Last week, I bought a '61 Silvertone 1444. I'm pretty sure that 64 years later, it still had the stock strings. The rattly E drove me nuts so I changed them.
The strings I settled on are Ernie Ball Slinky 20-90 6 string bass guitar strings. I'll be honest, I've never liked them on my Danelectro Bass 6. But on the Silvertone, with no truss rod, original tuners, and wood bridge; they worked out pretty well. Obviously I didn't use the first two strings. So the gauges are 42-54-74-90. I would have used standard bass strings with a more robust bridge. The small ball end strings fit the bill nicely.
One thing to note, the E string seems like it will have too much slack to properly wrap around the post. But it fit with two wraps. And it gave me that extra bit of tension I needed so every note on the fretboard isn't flabby, only some of them. I'm gonna let it sit for a day and see how it settles. But I'm already very happy with them.
The strings I settled on are Ernie Ball Slinky 20-90 6 string bass guitar strings. I'll be honest, I've never liked them on my Danelectro Bass 6. But on the Silvertone, with no truss rod, original tuners, and wood bridge; they worked out pretty well. Obviously I didn't use the first two strings. So the gauges are 42-54-74-90. I would have used standard bass strings with a more robust bridge. The small ball end strings fit the bill nicely.
One thing to note, the E string seems like it will have too much slack to properly wrap around the post. But it fit with two wraps. And it gave me that extra bit of tension I needed so every note on the fretboard isn't flabby, only some of them. I'm gonna let it sit for a day and see how it settles. But I'm already very happy with them.
