Dead B string.

[cbyrd2200]

Hey adam. First of all I'd like to say it's great to have you on these forums to be able to ask you for advice. But anyway, I bought a five-string not too long ago and I had absolutely no problem adapting from four to five. However, this five string only has a 34" scale length which I realized is too short to get the "ideal" tension for the low B like a 35" scale is supposed to do. I replaced my old .45-.130 strings with a .40-.120 set thinking that in most bassists' situations, this reduces the floppiness of the B string and also livens up the tone a bit. However, being a 34" scale, it did almost nothing. I'd like to know that even with a 34" scale length if there's any way I can reduce the floppiness of this B string because it is producing the most dead and dry tone you could imagine. Btw, the bass is an Ibanez sr505. It plays and sounds excellent except for that low B. Thanks in advance.

[adamnitti]

hi there, cbyrd2200!

ah yes.... the famous "B string quandry"...

well, let me share my $.02 worth. most of my basses are 34", but i do have a handful that have a 35" scale. of all my basses, probably the one that has the most 'resolute-sounding' B string is one of my 35"s. however, i have several 34"s that also have decent-sounding bass strings. in my experience so far, having a 34" scale bass is not necessarily going to be the death blow to the quality of the B string sound. but it does seem that there are several factors that can influence it.

back when greg curbow was still alive, he had built me several basses, one of which i still use all the time. it's a prototype 5 string that ended up initiating the 'retro' series of basses that he made for a while. it is a 34" scale, but the B string on it is absolutely fantastic. greg had a little trick that he did in order to increase the string tension on the B when he built these, and that was to increase the angle of the string past the fulcrum point on the nut so that it more sharply pointed towards the headstock. you can see how this works effectively by simply pushing on the string past the nut, so that it adds tension. of course, a bass has to be built so that this extra angle is built in, but i would imagine that if you could emulate this somehow, it would help your situation.

the other thing, though is that other factors can heavily influence the quality of the sound of the B string. some factors that you could experiment with changing:

string brand
tapered vs. non-tapered B string
string gauge

some basses have a resonant frequency that helps the B strings' sustain... others have one that fundamentally makes it sound dead and crappy. not much you can do in that case. only other thing i could think of doing might be experimenting with pickup height underneath the B, but i think you are going to have only limited success, because it's not really helping the inherent tone of the B string.

that was just some thinking out loud, but i hope it helps somewhat-

[cbyrd2200]

Alright, thanks alot. I'll experiment with the fulcrum point and probably switch from non-tapered GHS boomers that were recommended (and really aren't working out) to the non-tapered D'addario XL's. I havn't experimented much with tapered and non-tapered, but correct me if I'm wrong, tapered strings are gauged smaller on the saddles and then expand to full gauge. From that description I don't think I've ever used tapered strings before. But right now I switched the low .120 B string with an old .105 E string and it's the same amount of floppiness (which sucks) but I can actually hear the note although it's probably not the best for the tension on the neck. But that .120 boomer had no harmonic quality whatsoever so it had to be done. And the only way to lower the fulcrum point behind the nut that I can think of on the spot would be to screw on a string post to hold it down like how most Fenders have between the D and G strings. Anyway thanks so much and it was great getting advice from you. Oh and as for the pickup height, I first found how dull the string sounded unplugged. Then I plugged in and when I srummed the string open -no note- and then at any fret, say 12th or 15th or something -still no note- it was absolutely dead. It just sent a nasty sounding percussive thud through. I switched on the E string and got a good response from it other than the floppiness. So I think the pickups are ok. But anyway thanks again.

[adamnitti]

hi again-

unfortunately, i don't think solving the string tension issue is going to cure your problem with the string sounding so dead. i know exactly what you're talking about... it's as if there is no tonal definition on the B string. based on what you've described, i really think your best chance of improving this will be changing the actual string, itself. you might have to try several brands or gauges before you find what works best for this particular bass.

you are correct on your understanding of what tapered strings are. they seem to work well on some basses and not so well on others. they might help a little in this situation.

keep in mind also that on most basses, notes on the B string past the 12th fret are going to start losing serious amounts of pitch definition. the heavier the string gauge, the more dramatic the effect will be.