Over the past few decades, I've had many guitar strings break on me while playing, but never a bass string... And then earlier in the evening it happened, during a gig...
We were playing a backyard/birthday show, I was playing my main bass (Harmony H22), we had maybe a 2-hour set list prepared (split into two sets with a brief break in between)... Got through the first four songs, and then we were about to start the next song when I felt my E string completely stretch and detune because it developed a break at the bridge... I would have never expected a .110 gauge flatwound to just break from wear and tear (and definitely not on a wooden bridge), but it happened... Anyway, I also had my Danelectro longhorn with me, for use on three songs where I need a different sound (it is strung with LaBella white nylon tapewounds), so I just switched to that bass and played the rest of the gig with it. Even though both basses are short-scale, they have a much different physical feel from one another for a bunch of reasons, so it was a little tricky, and I did mess up on a couple songs because of it, but in the end, everything worked out OK and everyone had a good time.
But now I need just a single replacement Pyramid Gold .110 long-scale E string (the Harmony needs long-scale strings because of the distance between the bridge and tailpiece)... I don't really want to shell out approx $70 for a whole new set, but I guess I don't have a choice. I suppose I can just keep the other three strings as spares in case of future breakage, because I learned earlier this evening that it is a real possibility and not some semi-mythical thing that only happens to other people.
I get it, string breakage is something that we all really should be prepared for, but this was literally the first time I ever had a bass string break like that. For the time being, until I get a new E string, I'll be using my Framus Star-Bass as my main bass...
We were playing a backyard/birthday show, I was playing my main bass (Harmony H22), we had maybe a 2-hour set list prepared (split into two sets with a brief break in between)... Got through the first four songs, and then we were about to start the next song when I felt my E string completely stretch and detune because it developed a break at the bridge... I would have never expected a .110 gauge flatwound to just break from wear and tear (and definitely not on a wooden bridge), but it happened... Anyway, I also had my Danelectro longhorn with me, for use on three songs where I need a different sound (it is strung with LaBella white nylon tapewounds), so I just switched to that bass and played the rest of the gig with it. Even though both basses are short-scale, they have a much different physical feel from one another for a bunch of reasons, so it was a little tricky, and I did mess up on a couple songs because of it, but in the end, everything worked out OK and everyone had a good time.
But now I need just a single replacement Pyramid Gold .110 long-scale E string (the Harmony needs long-scale strings because of the distance between the bridge and tailpiece)... I don't really want to shell out approx $70 for a whole new set, but I guess I don't have a choice. I suppose I can just keep the other three strings as spares in case of future breakage, because I learned earlier this evening that it is a real possibility and not some semi-mythical thing that only happens to other people.
I get it, string breakage is something that we all really should be prepared for, but this was literally the first time I ever had a bass string break like that. For the time being, until I get a new E string, I'll be using my Framus Star-Bass as my main bass...
