Double Bass How high can double bass string tune too without breaking

[GC34]

Are we talking three to four notes?

 

[DoubleMIDI]

I once tuned up a Sensicore high C string to see if the flabby string gets better to play/sound. It broke a fourth above intend pitch (on a 4/4 110 cm scale, so you might want to translate that to a tritone above intend pitch on a regular 3/4 scale).
OTOH, a SuperSensitive Supreme high C broke at intended pitch on the same instrument without much use at all. (So on a 3/4 scale it translates to be tuned up by a halftone.) I think the risk of breakage of these strings was the main reason to discontinue them.

Have a look in my Dropbox (Link in signature) and download formulas.html and open that in a JavaScript-enabled web browser. There you can use the formula for detuned strings, enter 100 for tension and a positive number for the uptuning in halftones. The result is the percentage of tension of the uptuning.
The written formula doesn't need to be entered, it is just there for reference what is calculated in JavaScript.

 

[GC34]

Accidentally got the A up to C# at 13:38. If the A can go four notes, It be safe to assume the E can at least go four notes higher. He did manage to reach F on E string at 10:19.

 

[DonaldFraser]

Why not just buy a solo set that is intended to be tuned higher?
Am I missing something?

 

[Scott Lynch]

Are we talking three to four notes?

Happy to discuss, but please help me - why do you want to know, and what prompted you to ask?

 

[GC34]

Happy to discuss, but please help me - why do you want to know, and what prompted you to ask?

I want to know the highest note each string can tune too.

 

[Scott Lynch]

I want to know the highest note each string can tune too.

Ok. I guess I was wondering if this was just a theoretical inquiry of if you actually had planned on tuning your strings higher than the intended pitch. Since I don't know:

1) Theoretically, I would imagine that it varies from string to string depending on the construction. In general, however, musical instrument strings are really not designed to be tuned higher than their recommended pitch.

2) In practicality, basses as well are not designed to respond well much beyond the recommended tuning of a set of strings. Basses do vary quite a bit in construction, however - older instruments built with gut strings in mind want much lighter tension than a set of modern steels, but many modern basses handle steel strings like Spirocores and Flexocores just fine. I would not, however, take a set of Spiro Mitts and tune them up to solo. It will almost certainly choke the bass and as I have been told, leaving a bass set up like this can have negative long term consequences to the health of the instrument. Someone with more luthier/set-up knowledge can give you more details about exactly why.

 

[DonaldFraser]

It’s hard to discuss without knowing your reasoning for wanting to tune a bass so high.

I want to know the highest note each string can tune too.

 

[GC34]

It’s hard to discuss without knowing your reasoning for wanting to tune a bass so high.

I want to know how many notes each string is away from breaking. How far is each string from breaking? I'm curious to see how much tension it takes to break them. If anyone has accidently tuned a string past standard let me know.

 

[Reiska]

Hi, IMO there are far too many variables here in play as strings and basses are not uniform by any means. Steel core strings, synthetic core strings, gut strings, steel wound, nylon wound, copper wound, different gauges, basses with 103cm mensure to 111cm mensure, overbuilt basses to light basses, carved top vs laminate top... You get the point. IME only strings you can tune a wholetone up the intended tuning somewhat safely are light - medium gauge plain gut strings with high twist rate. Those are basically from todays perspective organic and flexible string cores, tuning a light gauge plain gut G to A makes it a heavy gauge A string. I`ve done this for extended perioid of time and the strings were ok after that as G strings, whereas I tuned a light gauge steel core low C to D for a couple of months and it didn`t come back alive as a C string.

 

[GC34]

Got a double bass. I got the Low E up to B flat and the A up to E flat. I got the D to reach F and the G to an A. So far no breakage. Do the strings unwind or the core snaps? I heard more often than not the core breaks.

 

[SAlcott]

Put on safety glasses and keep tuning. Sooner or later, you'll have an answer. FWIW, in nearly 50 years of playing professionally, I've had exactly one double bass string and one bass guitar string break. Then again, I wasn't tuning them past their specified pitch.

 

[GC34]

Put on safety glasses and keep tuning. Sooner or later, you'll have an answer. FWIW, in nearly 50 years of playing professionally, I've had exactly one double bass string and one bass guitar string break.

Did the core snap on the double bass? Guitar wound tend to unwind.

 

[Ed Fuqua]

If you keep tuning the strings higher, which happens first- a broken string or the sound post out the back?

 

[SAlcott]

I don't really remember as both were a long time ago. IMO, this experiment is an answer in search of a question.

 

[DoubleMIDI]

It is always the core that breaks.
If it are the windings the string is still up to pitch (unless they unravel) maybe unusable but not broken in the sense that there are two pieces (maybe loosely connected by some windings).

Look into my Dropbox (link in signature and string sticky), get formula.html, enable JavaScript in your browser if it isn't already, load the file into the browser and experiment with the pitch modification (in your case +6) and how it affects tension. Enter 100 for original tension and you get it as a percentage. The page calculates for you the written formulas are only there so that you know what the calculation is.

And then quickly tune down your strings...

 

[TroyK]

I would worry more about damage to your bass under that type of tension than the string. These are not solid body instruments.

 

[unbrokenchain]

If you keep tuning the strings higher, which happens first- a broken string or the sound post out the back?

Yeah don't stand behind the bass...

Then there's the bass bar... or the neck heel button... or the end block... on second thought don't stand in front of the bass either...

 

[bengreen]

When engineers design a wing for a plane, they put the prototype on a test stand and literally pile more and more weight on it until it breaks, then use some percentage of that to determine it's weight carrying capacity in flight.

Is there some rational, musical reason you want to subject your bass to that same destructive testing?

Instead of asking how much tension you can apply before the string breaks, you might want to ask how much tension you can apply before harming your bass?

Many of us have the mindset that we're not just owners of our instruments but also caretakers and would like to eventually pass them on, in a reasonably healthy state, to the next musician in line.

 

[TroyK]

I want to know how many notes each string is away from breaking. How far is each string from breaking? I'm curious to see how much tension it takes to break them. If anyone has accidently tuned a string past standard let me know.

All anticodotal, but I think anyone who has gradually tuned their double bass up one note at a time until they experienced breakage, either collapsed the bridge, shot the soundpost through the back, or collapsed the table before they broke the string (assuming the string wasn't damaged to begin with).

If you really want to test this, don't do it on a bass. Build a jig with about 42" of mensure give or take and start tuning strings until they break. They are not the weakest failure point on the bass.

I don't know where you are coming from, your profile doesn't provide much on your background, but violin family instruments are very different than guitar family instruments.