CGDA short scale strings

[khutch]

What strings do you use for GDAE? I'm like you in that I'm trying to find a use for my bronco. It was the first bass I ever liked as well as the one I learned how to do setups and mods on so I want to keep it, but I don't want it collecting dust. I play mandolin so GDAE would interest me as well.

The bass is a 34 inch Deluxe Active Jazz using GPS Pressure Wound Flats. The gauges are 84, 58, 40, and 28. I was shooting for 40 pounds tension. Those gauges are about the best I could do and give about 37, 41, 45, and 51 pounds. Obviously the E wants to be lighter about 24 instead of 28.

I think that on a 30 inch scale you would want about 100, 65, 43, and 28 for GDAE and 40 pounds.

Ken

 

[notverygood]

The bass is a 34 inch Deluxe Active Jazz using GPS Pressure Wound Flats. The gauges are 84, 58, 40, and 28. I was shooting for 40 pounds tension. Those gauges are about the best I could do and give about 37, 41, 45, and 51 pounds. Obviously the E wants to be lighter about 24 instead of 28.

I think that on a 30 inch scale you would want about 100, 65, 43, and 28 for GDAE and 40 pounds.

Ken

Thanks!

 

[ixlramp]

I had thought low C at first, but I like the idea of an octave higher. As long as the strings balanced well. What gauge would you start the C at? 70-80? And then regular guitar strings for the D and A?

That depends on what tension you want, and whether you want a slight fall in tension from low to high, which i recommend especially for this baritone type tuning. I recommend low tension to make chords easier. While 40 pounds feels medium on a .100 it feels overtight on a plain string and will push a .025 close to it's breaking point. For GDAE i would use a plain steel .018 on top and create a steady fall in tension from low to high. .100 .065 .040 .025 would be good for something like FCGD.

Plus, being a 30" scale throws me off when thinking gauges

Cello CGDA on a 34"/35" scale i'm thinking .065 .040 .025 .015p for a medium tension set. All those could be standard length strings and the plain a guitar string with bass ball end threaded onto it. That would be a little lighter on 30" but will be very playable and comfortable. It really helps to step-down the tension from wound to plain, this mellows the otherwise overly bright and loud plain string.

 

[johnp352]

I use D'addario Chromes on my Rick Turner tenor bass..it's tuned a-d-g-c-f. I am able to use their guitar and/or ss bass strings..it's a 30"scale. The cool thing about using all guitar strings, which I can do as they make a .080 guitar string for my "a" ..is that you can buy individual strings..I've experimented with different gauges for the "f"..going as small as a .020 to a 024.

Fan Tao, the head of the bowed string division, helped me a lot when i was in the design phase of this bass, he hipped me to a lot of things I didn't know about strings.

 

[kozmikyak]

you could go to octave4plus.com and get them to construct such a set for you. It will cost quite a bit, but it can be done. They made me a 28" scale flatwound Bb string, a whole step below the C you're thinking of.

In addition to costing quite a bit, it will take a long time for them to send two test copies of each string, which will need to be sent back to them for analysis before they finalize each one.

But, in the end, it will work well.