String Through = Super Long Scale?

[skippydb]

So I broke a string on my dad's bass when I was setting it up. He hadn't changed the strings on it since he bought it. (He got it used) So They were probably old strings to begin with.

So I decided to throw on some D'addario strings I had laying around, they were medium gauge(.050 -.105) and "Long Scale," but when I went to put them on, the strings tapered before the nut.

Now, the strings were going through the body. So I guess you need those "Super Long Scale" strings when stringing through the body...

Then i was looking at Ernie Ball strings, which I put on my Schecter, and they have no scale length on any of their strings.

So do I have to make sure strings are super long scale when going through the body, or is this a freak thing?

[PhatBasstard]

Yes, you need extra long strings when stringing through the body on a 34" scale bass or you won't have enough outer winding to make it over the nut.

[R Baer]

My Ken Lawrence is a 35"scale that strings through the body and finding strings can be tough. DR's work pretty well and if you like a very bright string, the GHS Super Steels come in long scale plus and should fit just about anything.

[PhatBasstard]

Originally Posted by R Baer

My Ken Lawrence is a 35"scale that strings through the body and finding strings can be tough. DR's work pretty well and if you like a very bright string, the GHS Super Steels come in long scale plus and should fit just about anything.

I assumed his bass was 34" from his story.
FWIW, when it comes to D'Addario, I don't know if even the SL's (Super Longs) will have enough outer winding if you're going through the body on a 35" scale bass.

On my 35" scale Spector there is only about 1.5 inches of winding beyond the nut (B string). The Spector bridge is not through body and has less distance than most others from bridge saddle to anchor so that's not using much.

A string through would probably use up that extra 1.5 inches of winding and maybe more.

[SwamiRob]

It depends on the brand and bass it seems, I'd say at least half of the long scale strings I've used on my ATK will fit for string through. It is pretty irritating by just how little some of them don't stretch the whole scale length though, Ernies for example are fine till the E string, and that's only missing about 5mm from being long enough. You'd have thought, despite people that string through being on the rare side, that the very small amount of extra nickel to make that first taper a little bit further away would be worth it for a few more customers, the fist taper is very very marginal too.

[skippydb]

Yeah his bass is a 34" scale.

Reason I was wondering is because I eventually plan on getting a 35" scale 5 string bass with strings through. Strings are gonna suck to find...

[Philbiker]

Fender strings are usually long enough to accomodate string-through-body because so many of their basses have this construction feature. The nice thing for me is that it means I can put the Fender strings that I love on my Peavey Axcelerator 6 which strings on the top of the ABM bridge and is 35" scale.