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03-23-2009, 07:48 PM
|  | Registered User | | Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Durham NC | | | Strange Happenings with 2008 Jazz 5 String
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A few days ago, I strung up my relatively new 2008 American Jazz 5 string with new Dunlop strings. Setup the bass as usual. Nothing fancy, no new gauges or anything. I played the bass for a couple hours that day, then put the bass in the case.
3 days pass.
Today, I get the bass from the case, and all the strings are slack. Not the usual new strings, gotta tune up a quarter step because of new strings, but slack. I have tuned the bass back up, and everything seems ok.
What happened here? |
03-23-2009, 07:55 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: New Westminster, BC | | | Hmm.. either
A - Your saddle screws loosened and dropped your action by a LOT.
B - Your tuners are slipping
C - Disastrous truss rod problem!!!
That's all I can think of... anyone else???
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03-23-2009, 07:58 PM
|  | Playing his P bass off into the sunset | | Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Bellingham, WA | | | Is the neck still straight? Did anything else change, or was it the tension and nothing else?
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03-23-2009, 08:00 PM
|  | The Funkfather
Endorsing Artist: Kohlman Bassworks | | Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Hampton Roads, Virginia | | | Try a new set of strings. Could be a bad set! |
03-23-2009, 08:05 PM
| | Registered User
Bass Technician, Club Bass - Toronto | | Join Date: May 2004 Location: Toronto Canada | | | It probably is not an indication of a problem.
Did you seat the strings when you installed them? Most players don't and that's why they have to retune so often until the strings "settle in".
Did you bend a right angle in the string before inserting in the tuner post? Did you subsequently bend the string at right angles at the point it leaves the tuning post?
If you didn't do all of the things mentioned above, the string probably "settled in" by taking up the slack that otherwise was introduced by string installation technique. No need to be concerned unless you find that the problem continues to happen beyond the next three or four tunings.
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03-23-2009, 08:14 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Gladstone, QLD, Australia | | Yep…sounds like a string up that slipped…
Did ALL the strings slacken? If not all the same amount then, it’s the neck moving…otherwise, it’s most-likely a string up issue…
BTW…I’ve seen people do some HORRIBLE things to strings when they put on a new set…like grabbing them and stretching the bezonies out of them…(you didn’t even know strings had bezonies, did you  )…anyway, that’s a great formula for wrecking your nut…
All you need to do, is to tune them ~ ½ step sharp and then press them firmly down in front of the nut and bridge saddles to establish good witness points…detune and tune back up again…
Also, always tune to pitch by approaching from flat and going to pitch…never detune from sharp down, it will always slip a bit this way and leave the pitch a bit flat from where you left it… |
03-23-2009, 08:17 PM
|  | Registered User | | Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Morristown, TN | | Quote:
Originally Posted by Turnaround It probably is not an indication of a problem.
Did you seat the strings when you installed them? Most players don't and that's why they have to retune so often until the strings "settle in".
Did you bend a right angle in the string before inserting in the tuner post? Did you subsequently bend the string at right angles at the point it leaves the tuning post?
If you didn't do all of the things mentioned above, the string probably "settled in" by taking up the slack that otherwise was introduced by string installation technique. No need to be concerned unless you find that the problem continues to happen beyond the next three or four tunings. |
+1
Since you didn't say if you put the angle in the strings before inserting them into the tuning post, or whether you stretched the strings - then didn't touch the bass for three days afterward, I'd say slack strings would not be a concern. Just play it!
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03-23-2009, 08:24 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Ohio | | Quote:
Originally Posted by PilbaraBass BTW…I’ve seen people do some HORRIBLE things to strings when they put on a new set…like grabbing them and stretching the bezonies out of them…(you didn’t even know strings had bezonies, did you )…anyway, that’s a great formula for wrecking your nut… | http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIHTMFFKB2c 
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03-23-2009, 08:39 PM
| | | | Someone rigged your tuners!
I know its stupid but it happened to me! my sis totally messed around with my bass and I didn't know, the next day when I came back the strings were loosened and it scared the crap out of me |
03-23-2009, 09:03 PM
| | Registered User
Bass Technician, Club Bass - Toronto | | Join Date: May 2004 Location: Toronto Canada | | Quote:
Originally Posted by Ragist Someone rigged your tuners!
I know its stupid but it happened to me! my sis totally messed around with my bass and I didn't know, the next day when I came back the strings were loosened and it scared the crap out of me | Never overlook the possibility that someone is messing with your head!
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03-23-2009, 09:08 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Metro D.C. and Brooklyn, NY | | Quote:
Originally Posted by Papazita | DANG!!!!!!
I "stretch" me strings by PLAYING the bejeezus out of them, and not hanging the bass from them.
some good slapping-&-poping will set them in good
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03-24-2009, 07:22 AM
|  | Deteriorating faster than I can lower my standards | | Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Frederick MD USA | | Quote:
Originally Posted by PilbaraBass BTW…I’ve seen people do some HORRIBLE things to strings when they put on a new set…like grabbing them and stretching the bezonies out of them…anyway, that’s a great formula for wrecking your nut… | Quote:
Originally Posted by Papazita | I've stretched my new strings, similarly to the guy in the video, many times and never wrecked a nut. Not quite that extreme, I don't lift the bass up that high, just in case a string might snap. But it's never happened yet...
It works for me for 35 years, YMMV.
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03-24-2009, 07:25 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Durham NC | | Quote:
Originally Posted by DaveF Hmm.. either
A - Your saddle screws loosened and dropped your action by a LOT.
B - Your tuners are slipping
C - Disastrous truss rod problem!!!
That's all I can think of... anyone else??? | A--Saddle screws are exactly where they were after I set the bass up with new strings.
B--Wouldn't tuners slip all the time, and not just in the case? They held tune while I was playing.
C--I worry about the truss rod. However, if the truss rod "gave out", wouldn't the string tension then pull the neck into a bow, with tremendous relief? It appears to be the opposite in this case--the neck pulled into "reverse relief" because the strings slackened.
No one touched the bass after I put it away.
I don't "seat" the strings when I put on a new set. I just string the bass up, replacing one string at a time, and continue to tune up until the bass holds tune.
Would an entire set of strings be bad? Seems very unlikely.
The bass tuned up properly this morning, and plays perfectly well. I am mystified. | | Thread Tools | Search this Thread | | | | 
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