How strong are bass strings

[fdeck]

Surely someone has an Instron in their garage/shop?

https://www.instron.com/en/resources/glossary/tensile-strength

I once made a poor man's yield tester. It wasn't all that hard. I got a load cell with a digital output, that I connected to my laptop, and recorded force as a function of time. Then I put the "sample" and load cell into an arbor press, and gradually applied force to the lever. When the sample broke, I graphed the force data and noted the yield force. Then I repeated it a couple of times. We were looking for a subtle failure in an assembly.

On the other hand, this guy had a pretty good setup.
T

 

[TN WOODMAN]

I personally have never broken a bass string. A friend tuned an old Yamaha SA-70 (?) an octave high on the E string. The nut disintegrated but the string held.

In over 50 years of playing & watching live music I’ve only seen 2 players break strings. Mike Watt twice, twenty years apart & the original bassist for ? And The Mysterians.

Dude in ? looked totally shocked. I wonder if it was the original factory strings. This was mid 90s , he was playing a burst bound & blocks j bass with lollipops. Guessing a ‘66.

 

[dbsfgyd1]

Just got a Fender bass. Let say a set of 100 to 45. I especially want to know how much it takes to break a 100 low E and 80 A string. I remember a user on here from years back did an experiment. He concluded that it took around 160 pounds to break. I think that's too high. Bass String Tension Chart Here is a tension chart I found. On average they around 40 pounds standard tuning. 160 would be about an octave higher. That's quadruple the tension

I've never broken an E string. I have broken a a couple of A strings, and more than a few D strings ( Roto-Sound Swing bass) back in my "salad days" playing a short scale Gibson EB3. Needless to say my technique then was more like drawing a bow than playing music. LOL!!!

 

[GC34]

I personally have never broken a bass string. A friend tuned an old Yamaha SA-70 (?) an octave high on the E string. The nut disintegrated but the string held.

In over 50 years of playing & watching live music I’ve only seen 2 players break strings. Mike Watt twice, twenty years apart & the original bassist for ? And The Mysterians.

Dude in ? looked totally shocked. I wonder if it was the original factory strings. This was mid 90s , he was playing a burst bound & blocks j bass with lollipops. Guessing a ‘66.

That's a short scale bass. That would at a D# on my medium scale fender and D on a 34.

 

[Lance Bunyon]

Wicked Strong ™

 

[Altitude]

They are not strong enough to work as weed trimmer line. Ask me how I know. I’m lucky I didn’t hurt myself.

 

[Bar Band Bassman]

I've never broken an E string. I have broken a a couple of A strings, and more than a few D strings ( Roto-Sound Swing bass) back in my "salad days" playing a short scale Gibson EB3. Needless to say my technique then was more like drawing a bow than playing music. LOL!!!

I presume you mean drawing a bow to shoot an arrow, rather than bowing a string on a bass!

The Bar Band Bassman

 

[TN WOODMAN]

That's a short scale bass. That would at a D# on my medium scale fender and D on a 34.

Friend was a guitarist as was I at the time. He’d traded for that bass at a guitar show & was a bass newbie. First time out of the case & that happened. He’s since traded it off. Kinda wish I’d bought it from him.

 

[dbsfgyd1]

I presume you mean drawing a bow to shoot an arrow, rather than bowing a string on a bass!

The Bar Band Bassman

Correct. Somewhere in our band archives, there is a picture of me plucking an A string in mid stroke where I had the A string pulled over the E string. Stupid for sure and expensive, but that ppTwang you get is pretty cool.

 

[AudioTaper]

A lot of people dislike StevieT, I get that and this post isnt about that.... Hes goofing around at 9:33 and uses one bass string to tow a car. Looks like an E

 

[Dave Leighton]

Flats are better for towing a broken down vehicle...

 

[logdrum]

There is a crisis hotline you know. If you are a heavy beer drinker you way need 2. Unless this a 50 shades kind of thing.

 

[jdjk7]

Just got a Fender bass. Let say a set of 100 to 45. I especially want to know how much it takes to break a 100 low E and 80 A string. I remember a user on here from years back did an experiment. He concluded that it took around 160 pounds to break. I think that's too high. Bass String Tension Chart Here is a tension chart I found. On average they around 40 pounds standard tuning. 160 would be about an octave higher. That's quadruple the tension

I broke an E string on stage once. Granted, it was an Ernie Ball Cobalt Flat, and those are known for breaking.

 

[SteC]

I broke a couple strings when I was learning first but I haven't broken one in the decade or so since.

160lbs is a lot, so maybe you could stand on it like a tightrope? That would be interesting to try haha.

 

[Lance Bunyon]

Flats are better for towing a broken down vehicle...

Yeah. The B on the LaBella DTF Jamerson set could double as a bridge cable!

 

[Bar Band Bassman]

Correct. Somewhere in our band archives, there is a picture of me plucking an A string in mid stroke where I had the A string pulled over the E string. Stupid for sure and expensive, but that ppTwang you get is pretty cool.

Somewhere there's a live clip of Curtis Mayfield doing "Freddie's Dead". At the end of the tune the bassist plays a descending riff down to the low "E" and he pulls the strings so hard he actually lifts the bass off his body! I wanted to do that but was afraid I damage my bass and goodness knows I couldn't afford to replace a broken string!

BBB

 

[micguy]

All the strength in a wound string is in the core - the windings don’t contribute to the strength. So, ultimately, it’s the core diameter and the tensile strength of whatever steel they used for the core that determines how high you can tune a particular wound string.

Plain strings have an interesting twist. The whole string is the core, and for a given steel, the diameter determines (like on a wound string) the maximum tension before it breaks. OK, so what? Well, the diameter also determines the linear density of the string, and the strength and density both go by the area (the diameter squared), so changing diameter doesn’t change the highest pitch you can tune it to much at all - there is some additional stiffness that raises the pitch a tiny amount, but that’s a negligible effect - for all practical purposes, the scale length of an instrument determines the maximum pitch you can tune any plain steel string to, no matter its diameter.

 

[PennyroyalWe]

I’ve broken a G string at an open mic night when I was slap/popping and really pulling on it. Only string I’ve ever broken.

I’m adding to the pile of people asking what’s the point of this question? If you use the bass & strings within the parameters their designed for, it won’t be an issue.

 

[micguy]

Flats are better for towing a broken down vehicle...

Flats have more linear density than rounds, which means that the string needs more tension to be tuned to pitch. That in turn means that a well designed flat string needs a bigger core to sustain that tension without breaking. So yes, flats are generally stronger, but the strength does not come from the windings.

 

[N. Kentucky Bass]

Long time ago I snapped a new E string on a set of Roto 66s. Took them back to the music store for a refund and the guy blamed me. Of all things! Of course it was my fault. At the time I was a beginner. Never made that mistake again!