Are SS strings fundamentally different or just shorter?

[socknroll1]

Searched for this and did not find it. Are short scale strings fundamentally different than standard/long, or just shorter with the tapering/winding area at a lesser length?

I realized that if you have a bass with large tuning posts (vintage Fender style for instance), it it very easy to use standard/long scale strings on a short scale bass. With large tuning posts, each winding takes quite a bit of string, so the entire long-scale string can be used (or at least most of it).

Please enlighten me as always, friends.

 

[michael_t]

Are short scale strings fundamentally different than standard/long, or just shorter with the tapering/winding area at a lesser length?

It all depends on the brand and the model. For example, the short-scale GHS Balanced Nickels are NOT just a shortened version of the long-scale version; they're specifically designed to sound and feel right on a short-scale bass. I don't think that can be said about all "short scale" string sets, though.

 

[iiipopes]

What @michael_t said. Since I only have one short scale bass, and I use the GHS Balanced Nickels on it, I agree. When @Jon Moody was with GHS, he talked about designing this particular set for short scale basses, and to my fingers and ears, they are God's gift to short scale bass players. OTOH, I have played D'A XL sets of the same gauges in both short and long scale, and to my fingers and ears they seem to be simply different lengths of the same strings. Same in my experience with La Bella flats.

I must disagree with one observation: because, especially on lower pitched strings, the core is a larger diameter, unless you have the taper that matches the scale of the bass, the player does run the risk of breaking strings that the speaking length ends up wrapping around the tuner post.

Because of that, let us all repeat the mantra to get the proper strings for the proper bass:

1) measure the length from the ball anchor to the tuner side of the nut;
2) measure the length from the ball anchor to the center of the lowest string tuner
3) purchase a set of strings where the winding or speaking length is between these two measurements.

 

[4StringDave]

When @Jon Moody was with GHS.

Is that no longer the case?

 

[HaphAsSard]

Some are clearly revealed (by the available tension data) to be just wound shorter, which is probably the case for the majority. Some are only different in that some of the specific gauges in the shortie sets aren't offered in long-scale form.
In rare cases, strings appear to have been internally designed with their scale in mind. According to the old D'Addario tension chart .pdf, strings from the old-version EXL160S nickel-plated steel roundwound set had each a higher "unit weight" (mass per inch) than the long scale string of same diameter: this was clearly meant to give them more tension at 30" scale without making them larger. Note that D'Addario doesn't bother making them that way anymore: multiplying the tension for each string by (34/30)^2, you get the same value as found for the corresponding long-scale string. Similarly, the G, D and A Thomastik-Infeld Jazz Flat Wound strings in super-long scale version calculate very close to their long-scale counterparts regardless of them having slightly larger gauges. My, to date unproven, guess is that their layer of inner silk (a feature which is more typical of orchestral strings and which T-I electric bass flats have) is a smidgen thicker in order to compensate for the increased twanginess that extra-long scale determines for the thinnest strings in a set, while the rest of the components - core, underwinding if there, outer ribbon - are the exact same.

 

[michael_t]

Is that no longer the case?

Refer to posts #57 and #59 in THIS THREAD.