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Available Short Scale Sets

#62
S.F.Sorrow said:
Yeah, they really should stop selling this junk. I've always complained about the fact that many string manufacturers offer short scale strings in far too light gauges. This what causes the myth of short scale basses being inferior, floppy E-string, etc. Rotosound are BY FAR the worst offenders. Their short scale sets are completely useless. They are so floppy they can't even hold a steady pitch, making them impossible to tune, let alone intonate them!

We're WAY beyond personal preferences here, Rotosound short scale strings are utter garbage! I will be SHOCKED if there's even a single person out there who actually like these strings.
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It's a real shame as I love long scale Rotosound strings, they are literally pretty much everything I look for in a string, also imo it's the E string that lets them down, the D is very light at .50 but not unusable but that E string at .90 gauge I would play a note and my electric tuner would tell me the note was in tune but it would always sound like it was a quarter tone out and got worse the further up the neck I played on the E
 
#64
So I special ordered a few La Bella Deep Talkin White Nylon 5-string sets but just heard back that they have a 6 set minimum special order. Before I cancel the order and settle for the black nylons, I thought I'd check here first to see if anyone else wanted to go in on the special order. Please let me know if you do.
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#65
My opinion on a few different 30" 5-string sets on a Maruszyzcyk/Mensinger Cazpar. I wasn't happy with the Maruszczyk Flatwound b string which sounded very different than the other strings (like just the b string had a foam mute at the bridge). I tried Dunlops and the b string was more usable but still very different from the other strings. I now have LaBella Deep Talkin Black Nylon Tapewounds and the B-string sounds like the rest of the strings and is very usable. If I decide to go back to the Dunlop or Maruszczyk flats I will definitely still use the Black Nylon b string. Also, the D strings on the other two sets were quieter on my bass but the Black Nylons seem balanced.
 
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#66
NinjaPyrate said:
Does anyone know which have the lowest tension between:
Labella 760FL-B-S Deep Talkin' Bass Flatwound 5 String Light (43 - 60 - 82 - 104 - 128)
La Bella Deep Talkin' White Nylon Tapewound Short Scale - 5-String 60-135T 760T-B-S
Dunlop Flatwound Stainless Steel Bass Guitar Strings; short scale gauges 45-125
Click to expand...

Tapes are much lower in tension, so whites.

NinjaPyrate said:
So I special ordered a few La Bella Deep Talkin White Nylon 5-string sets but just heard back that they have a 6 set minimum special order. Before I cancel the order and settle for the black nylons, I thought I'd check here first to see if anyone else wanted to go in on the special order. Please let me know if you do.
([Invalid or Expired Link Removed])
Click to expand...

weird. Are you ordering straight from La Bella? you could try one of their trusted retailers. FWIW, I've tried both blacks and white (35" 5 string black, 34" 4 string white light gauge) and they are both great strings. Blacks are a step towards mellow vs. whites. I keep trying different strings and end up back liking the black tapes. Too bad that 35" was a boat anchor and hurt my back....
 
#67
mrperkolator said:
Tapes are much lower in tension, so whites.

weird. Are you ordering straight from La Bella? you could try one of their trusted retailers. FWIW, I've tried both blacks and white (35" 5 string black, 34" 4 string white light gauge) and they are both great strings. Blacks are a step towards mellow vs. whites. I keep trying different strings and end up back liking the black tapes. Too bad that 35" was a boat anchor and hurt my back....
Click to expand...

I changed my mind am going back to my favorite TI Jazz Flats - but they don't make 5-string short scale sets so my bass is in the shop for a string-through conversion to accept 34" scale strings.

I contacted 14 different LaBella retailers, and only two of them were willing to special order them - but with a 6 set minimum.
 
#68
What is the issue in cutting long-scale strings down? Just wondering as I am trying to get a bit more twang out of my Sterling SS Stingray. I've heard about potential breakages if you bend the string round the machines, but on a SS the tension is pretty low so seems unlikely. Anyway I used a set of emergency long scale rotosound rotos that I had in my gig bag - no issues as far as I can tell.
 
#69
You got it! Wrapping the full length round-wounds around a big Fender-style post has worked for me as well. I’ve had ok luck with TI flats on smaller vintage Gibson posts as well. It was more nerve-wracking, but has lasted about 10 years so far. I haven’t had any breakage at the post the half-dozen or so times I’ve resorted to it. Still, I’d much rather have the proper length :).

I should mention that I have broken a number of bass strings over the years, but always at the ball end or the through-body bend with a Labella DTF (yes, I was warned).
 
#70
Hornet Mikey said:
What is the issue in cutting long-scale strings down? Just wondering as I am trying to get a bit more twang out of my Sterling SS Stingray. I've heard about potential breakages if you bend the string round the machines, but on a SS the tension is pretty low so seems unlikely. Anyway I used a set of emergency long scale rotosound rotos that I had in my gig bag - no issues as far as I can tell.
Click to expand...

