Fender 9050l tension and feeling

[Pier_]

Hi there! it's been a while since I opened a thread here, and I'd like to ask you all something I couldn't find searching through the forum.

I just bought a Fender Mustang Vintera in fiesta red (WAAAY better than the Japanese model... I've had two, and they felt like toys... this Vintera is really a big balls bass!) and the seller had on a set of D'Addario Chromes 45-65-80-100 that sounds good and in touch of what I wanted from this bass, BUT even after a meticulous setup I couldn't get the right tension, due to a tight D string.

I'm used to 45-100 strings, they are my go-to gauge for roundwounds (D'Addario EPS170, Ernie Ball Super Slinky and Fender 7250ml), so now I'm finding strange that I feel the D string so tight and hard to play, compared to the other three strings.

usually the string height makes the balance with the right distance from the frets, but not in this case.

so I was looking at the Fender 9050l, with this gauge: 45-60-80-100.

is this set "balanced" compared to the chromes? I saw that the Justin Meldal Johnsen signature goes out with this set, but I didn't have the occasion to try it, so I don't know.

any experience?

how they compare sound wise to Chromes?

PS: I don't want to use heavier strings like Labella 760MUS or lighter strings like Thomastik, I've tried them before and I don't like them much on the Mustang.
Chromes have the right sound, not too thuddy, not too bright, and the right tension on E, A and G.

 

[michael_t]

I was looking at the Fender 9050l, with this gauge: 45-60-80-100.

is this set "balanced" compared to the chromes? I saw that the Justin Meldal Johnsen signature goes out with this set, but I didn't have the occasion to try it, so I don't know.

any experience?

how they compare sound wise to Chromes?

I hated the feel of the Chromes ECB81 (45-65-80-100) because of the tight D. Fender 9050L fixed that problem for me as they did feel better-balanced.

Once broken in (1-2 mths), the 9050s have a nice full-bodied low-mid punch with a hint of grind, while the Chromes tend to be a bit more "metallic" (at least to my ears) due to some hi-mid clank.

EDIT: Fender 9050L only come in "long scale" with 37.1" winding length, although they seem to be doing okay as the factory strings for the JMJ Road Worn Mustang.

 

[Pier_]

@michael_t , thanks for the answer!

hope they'll work for me, because I really love this little fiesta with flats, but that D is so tight... it's like playing a different set on the D.

EDIT: Fender 9050L only come in "long scale" with 37.1" winding length, although they seem to be doing okay as the factory strings for the JMJ Road Worn Mustang.

yes, the little Mustang can stand long scale strings due to the through body bridge and the big tuners. right now I have the Chromes in long scale and the Vintera comes with Fender 7250m, long scale.

 

[GIBrat51]

I like them, and I use them. As far as actual, pounds of pull tension goes? IMO, average for their gauge. As far as stiffness goes? Again, about average. Not as flexible as TIs; not as stiff as Rotos... I've never been a Balance worrier; not even real sure what that means. And, don't think I care... What I do care about is; do they feel good? Do they sound good? Yes? Then I'm happy. The fact that 9050Ls are fairly inexpensive (here, anyway), and that they last, is icing on the cake, AFAIC...

 

[Root 5]

Fender 9050s have a silky smooth feel on the fingers. They feel better than Chromes in my opinion. Great strings.

 

[Pier_]

I like them, and I use them. As far as actual, pounds of pull tension goes? IMO, average for their gauge. As far as stiffness goes? Again, about average. Not as flexible as TIs; not as stiff as Rotos... I've never been a Balance worrier; not even real sure what that means. And, don't think I care... What I do care about is; do they feel good? Do they sound good? Yes? Then I'm happy. The fact that 9050Ls are fairly inexpensive (here, anyway), and that they last, is icing on the cake, AFAIC...

well, what I mean with "balance" is that I don't encounter one string that is too stiff and far not flexible compared to the other three.
when I play the ECB81 and I "encounter" the D string, it's like if the string was from another set.

I don't have this issue with other strings in the same gauge.

