1/4 size bass string advice needed

[bassist6]

Hi,
I'm looking for advice on (new?) strings for my son. He currently plays a 1/4 size bass with 1.5 year old Helicore strings. He plays in an orchestra a few hours per week, and a jazz band once per week - so mostly arco, with some jazz pizzicato. He practices about an hour a day. In a few months he is going to play his first concerto with the youth orchestra, and it necessitates solo tuning. It is not easy to play with those Helicores tuned for solo playing - they are tight! Should he get new strings that would work better for practicing the solo? Does he need special "solo" strings? What do others do? He will need to practice this solo concerto for a bit every day until the concert, in addition to his other stuff. Thanks so much!

[Eric Hochberg]

You need to find out if there is a solo string made for 1/4 size basses. Do that by calling one of the advertisers on this site. If they are available, your son can tune them to regular orchestra pitch when necessary. A steel core string might take the change in tuning better than a nylon core over the long run.

Another alternative is to have the bass part transcribed for orchestra tuning. Then he wouldn't have to change his tuning at all.

[Francois Blais]

I don't think you'll find any 1/4 size bass string made for solo tuning.
There's simply no market for these products.
Best alternative is what Eric suggested.

[bassist6]

Thank you both for your replies! I did call Gollihur and Lemur and it looks like they don't make 1/4 size solo strings. The smallest are 1/2. We will try the other option - transposing to orchestral tuning. Thanks so much!

[neilG]

I would try the 1/2 size strings before going to all the trouble of transposing parts. The difference in string length is about 3 inches, so you'll have to do some extra winding at the peg or cut the strings a bit at the wiry starter part. Why wouldn't this work?

[Eric Hochberg]

Originally Posted by neilG

I would try the 1/2 size strings before going to all the trouble of transposing parts. The difference in string length is about 3 inches, so you'll have to do some extra winding at the peg or cut the strings a bit at the wiry starter part. Why wouldn't this work?

The 1/2 size strings might have been designed with too much mass for the shorter string length?

[neilG]

Originally Posted by ehochberg

The 1/2 size strings might have been designed with too much mass for the shorter string length?

I took a really quick look at the tensions for D'Addario Prelude Orch. strings and they show about a 9% difference in tension between their 1/2 and 1/4 size strings. I don't think that represents a huge difference in gauge, but going from longer to shorter, wouldn't that make the strings need less tension for the same string?

[MR PC]

Corelli makes some nice 1/4 size strings. Light tension too. Quinn Violin lists them.

http://www.quinnviolins.com/qv_corellibass.shtml