a 5 string set will be just too fat for a low E. All the flatwound 5 string sets I have seen go to 0.126 to 0.130 for the low E. The 0.126 might cut it on the shortneck, but I am not really sure.
I think what I really need is a 4 string set with a 0.120 low E and something like a 0.105 A. If I try that on the Fender, I can pull its strings off and see what they are like on the shortneck. Hopefully taking them off and putting them on again will screw them up enough to put some nice tone into them as a fortunate side effect. (The darned things have been on there for a year and sound great, though definitely "new". How long will it take those stupid La Bellas to break in?)
Thank you in advance, and sorry for the book. | 
