Hmm... I emailed Gold Tone before seeing this thread, and they said that the MBLS would not work on a 25.5" Glary. Anyone have these on a 25.5"?
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Well, @macmanlou has used the MBLS on a 25" scale (a fretless Gold Tone Microbass25, of all things). Would half an inch make a substantial difference?
To quote myself, I've long had the feeling those who answer emails at La Bella, and Gold Tone as well in this case, have been instructed to always give as conservative an answer as possible in order to minimise future complaints.
When in doubt, say no: less business, but less hassles.
I totally agree with @HaphAsArd, I never listen to those statements. I'm sure the MBLS will work on 25.5" scale.
@NinjaPyrate, I'm so confident they will work, if you buy them and they don't fit, I'll pay for them and you keep them for future use.
I just measured the MBLS strings on my Microbass.
First off,. the scale on mine is actually about 25.75" from the bridge saddle to the nut
Now, the wound portion of the MBLS strings extend another .75 to 1.0" above the nut.
They should work fine on a 26" scale bass.
Unless you have adjustable bridge saddles, I only recommend them for fretless basses because of the intonation issues on fretted basses.
I might try them on my new fretless solid body U-Bass (23.5" scale), but I'll give Kala another month or so to get the flatwound set that they say they are developing for it. The stock Kala roundwounds are much thicker than the MBLS strings.
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Whoa, that's pretty solid endorsement!
How to measure (nominal, net of saddle adjustment) scale on a fretless (which I don't play) has always been a puzzle to me. I suppose it should be nut to 12th-"fret" side marker, times 2.
...I think...
Good advice.
Oh, do you have news on the (magnetically-active) strings Kala plans to use on the new solid-bodies? are there gonna be rounds as well? Last I checked their website (one week ago or so), they still only had Pahoehoes, Aquilas, Galli flats, and their own nyloncore "metal" (probably silver-plated copper, but they never clarified) roundwounds (maybe also the Pyramids? I don't remember), but nothing (apart from the Gallis) that would work through a mag pickup.
The Galli flats with nylon core don't really work with magnetic pickups, I've tried and there isn't enough metal to properly activate the pickup, I had to maximize the volume on the bass and the amp and it still wasn't quite enough.
The new solid-bodies do come with steel-core roundwounds.
E .124"
A .104"
D .085"
G .061"
Back in September, Kala told me that "upgraded" roundwounds as well as metal-core flatwounds for the new basses should be available "in a couple of months".
We'll see. I'll probably invest a set of the MBLS on my fretless if they're not available by January. I don't care for roundwounds on a fretless.
FYI, I just put the Goldtone MBLS flatwounds on my Glary and did a setup. I had to widen the nut slots, but other than that ADG fit, intonation was easy, and they sound much better. The E string required a lot of intonation adjustment, and doing so set the fat part of the string taper on the bridge saddle, instead of the normal non-tapered part of the string. To fix this I put a couple of very small nuts between the ball end and the bridge, which worked. I was going to use one of the white string number cubes that come on the strings, which may have worked unless it broke because it is plastic, but the nuts match the hardware better than the white string number cube.
The E string, however, sounds very thumpy/dead - like it is muted with foam. It is actually a great tone but does not match the other strings. EQ helps a lot, but it still doesn't match the others. It is fine for a $70 bass, but I may either mute the ADG strings to match or put the stock steel string E back on.
Overall though I'm happier with the tone and the bass. There is an single fret buzz on the G string at the third fret, but otherwise no buzzing which is great for the price.
The E string, however, sounds very thumpy/dead - like it is muted with foam. It is actually a great tone but does not match the other strings. EQ helps a lot, but it still doesn't match the others. It is fine for a $70 bass, but I may either mute the ADG strings to match or put the stock steel string E back on.
Overall though I'm happier with the tone and the bass. There is an single fret buzz on the G string at the third fret, but otherwise no buzzing which is great for the price.
So, it looks like the MBLS strings might be an option for the Blackstar Carryon? (25" from ball to nut)
I think it would be a lot of fun to put flats on that little guy.
Pretty annoying how little actual specification Gold Tone puts on this product page.
You should seriously consider threading the two lowest strings (or perhaps just the low E) through short metal tubings of some sort before installation, so that the ball ends get stopped at the body edge. This is because the MBLS are reportedly about 28" long from ball to silk, and La Bella warns against winding not-yet-tapered strings directly onto the tuning posts. At a glance, the nut-to-post distance isn't enough to account for that 3" difference.
Thanks for that heads up. I ordered a set of MBLS strings today. I will take a look once they get here to see if some other action needs to be taken. Perhaps drill and make it through-body stringing. Might look into what that would entail.
That is a great idea, but:
La Bella also recommends against through-body loading of regular DTB flats (and the MBLS set is in every likelihood made like them, as opposed to the Low Tension Flatwound and Olinto Signature Flatwound product lines). This could be circumvented by drilling the through-body canals diagonally, like on certain Yamaha models; or by having their profiles be somewhat curved, or partly slanted, kind of like this (pardon the appalling ASCII non-art) :
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|There certainly is plenty of body to work with on the BlackStar. Drilling at a shallow relief angle would actually make the run even longer and might make the strings fit better. Certainly within my skills. Once the strings get here I will take a look.
Might have to replace the bridge however since it does not look like the current bridge will allow for through-body.
So I ordered a set of the Good Tones.
As folks were saying, the A and D strings look like they will be fine, but the E and G strings are wound longer than the scale of the bass to the tuning posts.
I really like the feeling of these strings. So next step options.
- build a dummy bridge to extend the ball end a couple inches towards the strap button to extend the E and G string ball.
- do an angled thru-body hole with ferrules
Any other thoughts?
Don't worry about the G string. It doesn't taper anyway, and it makes no difference if you wind its silkless section upon the post. [I know that La Bella doesn't exempt the high G from their warning, but IME a string that thin, even a flatwound, is flexible enough not to present breakage risks.]
That's basically it, as far as options. Or, I guess you could see if the tuning machines are reversible, in which case* you could fit three of them to the treble side, leaving only the current A-string tuner to the bass side, and winding the low E to it.
* [alternatively, if you can source them, buy three right-side tuners that fit, and one matching left-side one.]
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[NOT really pertinent to the present thread but, since one piece of info I implied above (which someone may bump into) is now outdated, I thought I'd post a]
Corrigendum -
At the time of the above post, the La Bella Olinto Signature Flatwound sets (OSF-4, OSF-5 and OSF-6) did not come with the anti-stringthru warning.
However, the warning was recently added to their product pages as well.
In other words, the only thru-body kosher La Bella flats are
- the LTF-4A and LTF-5A from the Low Tension Flats line
- the 760FS-TB (Deep Talkin' Bass flat standard, thru-body version)
- the 760F-MUS (Deep Talkin' Bass flat for the thru-body-only Fender Mustang)
- the 760-FD (Deep Talkin' Bass flat for Danelectro short-scale basses), for some reason (either the light gauge or the fact that only in a sub-short scale bass would they fit through the body)
[The nylon tapewounds (whether black, white or custom coloured) are really, like the near-totality of the competition, roundwound under the tape, and accordingly come without the warning.]
__
The above having been said, all La Bella flats and tapes carry another warning, about correct headstock-end length fitment (the strings should taper before the tuning post).
