New Guild B-240e showed up today! I want to open it to behold it’s beauty, but the box says to let it acclimate to the house for 24 hrs first......not cool.
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Guitar Scale Acoustic Basses
- Thread starter SBassman
- Start date
Speaking on behalf of all of us in this thread who want to know... I think a couple hours - tops - would be fine
I just checked this bass out more closely on the Guild website and might I say that is one damn nice looking bass. The funny thing is I was looking for a 30" scale acoustic bass for years and just could not find one, other than my B30E. In fact I was talking to the guys at my music shop a few weeks ago about my PNB14E and was telling them that I could not understand why I could not find a 30" acoustic to save my life and now all these sub scales were coming out. And now I find out Guild just came out with a new 30" scale acoustic??!! Seriously, if Guild had come out with this model a year or two ago I would have unquestionably have bought one and probably never looked at a guitar scale acoustic. In retrospect Guild might have done me a favor
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But it too has dadarrio 190s on it.
They're not as bad as this thread would have you believe LOL!
I don't ever plan to buy them again. However, they are perfectly fine strings. Just not what I am looking for.
I think a lot of it has to do with the instrument and electronics. The two little Ibanez parlours have a very different tone from the Taylor and the Guild.
I got to spend a couple hours with the Guild B-240e today, and I am 100% satisfied with my choice. Rich tone, great playability, and the string tension is much more manageable than The Taylor mini I tried. Happy camper here.
I'm glad you're happy with it. You've just made my waiting for the B-240ef that much harder!
The neck joins the body near the 17th fret. Does it dive much?
What do you think about the gig bag it comes with? I'm thinking I'll need to get something more substantial for load-ins and transport, like maybe the Gator stiff polyfoam case.
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So, I took a bit of a break from this super interesting and fun guitar scale acoustic bass world. I had deep dived for several weeks with a 26" scale solid body that I found on eBay. I really love that bass. Every time I pick it up, I laugh at how awesome it feels and sounds. Looks mighty fine to me, too. Without a doubt, the best money I ever spent on an instrument. A measly $135 for something giving me a great deal of joy.
Anyway, I'm up to 105s on the solidbody. Been playing nothing but that for a few weeks. Last night, I got the itch to pick up my Ibanez Parlor again. Had lots of fun, but - in contrast to the 105s on my solidbody, I was really missing that on the acoustic. In comparison, the acoustic sounded guitar like, instead of more bass like. Still and will always love it, but I guess what I'm trying to say is - it really is a shame other companies don't put the tiniest bit of energy into other string alternatives for these acoustics. It would make such a difference.
Anyway, I'm up to 105s on the solidbody. Been playing nothing but that for a few weeks. Last night, I got the itch to pick up my Ibanez Parlor again. Had lots of fun, but - in contrast to the 105s on my solidbody, I was really missing that on the acoustic. In comparison, the acoustic sounded guitar like, instead of more bass like. Still and will always love it, but I guess what I'm trying to say is - it really is a shame other companies don't put the tiniest bit of energy into other string alternatives for these acoustics. It would make such a difference.
Well, I tried, but - the Silverbacks don't come with any taper. And the full width of the string did not fit in the tuner, and at that point, I was aggravated enough to not want to take out power tools and hack my beauty.
Silverbacks are indeed a possible answer - except for the small detail of the lack of taper. The other concern would be - intonation. 115 is a big jump from the stock 90. The odds of messing up intonation are very good. What we need is a 95 or 100 nickel version of the stock strings. Or a 95 or 100 version of the CB40s. [which are the same design as the Silverbacks] On an acoustic, I would be concerned changing the gauge of any string by more than 10 from the stocks - regarding not messing up intonation.
Silverbacks are indeed a possible answer - except for the small detail of the lack of taper. The other concern would be - intonation. 115 is a big jump from the stock 90. The odds of messing up intonation are very good. What we need is a 95 or 100 nickel version of the stock strings. Or a 95 or 100 version of the CB40s. [which are the same design as the Silverbacks] On an acoustic, I would be concerned changing the gauge of any string by more than 10 from the stocks - regarding not messing up intonation.
But they are made for 23-25 microbass so they may work on other acoustics with bass tuners. I think I will stick with them another month before trying pressures or grounds
Agreed. I plan to try that. I took the Bass VI off the solidbody and traded up to 105s. The Bass VI should work on the acoustic, at least providing a non phosphor bronze alternative, although not a step up in gauge. But yeah they should work and not wipe out intonation.
I would like to also on my micro but since I have only polished the tops of the strings, taking off might not get them back on in the same orientation
I'm a little concerned about some of the assumptions being made about swapping strings.
