If I want to restring to BEAD

[darkfish01]

How would I go about performing this change on my bass?

I hear that you have to file the nut a little bit,
anything else?

[PilbaraBass]

Originally Posted by darkfish01

How would I go about performing this change on my bass?

I hear that you have to file the nut a little bit,
anything else?

aside from normal setup tweaking (trussrod (perhaps), action, and intonation), a slight widening of nut slots is about all that is required. remember, go wider, not deeper

[Thangfish]

I would let a tech do the nut filing, but that's just me.

The action and intonation is easy enough, but I didn't want to buy nut files for one job, (or chance having to replace the nut when I screwed it up).

I heard someone suggest using a piece of the next smaller string
wrapped with emory cloth to do the filing. Never tried it myself.

You may possibly have to adjust pickup height a little if that B string trys to hit the pole pieces when it vibrates (or is too loud compared to the other strings).

DR Strings supplies individual B strings now too.

tf

Originally Posted by darkfish01

I hear that you have to file the nut a little bit,
anything else?

[PilbaraBass]

Update:

This weekend I changed my cheapo P-bass copy over to BEAD.

What I had to do...

1...trussrod: nothing

2...bridge: B-string would not fit through the feed hole in the back of the bridge (string too big)...I reamed out the hole with a small square file...5 minutes and it was fixed.

3...nut: the nut material is some strange plastic...not a rigid plastic like on my Yamha, rather a semi-flexible plastic...the string pressure alone was enough to widen the slots, except for the B-slot which I helped ever-so-slightly with a small round file (not a big job,,,took all of 2 minutes)

5...action: only had to adjust action on the B slightly...string is so fat that it felt a mile off the board, even though it wasn't...I lowered it quite a bit and surprisingly did not suffer undue string buzz.

6...intonation: B and E strings required a tweak (had to slide the saddles back), but the A and D strings were still quite good.

Playability...surprisingly good...B string (a 0.130 Nickel round-wound) is not floppy, Action is good, and bass feels fine...it was already setup well, so the changeover was really painless.

Sound...the B string ain't bad...I've played better, but on much better basses...I've played worse on much better basses, as well. As B-strings go, I give it between a 7 and 8...after a little post-installation tweaking, I hope to get it to an 8.5

By doing this, I've taken my first steps towards seeing whether or not, I really want (or need a 5 string). And the investment was minimal (about $7 for the string) , and mod completely reversible.
How's THAT?