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Flatwound Problem?

RASHOSS

RASHOSS

Jan 21, 2011
309
97
Oak View, CA
www.youtube.com
#1
Hello All,

Bass has relatively new Flatwound strings (30 hours or so of play time). I noticed the outter wrap on the B string appears to be missing, or pulled away, at the bridge, compared to the other strings. Is this a potential problem as relates to string longevity, or only cosmetic?

Thank you,

Hossinn
upload_2023-11-22_23-17-31.jpeg
upload_2023-11-22_23-17-31.jpeg
 
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#3
RASHOSS said:
Hello All,

Bass has relatively new Flatwound strings (30 hours or so of play time). I noticed the outter wrap on the B string appears to be missing, or pulled away, at the bridge, compared to the other strings. Is this a potential problem as relates to string longevity, or only cosmetic?

Thank you,

Hossinn
View attachment 5260289View attachment 5260288
Click to expand...
The La Bella Deep Talkin' Bass flatwound low B is a ".128T", where the letter stands for "tapered" (aka "taperwound" - not to be confused, but it often inevitably is, with "tapewound").
In other words, the string is thinner than full gauge, around the saddle area.
[If you look closer, the outer wrap is still there: it's the inner wraps, between the flat ribbon and the core, that stop there - one, then two then three - so that the ribbon is eventually wound directly around the core.]

The taper is supposed to have a number of benefits (look up "taperwound" in this subforum).
Ideally, the transition point should be as close to the saddle as possible. If the string has weird overtones, and you've verified the string is not twisted (to do so, detune it until the ball end is free to spin, then retune it), you may consider adding spacers of some kind between ball-end and bridge, so that the thinner section in front of the saddle is shorter.
 
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#6
RASHOSS said:
Hello All,

Bass has relatively new Flatwound strings (30 hours or so of play time). I noticed the outter wrap on the B string appears to be missing, or pulled away, at the bridge, compared to the other strings. Is this a potential problem as relates to string longevity, or only cosmetic?

Thank you,

Hossinn
View attachment 5260289View attachment 5260288
Click to expand...

Good catch and a normal design variation as others have indicated. Some addt'l considerations: (1) tapered or exposed core strings tend to intonate well-ahead of their full wrap counterparts (2) the stair-step will require raising the saddle a bit for buzz-free performance.

Riis
 
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#10
pineweasel said:
Superwound bass strings employed this construction for all strings, quite popular in the UK back in the 80s
View attachment 5260717
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Superwound was a James How &co. brand, and the main marque of the company, Rotosound, offered the same length-adjustable tapered/contact-core section system, under their their 99 PSD Bass ("Piano String Design") product line, until recently - a discontinuation, by the way, which I've just found out about.
Also by the way, and also unbeknownst to me until 5 minutes ago, said system survives in their Super Bronze acoustic guitar line.
 
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