DR Black Beauties on Spector NS Dimension 5?

[Curtybob]

As the title indicates, I ordered a Spector NS Dimension 5 multiscale, , and am wondering if my current stash of Black Beauties will fit. I saw that the specs say that there is 38" ish from ball to taper. So that will be cutting it super close, by my best guess. But, the headstock is 3+2, so I was also worried about the A string, and whether the string is long enough to get a wrap or 2 on the tuner.

If not, anyone have any string recommendations for this bass? Running a Darkglass B7K and an Alpha Omicron for most songs... so distortion covers a lot of what strings will sound like. Mostly, I'm worried about durability (I beat the hell out of my poor strings), and feel. Black Beauties look cool, feel nice, and hold up well to being beat upon.

Anyone have any insight?

 

[michael_t]

As the title indicates, I ordered a Spector NS Dimension 5 multiscale, , and am wondering if my current stash of Black Beauties will fit. I saw that the specs say that there is 38" ish from ball to taper. So that will be cutting it super close, by my best guess. But, the headstock is 3+2, so I was also worried about the A string, and whether the string is long enough to get a wrap or 2 on the tuner.

Winding length = from the ball end to the "taper", which is the end of the full winding where it gets thinner = 37.75". The total length of the new string is 51" including the tapered end, which should be plenty long enough for most basses.

The important thing is the full winding (37.75") is long enough to at least go past the nut, but not so long too much of it ends up wrapping around the B tuner post.

The simple thing you can do is to measure the physical distance on your bass from where the ball end is seated to the tuner side of the nut. That would be the minimum "winding length" you need. Then measure from the ball end to the B tuner post to see if it's more or less than 37.75". Ideally, it should be more than 37.75" so only the tapered end would wrap around the post.

 

[Curtybob]

Bass came in today. Short answer: it doesn't fit. The B is about 5/8" too short before the taper. The rest of the strings are fine.
Long answer: the nut slot on the B is super high. The short string sounds fine and intonation is fine. It's only one layer of taper. No buzzing. Not a fan on a bass that'll get played a lot with a pick. So I'll just have to look elsewhere.

Extra side note info: bridges do not seem to be grounded together. Getting a ground hum with these coated strings. Ugh. Time to get out the drill bits and soldering iron.

 

[michael_t]

Sorry I missed the part about this bass being multi-scale. My bad...

 

[Curtybob]

Sorry I missed the part about this bass being multi-scale. My bad...

It happens. I kinda thought you may have missed that, but didn't want to address for fear of coming off as rude.

 

[BrentSimons]

Bass came in today. Short answer: it doesn't fit. The B is about 5/8" too short before the taper. The rest of the strings are fine.
Long answer: the nut slot on the B is super high. The short string sounds fine and intonation is fine. It's only one layer of taper. No buzzing. Not a fan on a bass that'll get played a lot with a pick. So I'll just have to look elsewhere.

Extra side note info: bridges do not seem to be grounded together. Getting a ground hum with these coated strings. Ugh. Time to get out the drill bits and soldering iron.

Hi there,
The hum is a posted problem with the DR coated strings, Black Beauties, Neons, etc that they won't ground on the bridge. There is a thread around here that discusses which coated strings DO ground and eliminate the hum.
Hope this helps!
Brent

 

[Sid the Kid]

That particular bass uses the string tree to ground the instrument. Only one bridge saddle is grounded, ground goes up the string to the tree and all strings are grounded. It doesn't change things but it's neat to know.

You can also simply swap out the pickups for EMG replacements, the 3 pin connector is identical to the EMG layout. There will be no noise from grounding but the combination tends to pick up my WiFi signal which can be annoying.