Hey man, I know this is a 3 year old post but I found it while doing some research and I was wondering if you had to alter your nut for your BTB845V in order to play from B-G and what string gauge do you play? I appreciate your time
Thanks for your post. Update: the Ibby BTB345V was a stop-gap until I could get a custom 33-inch neck for my Ibby SRA305, which is lighter in weight. After that neck came in, I sold the BTB345V. That said, Yes, I had my luthier re-do the nut on the BTB345V for "conventional" 5-string B-G. On that bass, I also upgraded the pickups to Bart CBC's and an EMG preamp. My sound man, who works for a professional sound reinforcement company, loved it. But it was too heavy for my back to keep. OK, to strings: I am a "balanced tension" guy, having purchased GHS Progressive singles for my Rickenbacker 4002 (yes, "2," not "1" or "3") in 45-60-80-105 since the early 1990's. Because my Ibby SRA305 has an Asian mahogany body with lower mid emphasis, I play D'Addario XL's: the 170BT set with a 130 B string tuned to C to match the keys in my 10-piece party band with a Chicago-style horn section. D'A XL's have a scoop in the same spectrum as my Ibby bass, so they cancel each other out to a good, smooth, clean, low-noise send to the board through a DI box - no amp. OK - why for this band: our lead trumpet goes on tour with the best Elvis show in the country, including gigs in Europe, our trombone player is adjunct faculty at two of the colleges/universities where I live, and our sax player is an oral surgeon with five decades of playing saxophone as an avocation. If Chicago called and said all three of their horn players came down with COVID, we could cover the gig. Yes, we are that good. We just got done doing the fundraiser Opera Rocks with the Springfield Lyric Opera, with Michael Spyres, the greatest living opera singer in the world (yes - look him up), having performed all over Europe, recorded in Salzburg, and knighted in Paris as a French Knight of the Arts. My bass playing supports an incredible variety of ensembles, groups, and events, so it has to be perfect, not only technique, but also tone and low noise. That said, The reason I have D'A XL strings is with their scoop, they are absolutely clean with the EMG actives with the -100dB noise floor on my Ibby SRA305. Tone really doesn't matter, although for reference I play an EMG CS40 in the neck position and an EMG JX40 in the bridge position, flipped so the coils are between the 60's and 70's bridge position (the rout is a little too close to the bridge, but I figured out how to deal with it). Our sound man takes care of my tone, so I mainly use the CS and open it up. The important thing is lowest noise possible and consistent tone so nobody has to ride throttle on my tone or gain at the board. The consistency of D'A XL strings contribute to this. I shall not be called out at a gig for something gone awry. Yes, I went on probably a TMI, but you need to know why I choose a set of strings as well as the simple yes, I play D'A XL strings. It is all a system. It all has to work together. It has to be consistent and slot the mix in both studio and live applications, including PBS broadcast and other TV marketing. It's not just the strings, it's everything from the strings to the bass to the board and how your sound man sends it out front.
