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Kalium strings
- Thread starter BonesawMcgraw13
- Start date
Hi all, I'm actually using a Daddario balanced tension set .120 .90 .67 .50 with a Pbass tuned as C#G#C#F#.
The .120 is still floppy for me, for fast riffs but the other strings are fine.
So I was looking at others sets and I tried the DR Strings DDT .50/.110 but its the same thing, floppy C#.
Now I'm ready to sell a kidney and get Kalium strings to france to try.
But what is the right set to get for my tuning ?
.130 .86 .65 .47
or
.124 .82 .61 .45
or a mix of both: .124 .86 .65 .47
The .120 is still floppy for me, for fast riffs but the other strings are fine.
So I was looking at others sets and I tried the DR Strings DDT .50/.110 but its the same thing, floppy C#.
Now I'm ready to sell a kidney and get Kalium strings to france to try.
But what is the right set to get for my tuning ?
.130 .86 .65 .47
or
.124 .82 .61 .45
or a mix of both: .124 .86 .65 .47
Instead of selling your kidney, why not try a D'A XL Nickel of a heavier gauge for the C# to go with the rest? They're readily available as singles, 125, 130, 135, 140, whatever...
EDIT: .120 has the same tension as the other three when tuned to D#. In order to match the tension on the C# to the rest, you would need either .130 or .135.
Last edited:
- 'Presently' or 'currently', not 'actually' (
the latter is a "false friend" - to Italians as well - whose true meaning is more or less 'really')- I'm going off-topic on this thread, but you could get a single D'Addario 130 (a 135 would be better in terms of tension but, depending on how often you play high up the fretboard, you may find it too chorus-y past a certain point, one or two frets lower than the other gauge) and keep using the other three:
XLB135T (tapered) and the same XLB135T
XLB130T, XLB130T
XLB135, XLB135
XLB130, XLB130 and XLB130 from Woodbrass.
All four also available here:
Cordes au détail D'Addario EXL, 6,50 €
Last edited:
- 'Presently' or 'currently', not 'actually' (
- I'm going off-topic on this thread, but you could get a single D'Addario 130 (a 135 would be better in terms of tension but, depending on how often you play high up the fretboard, you may find it too chorus-y past a certain point, one or two frets lower than the other gauge) and keep using the other three:
XLB135T (tapered) and the same XLB135T
XLB130T, XLB130T
XLB135, XLB135
XLB130, XLB130 and XLB130 from Woodbrass.
All four also available here:
Cordes au détail D'Addario EXL, 6,50 €
What do you mean by finding the .130 too chorus-y ? Yes i play a lot with the C# strings up high to the 12th fret
I'm afraid i'll have to cut the nut a bit to let that fat string go through.
Thank you to both, youy're right I should try to create my set and buy one by one. Less expenssive of course
Apologies, I'd missed your reply when I posted mine (it took a while to find links).
You know that bell-like, internally out-of-tune sound that strings make when they're stopped in very short sections? A good example is when you pluck the strings at the headstock, between the tuning post and the nut, or at the other end, between bridge and tailpiece, if you have a guitar where these two elements are separate.
Now, this phenomenon (similar to the effect named "chorus" you can easily find in guitar pedal form) also happens with regular playing, on the fretboard, with large strings (because they're inherently stiff, and gradually behave more and more like solid bars and less like ideally elastic bodies the more the string is fretted short).
You can verify this by fretting the string you already have (120) at the very last fret of the bass: 24th, 22nd, 21st, whatever. The last one. Do you hear how...not pretty the tone is? Well, the string starts doing that some frets below the last. In fact, it does that everywhere on the neck, but the rate of inharmonicity (chorus effect) is very low at the 1st fret, still low at the 4th, and it gradually becomes audible somewhere in the middle of the board.
What I warned you about is that, if the line between acceptable and annoying is found, let's say, at the 11th fret for a 130, it could be at the 10th or 9th for a 135 of same marque and model. It depends on string construction, on the tone you use, the general mix of the band, your ears. You need to find out for yourself.
Hey, no apology needed. You always post helpful info that I can learn from. If you happen to agree with what I already posted, I would consider it a great compliment.
