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Flats do not work on shorties

senorblues

senorblues

Jun 4, 2008
287
0
Albuquerque, New Mexico
#1
I have been driving myself nuts with intonation issues on my shortscale and while wondering why there aren't more choices in shortscale flats I figured there must be a reason. Using a tuner and with great care in saddle and height adjustment I hear bad intonation or overtones with both Fender and Dadarrio flats. When I switched to rounds, the fundamental is clear, clean and sounds spot on. Can anyone dispute this?
 
#3
Yeah I've owned close to a dozen short or medium scale basses, and put flats on most of them. The only ones that had intonation problems did so whether or not the strings were flats. I suspect the problem you're having is more about a change of action than a change of strings per se. Higher action (caused by extra tension on the neck) can result in bad intonation.
 
#5
I have a cheap Ibanez Mikro, a Fender P-bass Jr and a '78 Fender Mustang Bass, all have flats, all intone perfectly - well, the Ibanez can be wonky and needs to be re-setup every other month. All three see heavy play on a weekly basis, aside from the Jr., I only grab that once a month or so.
 
#8
I'll add this. I have flats on several shorties (Mustang, Hofner, Danelectro, Gibson) and I'm lucky at the moment, BUT, it did take several string sets on some before I got that way. Bad strings do seem to be more prevalent in short sets than long. Something inherent in the mfg. process???? I did discover that the most trouble-free and best sounding (to my old ears!) are the Thomastik JF324 sets. One other recommendation, at the risk of overstating the obvious, is to be sure that no matter what brand, make sure no outer winding goes even the tiniest bit onto the tuner post. Shorts seem to be much less forgiving in this regard than longs for some reason.
 
#9
FranF said:
... One other recommendation, at the risk of overstating the obvious, is to be sure that no matter what brand, make sure no outer winding goes even the tiniest bit onto the tuner post. Shorts seem to be much less forgiving in this regard than longs for some reason.
Click to expand...

It's not obvious to me. Why is that a problem? I also have wondered why most shortscale flats are light gauge. Wouldn't a string with more tension ring truer?
 
#15
I have a short scale Essex Jazz bass in fretless which came with a set of flats that I cannot identitfy. I had to properly set up the bass and intonate it when I first got it. It stays in tune and the nondescript flats sound really wonderful. No problems.
When I enquired Kurt said they were .40-.100 gauge "Essex" flats. They do not have such an animal listed on the website. probably Chinese made knockoffs of a D'Addario or GHS type flat.
They sound really good on the bass and intonation is spot on.:cool:
 
#17
Hi there,

I have the same problem on a Fender Mustang bass, where I put Daddario Chromes light gauge flatwound strings: the intonation is set properly with the tuner. The action is medium to low, and yet when I play past the 10-13th fret, the notes do sound out of tune quite significantly - as if the harmonics wouldn't fit to the fundamental anymore. Wierd and frustrating that is !
With the previous roundwounds I hadn't noticed this, but have not payed particular attention to it either. I just set the intonation by adjusting the saddles and was happy with the result ...until I put them Chromes flatwounds on...

Could you please tell me if and how you have finally solved this probelm on your bass ?

cheers!
 
#18
senorblues said:
I have been driving myself nuts with intonation issues on my shortscale and while wondering why there aren't more choices in shortscale flats I figured there must be a reason. Using a tuner and with great care in saddle and height adjustment I hear bad intonation or overtones with both Fender and Dadarrio flats. When I switched to rounds, the fundamental is clear, clean and sounds spot on. Can anyone dispute this?
Click to expand...

I am also disputing this assertion! I have a set of TI Jazz Flats (the 32" scale version, with a .106 E-string) on my Cortobass, and have no intonation or overtone problems whatsoever. Birdsong supplies many of their basses with flatwounds when they ship the new instruments (generally D'Addario Chromes, unless other strings are specified), so they are apparently fine with flats on their shortscale basses. I regularly play the Cortobass in the upper register (almost all the way up to the 24th fret), and have never had intonation problems with the intonation on it. I DID have some serious intonation problems when I tried using heavier-gauge Rotosound nylon tapewounds on this bass, and when I spoke with Scott at Birdsong Guitars about this, he said that the bass was sensitive to strings of such a heavy gauge.

I also recently sold a Fender Musicmaster shortscale bass that never had anything but flatwounds on it for the entire time that my wife and I owned it (D'Addario Chromes for the past two years). No problems there, either ... however, we didn't do a lot of playing above the 12th fret on this bass.
 

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