Odd String Setup

[Rockmusician]

I was talking to a friend the other day about different brands and gauges of strings. He tells me that he hates the tinny sound you get from the D and G strings because he likes a fat sound. He buys his strings individually and strings his bass with a 105 for the E and 85 for the A and D and 65 for the G. It sounds interesting but I was wondering if it would cause any tension problems on the neck or any othe issues. Has anyone else heard of this or tried it?

[darkstorm]

85 for A&D? Thatd be rather unbalanced tension. 65 for G would also be pretty unbalanced with heavy tension compared to the E.

Id suggest the guy try adjusting the pups for bassier sound on the D&G string. If he's using single pup bass and pups have individually adjustable pole peices, lower the pole peices on the D&G strings and keep the pole peices for the E&A string a little bit raised in comparison. If he has a two pup bass, he can also raise the D&G side a bit on the neck pup and lower it a bit on the bridge pup. He might also like nickel strings better then stainless since they tend to be warmer sounding in many cases.

Also if he seldom plays the D&G string compared to how much he plays the E&A string, spending time strumming the D&G string to just help them get broken in can help tonal balance between the strings.

[FunkMetalBass]

Thicker strings aren't necessarily going to give a bassier sound (in fact, it's usually the opposite), and they're doing a number to warp his neck (both at 80+ lbs of tension compared to the 85 lbs of total tension on the other two strings).

He'd be better off looking for individual stings like a .055 D and a .040 G. Because the thinner strings will have less tension than the .065 and the .045, they will vibrate more freely and emphasize the fundamental to give a bassier sound.

[ixlramp]

This is the most extreme and insane set I've ever heard of
The heaviest EADG set I've ever seen has 75 and 55 for D and G, that's roughly 65 pounds tension on each and considered extra heavy. I'm surprised his strings haven't broken. Also the tension imbalance on the neck is huge with 89.1 pounds more tension on the high side of the neck than the low, this may twist or damage the neck. If he cares about his bass he needs to balance out the tension.

G 65 91.6 pounds tension
D 85 86.2
A 85 48.4
E 105 40.3

I recommend he study the tension charts here: http://www.daddario.com/upload/tension_chart_13934.pdf to create a heavy set with roughly equal tension on each string, no more than 60 pounds on each.