Are these strings too short?
 

Hello,

Sorry for my ignorance, but I have not changed strings many times so far in my relatively short time I've been playing. I just got a brand new American Standard J bass yesterday and I wanted to put a set of Chromes on it. I got the salesguy to throw in a set for free. I went to put them on today and the silks are crossing the nut. Are they too short or am I doing something wrong? I haven't actually inserted anything into the tuning posts yet. Thanks!

are you trying to go string through body? chromes may not be long enough to do that. you may have to go top load. but for flatwounds, it's probably better to go topload anyway. the break angle of stringthru usually doesn't play well with flats. there are exceptions im sure, but in general, i like to top load flats.

First of all, congrats on the new bass. I have an 83 P-bass with Chromes on it and the silk clears the nut with no problem. If you are stringing flats through the body I would also suggest not doing so. Some folks do it and have good luck with it but I had two strings break on my LB75 and have noticed the wrap on others separating at the bridge. Went to top load for flats years ago and haven't had another issue. Just a suggestion. :bassist:

Thanks all. I wasn't sure so I went back to the store and swapped 'em for the Rotosound 77 Jazz Bass strings. I didn't even occur to me that I could load them through the bridge. I should have thought of that. I went ahead and strung these through the body. Not a lot of wrap on the tuning posts, only about one or two times around on each. Think that'll be ok? If there is any breakage on the strings, where should I look for it? At the bridge?

For me one wrap around the post isn't enough. I want two at a minimum and prefer three or more. As far as breakage keep an eye at the bridge where the strings comes over the saddles (often called the witness point). Sometimes stringing thru the body will create too much of an angle there for flats and cause the wraps to open up. IME I also find it more difficult to intonate a flat that is STB. As long as you didn't press down on the strings at the witness point and create a bend in the string you can top load restring your current strings without any problem.

I have been stringing flats through the body for 40 years and never have broken one. I am not sure what you base your claim upon.

It depends on the string not all of them play nice with that string through angle.

i have a 51 P reissue with Chromes. you need extra long scale with string thru body to clear the nut. i haven't had any issues with strings breaks on that bass either, BTW.

Top load them. You want the strings to come off the tuners as close to the deck as possible especially the A. A half inch tuner has a circumference of about 1.57". I like minimum 4.5 turns, so 4.5 X 1.57 = about 7". I hold the string to the tuner, and cut 7.5" past. The extra half inch is for the bend to go into the center hole. Some will say that's not necessary but it don't hurt and I like the look of well wrapped tuner barrels. The guys that complain that it takes too long just don't have the energy to endure this extra step I guess.

So, I wind the string, bring it up to pitch, loosen it off to make sure there is no twisting, and start winding it back while pulling up on the string to keep tension on the wraps. I then tension them up about 50 cents over and let them sit fir a few minutes. Then i pull up on them about 4" off the 12th fret a few times and retune. After that they are usually very stable. Never fails. Of course imo, ymmv.

You can probably get away with two wraps, but I wouldn't use less than that. I cut strings four finger-widths past the target tuner, then bend and wrap from the top down to get a good break angle over the nut. One wrap is not enough, and two isn't enough to assure stability. I'm comfy with three or four wraps. I'd rather have one more than I need than one less.

If I were the OP I would take the strings off and just string it to the bridge, eliminating the through-body for now. I'd use the extra length to get the wraps correct and more secure on the tuners. Maybe next set of strings, I'd try stringing through-body.

And I also recommend that the OP study string lengths and learn what he needs to know about selecting the correct strings for a through-body application. (I'm not an expert, but I believe through-body requires at least 2" longer than standard length for the scale of the bass.)