Serious string dilemma

[TWR]

try as I may, I can't finger this one out on my own . . .

I've been lurking here for a while and apologize for not introducing myself sooner. I promise to do so after I post this request -- Does anyone know of a quality string for a 1/4 scale bass?

"Quality" to me is mostly a warm (dark? . . . probably not on this bass) arco tone and some sustain pizzicato. Thump sounds great, but again, this probably isn't the bass for it. I just want something that won't be too scratchy to bow and produce some bass quality for the pizz stuff, and the scale really doesn't seem to offer much selection. My fear is that fitting strings for a 3/4-scale will be problematic, but reading this board tells me most of y'all know far better than I do about that.

The backstory is my brother bought this bass in the country from a fella who sold him his pickup truck. It was a school's bass and sufficiently abused but still plenty playable. It's an Englehardt M-3 (52937). Someone had literally chopped across the strings and fingerboard in a dozen or so places, but it played as is and came with a bag and a bow. So, we bought it.

I sanded the fingerboard until the gouges were mostly eye-sores and replaced the strings with the cheapest ones in town (red label super-sensitives for a 1/2 bass). It sounds ok but mostly is a fun little instrument for me to gig with around town -- my twin brother and I have just started working on some acoustic material. Downside is that these strings are awfully rigid and just lack the warmth I remember from bowing the upright in my youth. Granted, it's a much smaller instrument but the string really seems to be the start of the brightness.

I'll get into my own rust in an intro post, but suffice to say the bass shouldn't be blamed alone. Sparing my skill (rather, lack thereof), does anyone have any experience with this sort of thing or any sort of informed recommendation?

Thanks in advance.

Intro post coming . . .

[Francois Blais]

There's not much choice for 1/4 size basses!
Flexocors first came to mind.
Then Helicore orchestrals.
Then Spirocores, which would get more sustain and jazz punch.

[TroyK]

All of which I think would be better than Super Sensitive Red Labels.

Flexicores are great Arco Strings. Not bad for Pizz if you like thump.

Spirocores are great pizz strings and can be bowed if you've got patience and technique. (but only if)

Helicore Orchestrals can be used for either depending on the instrument and it's use. Not as high quality of string as the other two in my opinion, but maybe the best crossover of the three.

How far off from long scale bass guitar strings are you? Stupid question, I imagine, I don't know how big a 1/4 sized bass is.

-tk

[TWR]

I really appreciate the replies and will definitely have to see what scales those flexicores come in. 1/2 or smaller and I'm sold!

I thought about long scale electric bass strings or checking out some of the smaller scale EUB, but none of those seem suitable for bowing.

From the fingerboard side of the nut to the bridge is roughly 89.5cm. So, it's not far off of a long scale electric bass string, but the distance from the tailpiece to the D-string's tuning peg is more like 129cm. It doesn't seem likely that even the longest scale bass guitar strings would cover that, but I supposed anything's possible. Regardless, bowing is the majority of my practice and almost 50% of our rep and growing fast.

One thing is particularly interesting about the scale of this bass being so close to my bass guitar yet so far from the upright I played in school. It's a neat study in motor learning. At least these first few weeks, my tendency has been to run sharp (overshoot). I haven't played upright in over 10 years and logged far less mileage on it while practicing both. But still, my hands remember the instruments differently.

Thanks again for the string tips.

[Francois Blais]

I forget about Corelli!
The 90cm scale is available in the sets 350B (tungsten) and 300B (nickel). The former being brighter sounding and more expensive.
Both are medium tension.

The Flexocor 1/4 set is available there:
http://www.swstrings.com/Store/Shopp...ass&Group=975S

[TWR]

Awesome!

have to check with the local shop first, but if they don't have them in stock this looks like the winner.

There's going to be a long road with this little bass, but it feels good to have another hurdle (soon) behind us. Thanks again.

[TWR]

holy mother. These strings are awesome!

My instrument sounds much, much fuller, the arco tone is exactly what I wanted, and the tension is perfect for me. Only drawback is some occasional scratch starting a note here and there, but that's probably me. I'll go back to the harder rosin, try to settle down and should be fine after some woodsheddin'.

Thanks so much for the help. You folks are brilliant.

[Francois Blais]

And which ones did you buy?

[TWR]

Originally Posted by francois

And which ones did you buy?

oh, sorry!

I bought the flexocores. They're perfect.