 

[GIBrat51]

well, what I mean with "balance" is that I don't encounter one string that is too stiff and far not flexible compared to the other three.
when I play the ECB81 and I "encounter" the D string, it's like if the string was from another set.

I don't have this issue with other strings in the same gauge.

Ahh... so that's what it means. OK... In that case; yes, under my fingers, the 9050Ls seem well balanced...

 

[Gothic]

I've got the ECB82 Chromes (50G) and the 9050m Fenders (55G) and while the Fenders' 55 G is pretty tight, the Chromes' 50 feels quite buttery to me. Maybe go for a 40?

 

[Pier_]

In the end I bought a set and tried it on my Mustang:

the G feels similar in both sets

the D is more flexible in the Fender set, and balanced with the other strings

the A feels the same

the E feels a bit stiffer and I had to correct the intonation backing the saddle.

overall feeling is great, a lot more “equal” string to string, even sound wise.

the strings are a bit rough, probably because they are brand new. The Chromes, used for months, were already smoother.

I’ll come back with some samples of brand new and broken in Fenders!

 

[Pier_]

so, I'm back with some comments, in particular a bad one, but let's start with the goods:

Pro: perfect balance between strings in terms of tension and feeling
perfect balance in sound, even out of the box they already sound like flats, with a nice growl on the low mids

Con: the E string won't lose the "wobbling", and it's on the overall length.

let me explain the wobbling: it's like the string has some chorus effect added, and it cannot be intonate because of this. every time I pluck it, it starts with an higher pitch note (+15/+20 cent) and then wobbles between the tuned note and the higher pitch.

this thing happens on every fret.

at first I tried to release the string and check the "twist", but nothing changed.
I pressed it near the bridge and near the nut, but nothing changed.
I pressed it better on the tuner post, but nothing changed.

I tried to make it settle a bit playing it for hours and days, but nothing, this chorus was still there, and destroyed all the sound. the other strings were perfect.

___

I then switched to rounds for a while, no wobbling at all with D'Addario nickel and prosteel, both long scale, so the issue wasn't the length of the string.

now I'm waiting for the Labella's dedicated set of flats hope it will work correctly.

 

[onda'bass]

It sounds like a twisted string or your witness point is not set.

 

[4StringDave]

I haven't found that problem with my set on my bass. Might be a duff string or a bad string/bass match

 

[LushPuppy]

I have never had a 100 gauge E that didn’t have wobbly intonation on my short scale. I went to Dunlop 45-105 and they’ve been great. Not as smooth feeling as chromes or fenders, and have a bit of the chromes metallic-ness, but they’re balanced and I find them to be a good solution for the issues you mention.

 

[thrashingbass]

I've had "wobbly" Es, but on my short scale, and not as a rule. But that bass needs a better bridge anyway. Going to switch it out soon, as the bridge arrived today-but that is another story.

On my Vintera P, the 9050L are *perfect*, having an excellent balance between tension as you noted, but with zero "wobbliness"-I am concerned you may have a bad E or another issue, especially if the Chrome E did not have this problem. IME, they do match more than well my 34 scale Vintera.

I loved them out of the box-some people only like them after being further broken in, because they have a particular "presence" about them, but for me, they can do whatever music you play quite well. Feel is quite comfy too. Hoping you can sort this out soon.

 

[Pier_]

I'm back with some comments about these strings, with three sets:

the first one was on a Fender Jazz AV74, really nice bass in olympic white finish, rosewood fretboard, and I had the same issue with the E string.
it did wobble all over, with that chorus effect on every note. also, the string felt a bit floppy, and when unmounted it didn't "spring" like hex core strings use to.

so I put the Fender 9050L in my strings archive, and labelled them as "not good", due to a couple of sets with the same issue, on different basses.

but what happened?!

a couple of weeks ago I got a Fender P51 (japan, 2004), and firstly tried it with what is the most "historically correct" set, the 7150M by Fender, which I liked and it had no issues about intonation at the bridge (a thing I had to deal with other sets, like the Dr Lo Rider nickel 40-100, the ones that Sting uses, that were impossible to intonate in the center strings, D and A).

