Yup, I found a set of lighter strings i think I only picked up because they were on clearance. They sat for a couple years on the shelf. Needed a set didn't wanna goto the store so on they went. Next day restrung all of my basses wih lighter guages and I'll never look back.
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Yup, I found a set of lighter strings i think I only picked up because they were on clearance. They sat for a couple years on the shelf. Needed a set didn't wanna goto the store so on they went. Next day restrung all of my basses wih lighter guages and I'll never look back.
I cannot count the number of times I have been booed, hell, nearly lynched oftentimes, for using standard gauge sets. It's the number one thing audiences everywhere notice; your choice of bass strings.
We don't play fundamentals.
We play bass and we play songs. We make judgements and choices based on the needs we hear and feel. Not because someone shows up on TB putting their opinion and basing it on tests and demonstrations that are factual, but don't reveal a better-or-worse.
OP, are you just not happy with players making their own choices? Really, what's it to you?
We play bass and we play songs. We make judgements and choices based on the needs we hear and feel. Not because someone shows up on TB putting their opinion and basing it on tests and demonstrations that are factual, but don't reveal a better-or-worse.
OP, are you just not happy with players making their own choices? Really, what's it to you?
Arbiter, you win the internet today. I literally belly-laughed! Thanks!
I myself like different strings on different basses. Some basses wear lite strings, some wear heavy.
Some flats, some rounds. I'm adaptable and I like variety
hmm here I've been choosing strings based on how they feel rather than how they sound since i have a bunch of knobs to adjust sounds but zero knobs to adjust feels
Interesting discussion. I do use 40-95, and my tone seems plenty deep, but I don't have any objective evidence. Nice to read some stuff on it.
On the low strings it's hard to hear the fundamental, lighter strings may provide the illusion of more fundamental but you may just be hearing more first order harmonics.
Have a listen to an online tone generator at 40Hz and you get a sense of how low that actually is.
Have a listen to an online tone generator at 40Hz and you get a sense of how low that actually is.
I will now use guitar string gauges like a 48 or 52 for the E to get more bass. Thank you for educating me
Any gauge string sounds fine to me, and can be manipulated to sound a wide variety of ways. It's feel that matters most, by a long mile, and that's how I pick my string tension (which is usually relatively high, having come from upright in my youth). No one, including me, is going to hear minor differences in the balance between fundamental and overtones in a real-world situation. So choose what feels the best under your fingers.
I've no background in physics, so you can stop reading past this point, but I'd venture guessing that inharmonicity may be just one product of the shorter length of string behaving less like an ideally elastic body and more like a solid bar (SNEAK EDIT - you mention this in your subsequent post); another is an overall reduced capability to vibrate in short sections and produce higher partials in the first place. However, this is, again in my armchair guessing, mostly confined to high highs, i.e. "sizzle" or "air", and not directly correlated to fatness.
A much more profound effect is pickup location though: unless the instrument is piezo only, playing up the neck shifts the relative placement toward the center of the vibrating length, making the pickup, uh, pick up more fundamental as a result.
A couple of final considerations (this time not related to fretting choices):
- cabinet- and ear- bass roll-off means fundamentals of notes beyond the first available octave of the bass are more audible than those in the first octave, and will pop out more;
- auditory masking, which is partly asymmetrical IIRC (net of the aforementioned low-end rolloff, lower frequencies mask higher ones more easily than the opposite) also probably plays a role, which makes spectral analysis one useful source of data, but one that needs to be weighted against other, physiological aspects.
They really are two vastly different instruments: for one thing, double bass strings, though sometimes pretty flexible in their own right (not just synthetic core strings, but also steel rope-cores), are flatwound and also pretty heavily damped with silk inlays, in order to make them less harsh-sounding with arco playing.
EDIT: the silk layer also increases the gauge with a minimal addition of mass, so, although high-tension, upright strings are actually lower-tension than their diameters alone would lead you to believe. With G-strings in particular, if you replaced one with a damping-less bass-guitar flatwound G (of appropriate length), it would probably break before reaching target pitch, due to it being fuller=all-metal=more massive=more high-tension for a given pitch.
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Physics/Theory aside: If anyone here would claim to be able to discern lighter vs. heavier strings in a mix, i´d be impressed to see it. such subtle differences don´t matter in real life. Play what you like, what feels good to you, and then go practice... ...and when your finished go to arbiters next gig and boo the hell out of him... ...dude knows nothing about string gauges...
I am not totally convinced a skilled musician would not be able to hear a difference on stage, although it would probably depend somewhat on the type of tone the player uses. Even if the player can't hear the difference, he/she will notice the difference in the feel and action of the bass, and how it responds. So yes I think the choice of strings matters in real life.
I just use
What feels and sounds good to me
Audiences won't notice
Or care
It's like alternate picking vs downpicking
You do you
But don't fool yourself
Thinking listeners give a toss
PROPERLY FORMATTED PARAGRAPHS LACK HARMONIC CONTENT!
What feels and sounds good to me
Audiences won't notice
Or care
It's like alternate picking vs downpicking
You do you
But don't fool yourself
Thinking listeners give a toss
PROPERLY FORMATTED PARAGRAPHS LACK HARMONIC CONTENT!
I use 45-130's with stellar results.. occasionally I may use a 40-125 set, but I'm really happy with usual 45-130s.. I don't go above a 130 on my low B tho. I've tried really light gauge strings in the past, & was never really happy with the feel & sound. I do play with low action & a light touch.
Why don't you just try them for yourself and see what you like...
There are so many other things that also influence tone - pick vs finger style vs slap, style of attack, amp, pickups, the bass itself. What works for me may be horrible for your bass/style/rig. You may want more harmonic content for your taste or to bring that characteristic back on a bass with mudbuckers for instance or you may prefer to really accentuate the mud buckers and go for more fundamental tone...
You may play near the bridge and induce more harmonic content with your playing style - if you want to mitigate that, you'd go for a more fundamental tone from your strings/bass/rig, if you want to exaggerate that, you'd do the opposite.
Figure out if your tone is what you're looking for and if not - then start thinking about what direction you'd like to change towards.
