Soundgear meets XL Chromes

[BassiManilow]

It's my first post. I'm thrilled to be here. Thanks for having me. You guys are the glue. Thanks for providing the forum.

My Ibanez Soundgear carried me through more than a decade. I'm still happy with it. The headstock reads "SR505 FL C415083 Made in Korea". It's a five string fretless. I found it in a pawn shop. It was the first fretless fiver that I had ever played and I knew it was the right choice.

Prior to that I had my heart set on a Kydd upright electric. The look of the Kydd would have worked with my fusion gigs, but not with my rock gigs. I also had budget problems so the Soundgear was the affordable answer to my fretless prayers.

Although it looked like a "normal" bass, it was still weird. Sometimes I had to convince other musicians that they needed fretess bass in their band. Two different band leaders told me they missed the buzzy, percussive sound of frets. Like most rock bands, those bands didn't pay enough for me to change my warm jazzy ways. Anyway, I used round wound strings. It still produces a very bassy sound along the lines of Tony Franklin.

Out of the blue a whole bunch of bass players came to town and guitarists were in short supply. I ended up on six string for a couple of different projects. That's when I discovered flat wound strings. Whooo! My semi hollowbody really warmed-up when I switched to flat.

Now I'm dusting off the Soundgear and finally, finally, finally putting on some round wound strings. I need your help with this. I've run into a stumbling block.

My bass is built for long scale, 35 inches. I purchased D'Addario XL Chromes.

.045, .065, .080, .100, .132

My regular four strings sound beautiful. I'm happy with the tensions. I have enough slack on each string to get a nice fretless vibrato. Unfortunately the Low B is full of problems:

1. The B doesn't fit entirely through the bridge. I meticulously removed the blue thread on the string, but that only bought me an extra inch. A quarter inch is still sticking out.

2. Although the measurement is supposed to be a hugely thick 132, it's very slack at proper tuning.

3. As a result of the above problems I can't get enough gain out of the B. That never happened with my round wound strings in the past. I suppose I was using some kind of budget Ernie Ball strings, but I can't give you the rating. I just know that I need help.

I still have my old B string. I'll put it back on if I have to.

Thanks,
BassiManilow

[rumblethump]

Check and see if the B string is being pinched at the nut. I had to widen my b string opening at the nut a bit. I used a fingernail file. This helped. I would also drill out the bridge B string retainer opening enough to allow the B string to be properly seated. Use the smallest drill bit that won't pass through the current hole but be sure you don't drill it too large. I had a problem with one Chrome B string that was DOA and DAddario replaced it with a complete new set. I just had to confirm the batch number on the plastic bag they come in. I put a set on my LB75 and I had to shorten the B string screw so I could get the B string back far enough to intonate properly.