Strings for an extra-short-scale?

hooky_marr said:

So, I managed to get a used History MMBJ short scale, from a collection they made around 2002 'for kids'. I thought it was a 30" scale but it's a good deal shorter - its nut starts around where the 3rd fret is on my Bacchus WJB-Mini (29.5" scale), closer to guitar length. I actually like it!

It's made by Fujigen so it's high quality woods and construction. I'm just wondering what kind of strings to get for it, because standard short-scales might be too long, in terms of having any sort of tapered end to insert into the tuners (it has a set of standard Gotoh minis on it now).

What's on it now seems to be a set of 40-90s, possibly D'Addarios.
If I have to, does anyone know if I can get strings custom-made to fit?

(In the picture, what I have is the smallest bass, the 'mini mini', the black one is their short-scale 'mini', the silver is regular scale)View attachment 4862215

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Judging by the comparison you provided, your basslet is fully into guitar scale territory. This guy
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says it's 25" scale, i.e. even shorter than full 25.5" Strat/dreadnought/Torres classical guitar scale.

Could you
- confirm scale length (from fretboard edge of nut to crown of 12th fret, times 2) is indeed 25"
- measure from where the ball ends are anchored to the nut
- measure from ball end to closest (E string, usually) tuning post?

By the way, would you prefer rounds or flats?

hooky_marr said:

I'll measure it and follow up.

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Please do. It may be useful for other forumites in the future.

Looking for roundwounds, medium tension, not too heavy - similar to what's on it now but a fresh set (the winding is coming off one string after the nut, and I'm putting a new Kahler bridge on it anyway)

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If you're fine with the tensions of the old set and believe it's a 90 or 95, here are three fairly readily available options
(in all three the largest couple strings are going to be tapered; I'm afraid I'm not sure at what point exactly but, even if you do end up getting some full diameter on the post, there shouldn't be so much that you can't fit all of it, and the supershort scale, ergo low tension, makes breakage at the post unlikely) :

1- a set of single GHS guitar Boomers
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(I suggest 044-056-070-090; guitar ball-ends, so you should thread the strings into bass ball-ends before installation)

2- the four largest strings (046-062-078-092) from a bajo sexto set (make sure they're nickel or steel, not bronze), like
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or
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(loop-end, but you should be able to slide in some bass ball ends, or something of appropriate shape)

3- a custom order from Stringjoy
Stringjoy Signatures | Single Nickel Wound Electric Guitar Strings
(my suggestion here is 046-060-080-095; small ball-ends, of course - to specify bass ball-ends, and for more options, you'll have to write them an email at [email protected]).

If you decide you want a little more tension after all, Stringjoy (or, alternatively, Newtone or Pyramid) are still the folks to call, since there really isn't anything off the shelf and intermediate between these 90/95 guitar string options and the 065-080-105-125 gauges of the Fernandes BSZ-2000
FERNANDES BSZ-2000 Base string for PIE-ZO 4514922023598 | eBay
(...unless you get the latter set, leave out the largest string, move the other three up one slot, and add a single 050 - which is an idea).

My 26" scale has the lower strings from an Ernie Ball bass VI set. 42-54-74-90. (The ball ends are guitar size though, might be too small for your bridge)
But normally I just use my usual 40-100 long scale set and cut them to size.

hooky_marr said:

It does come out to 25". Looking for rounds. Shimamura, who sold these basses originally, have their own house brand of bass strings, so maybe they carry something for these?

Just took it in to my local repair shop as I was replacing the bridge with a Kahler 2440, and they said they were going to install some new strings of the same gauge as what's on it now.

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Again, if it's really 90s (or 95s) currently on, and if you like their playability and tone, this allows you to get away with using long scale strings and be reasonably sure they won't break on you. There is no set-in-stone, clear-cut danger threshold with it: the very short scale (hence light tension) and light gauge contribute to mitigate the risk.

As for the company making the "correct" set for the instrument, it's certainly possible, but my nearly-non-existent Japanese really can't help in that respect, I'm afraid.