I'm not pulling this out of a hat. Aside from building a few instruments of my own, I helped luthier Tony Karol (www.karol-guitars.com) to tool up his shop for the switch from electric to acoustic guitars. I have seen his designs evolve as he went from being an unknown maker, to someone who builds for people like Stephen Bennett and Bruce Cockburn.
Solid body basses are essentially a plank with fine wires stretched across them. As long as the truss rod is good, there shouldn't be any issues when experimenting with different string types and gauges.
Acoustic guitars and basses are a different proposition.
You can check this out by clicking on the "Family Tension Chart" links on the D'Addario website.
Here are some long scale bass numbers to compare:
If overly heavy strings and/or poor humidity control damage the top, and neck reset is sometimes the recommended fix. This is a major, rather scary repair, and typically wouldn't be worth doing on a cheap acoustic bass. The Taylor has an advantage in that the bolt-on heel design allows for adjustments. Still, this is not a risk you want to run, especially since a bowed top typically has a negative effect on sound production.
This is why some of the manufacturers are playing hard to get when we ask about switching string types.
I would be reluctant to increase string tension more than 10 to 15%, compared to the stock strings on our respective basses. That only gives you about 5 to 8 lb leeway in overall tension.
That still presents some options for assembling custom sets from singles. Provided that the tuning pegs will accept them, this could be done without risking mayhem.
More on that tomorrow...
I'm not pulling this out of a hat. Aside from building a few instruments of my own, I helped luthier Tony Karol (www.karol-guitars.com) to tool up his shop for the switch from electric to acoustic guitars. I have seen his designs evolve as he went from being an unknown maker, to someone who builds for people like Stephen Bennett and Bruce Cockburn.
Solid body basses are essentially a plank with fine wires stretched across them. As long as the truss rod is good, there shouldn't be any issues when experimenting with different string types and gauges.
Acoustic guitars and basses are a different proposition.
- The body is built as light as possible. to optimize acoustic output.
- Acoustic basses are more of a challenge to build than guitars.
- Conventional flattops are particularly prone to issues, because the soundhole weakens the top along a plane in line with the string pull.
- The torque against the bridge pins and the saddle can cause the back half of the top to belly up, and the area between the bridge and soundhole to sag.
- As that s-curve builds up over time, it causes the neck to rise at the headstock. You may have seen this on acoustics where the action is too high and can't be lowered, because the saddle is already almost flush with the top of the bridge.
- The glue joint can fail, causing the bridge to separate from the top starting at the back edge.
- Bracing can separate from the the top.
- Tops can crack (especially solid tops).
You can check this out by clicking on the "Family Tension Chart" links on the D'Addario website.
Here are some long scale bass numbers to compare:
- ETB92 Medium long scale tape wound, 50-105, 146.1 lb.
- EXL170 Light long scale Nickel rounds, 45-100, 165.6 lb.
- EXPPBB170 Light long scale phosphor bronze acoustic, 45-100, 190.8 lb
- ECB81 Light long scale Chromes flats, 45-100, 199.75 lb.
- EJ16's, the standard 25.5" EXP light gauge 12-53 six-string steel core phosphor bronze guitar set. 156.3 lb
- EXPPBB190GS, the 37-90 nylon rope-core bronze-wound 4-string set used on a bunch of these basses. At the Taylor 23.5" scale, total tension is only 50.16 lb.
- A 37-90 set of Kalium nickel round singles, to illustrate the difference with a conventional metal-core string set: 59.2 lb
- A 31-86 4-string set of Kaliums, selected to roughly match the string pull on the Taylor: 49.5 lb.
If overly heavy strings and/or poor humidity control damage the top, and neck reset is sometimes the recommended fix. This is a major, rather scary repair, and typically wouldn't be worth doing on a cheap acoustic bass. The Taylor has an advantage in that the bolt-on heel design allows for adjustments. Still, this is not a risk you want to run, especially since a bowed top typically has a negative effect on sound production.
This is why some of the manufacturers are playing hard to get when we ask about switching string types.
I would be reluctant to increase string tension more than 10 to 15%, compared to the stock strings on our respective basses. That only gives you about 5 to 8 lb leeway in overall tension.
That still presents some options for assembling custom sets from singles. Provided that the tuning pegs will accept them, this could be done without risking mayhem.
More on that tomorrow...
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That is why I wish labella would Publish tension charts for bass strings. And that is why I'm looking at GHS pressure wouns for my micro bass but not sure which one to try out. gold tone has labella flats 760D talking that are just short and with silk used on their Micro . it is built to withstand More attention perhaps then some of these other small body acoustics. One nice thing about short scale instruments is that the perceived tension is less floppy at the same Weight than longer scale
