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Help! No Silk Flatwounds

jags

jags

May 10, 2011
180
21
Kona Hawaii
#1
I'm looking to find Flatwounds with no silk at the ball ends. This is for a short scale Kramer Duke Headless. Being headless there is a very short distance between where the ball sits and the nut and I am concerned that the silk will extend over the nut into the first fret.

Can anyone tell me which brands and models DO NOT have silks on the ball ends?

I'm looking at D'Addario Chromes Flatwounds or GHS Precision Flatwounds.

RotoSounds do have silks so they will not work.

Any info will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!
 
#10
How far of a distance is where the ball sits till the nut? Even though some strings don't have silk, there may be some length where the string is wound uneven before the consistent winding begins.

I am looking at some Hofner Beatle Bass Flats as well as Deep Talkin flats and they both look like there is just over 3/4" of uneven winding.

I looked at some DR flats, they have 1" of Silk at the ball.
Rotosound have 1" of Silk on them at the ball...

labellahofnerbeatle.jpg


labelladeeptalkin.jpg
 
#11
SLaPiNFuNK said:
How far of a distance is where the ball sits till the nut? Even though some strings don't have silk, there may be some length where the string is wound uneven before the consistent winding begins.
Click to expand...

That's a great question. Problem is I just won this Kramer Duke off ebay and don't have it yet to measure. Anyone out there with a Duke that can take a measurement? I know it has rounds on it now and wanted to get some flats ASAP.

Also thanks to all of you that have replied. It has helped a lot!

I currently have RotoSound 77s on my Fender MusicMaster short scale and they are great. I would love to put the same on this Kramer Duke but I am concerned with the silk.

Anyone else with any more info please chime in.

Thanks again!
 
#12
i play Chromes and the silk made the string too girthy to fit through my bridge, so i trimmed it away and it's been good to go ever since. I know your problem is different, but you may be able to do the same.

also, looking at slapinfunk's pics, i would add that it may not matter if the string width is uneven if it is shortly after the nut, as tapered strings work just fine.
 
#18
I would think they chose the non double ball end headless design to be able to use any standard electric bass string.

Most standard roundwounds have the same roughly 3/4" uneven winding near the ball, so if I had to guess, they have at least 1" of distance between the ball and the nut.

I am wanting to definitely find out for sure for my own database of fitments, so hopefully someone with a Kramer Duke can let us know what kind of strings they are using, and if I have them, I can measure the exact distance of that winding, and we can put two and two together.
 
#19
jags said:
But aren't the windings usually uneven under the silks? That would put an uneven string on the nut. I don't think that would be too good!
Click to expand...

yes! and fwiw, the DR flats have the same uneven winding under the slink but the silk extends just a bit to make 1" of silk.

however, looking at some Ken Smith round wounds, the silk is only about 1/2" and the uneven winding extends 1/4" past the silk.
 
#20
original question..."I'm looking to find Flatwounds with no silk at the ball ends. This is for a short scale Kramer Duke Headless. Being headless there is a very short distance between where the ball sits and the nut and I am concerned that the silk will extend over the nut into the first fret."

Get some double ball steinberger style strings that are longer, and cut off the one end.
 

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