after a couple of weeks with these Fender, I decided to try some flats after watching videos of the Custom Shop models; this bass is particularly aggressive, and with rounds it's a bit "too much", even with pure nickels, and from the mentioned videos the Fender seemed to match it well, not hiding the aggressive vibe, but filling the mid-bass space.
while watching the videos (and CS's pictures) I noticed that Fender changed the silk colour, from dark green to light green.

so I bought a set, mounted on the P51; it sounded good, no wobble at all, every note on every fret and string was perfect, and I liked the overall tension, but it didn't intonate well on that bridge, in particular the E-String, so I dismounted it, but since I liked it, I took my Classic 50 (mexico, 2016), and tried them on it.

WOW! with the 4-saddle bridge I had no issues, and both sound and feel is great, the E is perfect.

after using them, and consumed the pure-nickel on the 51, I decided to try again the flats on this bass, and today a set arrived, so I immediately tried it.

both sound and feel are perfect, and this time I spent more time managing the bridge and intonation, and noticed this:

- the G string is perfect on every fret
- the D string is perfect up until the 15th fret, where it starts to go flat at about 1 or 2cent, until it reaches the 20th fret, where it's perfectly intonate.
- the A string is perfect on every fret
- the E string is a bit sharp (also 1 or 2cent, nothing more) from the 13th fret.

I can live with that, it's not so noticeable when playing, even with polyphony, like playing root-octave together on E and D.

what I'm thinking is that they probably changed something when the silk colour changed from dark to light green, probably solving some "fault" in the production line, or giving the E string a tighter core (in fact, now it "springs" and it's a bit tighter then the two sets I had before).

I won't talk about the sound right now, because they still need some mileage when new they are so metallic, even more than Chromes, but with a nice "bump" on the mids like the Rotosound Jazz 77.

the surface is smooth, but not "glassy", and the tension is similar to a set of rounds: coming from a 45-105 set of rounds I had to loose the truss rod 1/8 turn on this P51.
on the P50 I came from a GHS 40-55-75-95 set, and had to tighter the truss rod a bit.

they also are flexible, more in the Thomastik ballpark (not the same, obviously).

let's see how they'll sound after some use. this evening the P51 is coming with me in a live situation, so I'll try them immediately

 

[michael_t]

what I'm thinking is that they probably changed something when the silk colour changed from dark to light green, probably solving some "fault" in the production line, or giving the E string a tighter core (in fact, now it "springs" and it's a bit tighter then the two sets I had before).

I have my doubts about anything changing in terms of overall string construction.

I've used the 9050L since 2015 and just put a new set (with lighter green silk) on the same bass (Highway One Jazz), and haven't noticed any change in the tone or the feel of the E string, or the way it intonates.

 

[Pier_]

I don't know, I've had experience with four sets, two with the dark green silk (black/green package), two with light green silk (white package), and the first two had the same characteristics and issues, the second two sets don't.

considering my experience with Rotosound and the infamous period of faulty strings, related to the package change few years ago, I can argue that maybe Fender had a faulty period, solved in some way.

my two faulty sets were both from 2019.

 

[michael_t]

my two faulty sets were both from 2019.

That's when I wasn't using Fender flats. You may be right about "faulty period".

 

[iiipopes]

Yes, this set is "balanced" to a degree. The D string is not tight; it is similar to the G & A strings. The E string, however, is a little loose.

 

[Pier_]

The E string, however, is a little loose.

in these two sets I don't find it loose, even coming from a 45-105 set.

That's when I wasn't using Fender flats. You may be right about "faulty period".

the important thing is that I bought two sets, and they work

however, in 2019/2020 I had some faulty sets of nickel plated Fender, like the 45-100 set with a 105 E string (only one) and a couple of 45-105 sets with a dead E string.

I like the Fender strings, so I've used many sets, and still use them. the last sets of Fender (white package) used on my Mike Dirnt since the last year were perfect, and the 7150M on the P51 also perfect.

probably they had some issues in 2019/2020, like Rotosound a few years before.