To my understanding, it's not the tension that we feel between the nut and the ball, it's the force applied outwards as it wraps around post (centripetal force?). So as it bends, the force of being bent is the issue, and does that force along with your playing force become enough to cause a failure. Also based on my simple understanding of the mechanics, it would be less prominent in round-wound strings vs other styles. Of course every player is different, and the tension at the tuner may not prove to be an issue for someone with a light touch. As @TomB mentioned, it does seem to happen more at the bridge for what I hear.
 
#71
Here's another short scale string set for the list:
Dogal R45 Traditional Flatwounds. Gauge: 42-100. Length from ball end to silk: 32.75 inches. Dogal makes several kinds of bass strings, both round- and flatwound. However, the R45's are, as far as I can tell, the only short scale set that's available here in the USA. I use the R44 long scale set - same 42-100 gauge - on my Gibson Thunderbird. Where they work wonderfully well, IMO. I've never put my set of R45s on anything, even though I have... 9, maybe?... basses that they'd fit on. I think that might be because a short scale bass purchase never panned out; or else they just "appeared" somehow in my Big Box O' Strings... If so, it wouldn't be the first time. I think they get together at night, and... well, you know...:eek:
 
#72
GIBrat51 said:
Here's another short scale string set for the list:
Dogal R45 Traditional Flatwounds. Gauge: 42-100. Length from ball end to silk: 32.75 inches. Dogal makes several kinds of bass strings, both round- and flatwound. However, the R45's are, as far as I can tell, the only short scale set that's available here in the USA. I use the R44 long scale set - same 42-100 gauge - on my Gibson Thunderbird. Where they work wonderfully well, IMO. I've never put my set of R45s on anything, even though I have... 9, maybe?... basses that they'd fit on. I think that might be because a short scale bass purchase never panned out; or else they just "appeared" somehow in my Big Box O' Strings... If so, it wouldn't be the first time. I think they get together at night, and... well, you know...:eek:
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Yes, a viable option. But at $66/set? Whew!
 
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#76
Does anyone know of a SS roundwound set with a 0.110 gauge E string? Looks like the Dogal sets with the low 0.110 E are 5 and string sets and the Curt Mangum set with that gauge appears to no longer be available. Closest now appears to the be the GHS Short Scale Boomers with a .107 E.
 
#77
bassburner said:
I created a spreadsheet with all the data I've put together on these sets. Since I can't update the first post and with the addition of a few brands that have a lot of options, it's grown out of control for a simple post anyway.

Spreadsheet of available short scale bass strings
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Your spreadsheet has Dunlop stainless steel flat short scales with a winding length of 32.75". I use them and the distance from ball end to beginning of silk is 32.25". This is why no non silked string winds onto the G tuner on a Mikro. This wouldn't be the case if ball to silk was 32.75". The taper doesn't begin exactly at the start of the silk but it is definitely not a 1/2" beyond the silk start, if by winding length you are meaning ball end to taper start on non silked strings. The distance from the back of the bridge to the middle of the G post on a Mikro is 32.36". You can see no non silked string on a .045 Dunlop SS flat winds onto the post after being tuned up to standard tuning G2 IMG20230421141636.jpgIMG20230421132932.jpg
Fretnation has the winding length on a 4 string set of 45-105's at 32" [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
 
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#78
NinjaPyrate said:
Does anyone know which have the lowest tension between:
Labella 760FL-B-S Deep Talkin' Bass Flatwound 5 String Light (43 - 60 - 82 - 104 - 128)
La Bella Deep Talkin' White Nylon Tapewound Short Scale - 5-String 60-135T 760T-B-S
Dunlop Flatwound Stainless Steel Bass Guitar Strings; short scale gauges 45-125
Click to expand...

These are the tensions for Dunlop stainless flats based on a 34" scale and BEADG tuning
B0 .125 /31.4 lbs
E1 .105 /42.3 /lbs
A1 .085 /48.4 lbs
D2 .065 /50.2 lbs
G2 .045 /48.1 lbs
Total Tension = 220.4 lbs
The equation for obtaining the tension per string on whatever your scale length is
NTx(SSL÷LSL)squared .Where NT = Known Tension.
SSL= shorter scale length
LSL =longer scale length . Example. Say your scale length for the short scale dunlops strings is 28.6" (a mikro for example) the equation for the B0 string would be
31.4 (known tension of 34" scale) x (28.6(SSL) ÷34 (LSL) squared. Answer = 22.21 lbs. And so on and so forth
 
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#80
Prodigus Filius said:
The equation for obtaining the tension per string on whatever your scale length is
NTx(SSL÷LSL)squared .Where NT = Known Tension.
SSL= shorter scale length
LSL =longer scale length . Example. Say your scale length for the short scale dunlops strings is 28.6" (a mikro for example) the equation for the B0 string would be
31.4 (known tension of 34" scale) x (28.6(SSL) ÷34 (LSL) squared. Answer = 22.21 lbs. And so on and so forth
Click to expand...
Generally speaking, it is the target tension, whatever that is, that goes in the numerator, not necessarily the shortest. If, for example, the known tension values are for 34" and you want to know the tension at 35", you need to multiply them by (35/34)^2.

Of course, it is rarer to know tensions of a shorter scale set, when wanting to install it on a longer scale platform, because more often than not it doesn't even fit there. But still.
 

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