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Double Bass Anyone else having trouble with La Bella strings?

3

3j4f

Nov 12, 2020
19
16
#1
I just bought some La Bella 7710T for my ½ DB. It took a while as Gollihur had to order them and then ship to Australia. (My last set from La Bella for my Hofner Club bass had a longer than necessary E string - so it wouldn't fit into the smaller than Fender machine heads - so they kindly sent me a new one. It took months to get here during Covid but it got here).
So I checked these new strings were all the same length before I put them on and they were but here is what I discovered once on. Is this normal? I doubt it - it looks dodgy as. I lengthened the tailpiece cable to its maximum so I got the E to at least have the silk past the nut. La Bella thinks this is fine. I have my doubts.
La Bella 7710T copy.jpeg
 
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#2
It is OK for playing, but tuning might damage the silk over time. But it is also possible threat the string stretches a bit and the silk goes beyond the nut before it was damaged too much.

If you find the silk gets damaged you might want to put some elastic glue on the silk, just enough to soak into the silk, not more.

Next time they should make the playable part half an inch longer …
 
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#5
Keep in mind silk is not structural and is not adding to the strength of the string.

I would be inclined to carefully cut away the silk from where it overlaps the wound nylon part, just up until the string tapers down to its core and gapped windings. Then seal with super glue. Thinking now I would just cut the top layer of silk then unwind by hand, to avoid damaging the nylon.

I did the same thing with a spiro E when I had a hipshot D-tuner, only at the other end. I didn't need to be that careful since I was cutting down a metal (and somewhat bullet-proof outer wrap).

At the end of the day, if the slot is large enough and shaped correctly, so that the most pressure of the string is sitting right on the fingerboard edge of the nut (witness point) then it shouldn't be a problem. Make sure the slot is lubed with graphite.

Does it sound bad?
 
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#7
You can do that with a Spiro, but this string has maybe less than a cm under the silk before the windings are stretched.
I would not cut the silk if the overlapping is so short.

The only reason why I would reduce the diameter by removing and fixing some silk would be if the sting sits so high in the nut slot that the vibrating length of the string becomes longer than up to the lower end of the nut.

I would wait until the string stretches a bit.
 
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