Problems using replacement strings with Glarry Acoustic Bass

[dangedKY]

Folks,

I am new to this site but I am hoping someone here mig be able to help me. I am mostly a guitarist but have a couple of basses for recording purposes. Most recently I decided for the first time to try an acoustic bass and heard good things about the quality (for the money) of the Glarry GMB101 acoustic bass. I have had it for a few weeks and decided I like it enough to keep it but wanted to replace the strings with something smoother than the nickel round-wound 45-100 gauge strings that came with it. So I ordered some D'Addario half-rounds with the identical gauges but when I got them the E string would not fit into the available hole in the bridge (I couldn’t pull through the thicker part of the string right next to the ball-end). Then I tried a set of short-scale D'Addario Chromes and it was even worse in terms of fitting through the whole. I finally reverted to precisely what I didn’t want to use, a set of D'Addario Phospher Bronze Acoustic Bass strings. So I have two questions: 1) can anyone suggest a way that I can safely widen the hole in the wooden bridge through which I have to pass through the E string while keeping it narrow enough so the ball-end will stay put? 2) can you suggest an alternative set of strings that would be narrow enough to fit through the existing hole in the bridge? I thought of getting a narrower gauge E string (a .90 or .95) but I worry it will mess up the intonation which is currently pretty good (since there is no easy way that I know of to adjust the intonation on an acoustic bridge).

Open to any suggestions. Many, many thanks!

 

[michael_t]

If you're willing to go with flats for a darker and warmer tone, GHS Precision Flats may be an option. They do come in "short scale" (32.75" ball end to taper/silk) and the gauges are 45-60-75-95. They don't have silk at the ball end, so they wouldn't be as thick as the Chromes at the ball end.

As for your concern regarding the intonation... Intonation is affected more by the thickness of the core wire than the actual gauge itself, so going from .100 to .095 doesn't necessarily mean it won't intonate properly.

 

[Bloomfield]

Because the holes are close to the top and parallel to it, drilling isn't very practical unless you used a very long bit, and even then there is a risk of it catching and splitting the wood. A safer way would be to file it out. A 1/8" chainsaw file would be perfect, assuming it will go into the hole as it is now. Chainsaw files are good in that they are straight and not tapered, but one possible issue is that they generally don't have teeth cut all the way to the end, so you may need to cut the end off with an angle grinder or a cut-off wheel on a Dremel in order to make it more useable.

 

[HaphAsSard]

Folks,

I am new to this site but I am hoping someone here mig be able to help me. I am mostly a guitarist but have a couple of basses for recording purposes. Most recently I decided for the first time to try an acoustic bass and heard good things about the quality (for the money) of the Glarry GMB101 acoustic bass. I have had it for a few weeks and decided I like it enough to keep it but wanted to replace the strings with something smoother than the nickel round-wound 45-100 gauge strings that came with it. So I ordered some D'Addario half-rounds with the identical gauges but when I got them the E string would not fit into the available hole in the bridge (I couldn’t pull through the thicker part of the string right next to the ball-end). Then I tried a set of short-scale D'Addario Chromes and it was even worse in terms of fitting through the whole. I finally reverted to precisely what I didn’t want to use, a set of D'Addario Phospher Bronze Acoustic Bass strings. So I have two questions: 1) can anyone suggest a way that I can safely widen the hole in the wooden bridge through which I have to pass through the E string while keeping it narrow enough so the ball-end will stay put? 2) can you suggest an alternative set of strings that would be narrow enough to fit through the existing hole in the bridge? I thought of getting a narrower gauge E string (a .90 or .95) but I worry it will mess up the intonation which is currently pretty good (since there is no easy way that I know of to adjust the intonation on an acoustic bridge).

Open to any suggestions. Many, many thanks!

Inspect the hole: with a similar bass found that there was some sort of inner metal sleeve that made boring it difficult; should there not be anything of the sort, look into opening it some with a gimlet, or maybe try giving it a good reaming with an Allen key that barely fits, taking advantage of the L shape.

Alternatively, or in addition to that, remove the silk from the D'Addario Chromes (or the low E only, if the only problematic one) at both ends. Use a combination of X-acto knife and a cigarette lighter.
(Do the Half-Rounds have silks? I've no idea.)

Going down with gauge might make intonation a smidgen flatter, which can be somewhat compensated simply with a heavier touch. In general, it can be fine-tuned with truss rod straightening and saddle height or, more à propos, with an aptly compensated bridge saddle.

 

[dangedKY]

Wow! Thank you all so much for all the suggestions. I didn’t know there was a way to remove the silk wrapping from the Chromes, which, if that works, I would be happy to try. I very much would prefer a warmer and quieter sound. That is why the bronze round-wound strings were only used as a last resort (I hadn’t found this forum yet). I also love the for the kludgy idea of putting a slightly too large allen wrench in the hole to ream it out a bit. That is brilliant! I love those sorts of solutions. In another forum, when I was having a problem with a stripped hole at the base of a telecaster neck, someone suggested glueing a cut-down golf tee into the hole, and then drilling a guide hole for the screw through the tee. It worked perfectly! Thanks again! I will report back on how things go.

 

[dangedKY]

Sorry, I had one more question. Someone suggested a compensated bridge saddle. I didn’t know that was an option for acoustic basses. Could someone suggest one that I might order?

 

[dangedKY]

I am sorry, but I have one additional question, which really is less about strings per se, than string height. The action on this bass a bit higher than I would like at the 12th fret. I have already tightened the truss Rod three 1/4 turns since I brought it and I have been anxious about going any tighter since I have never owned an acoustic bass. However, just this afternoon I was at GuitarCenter and happened to try a few other acoustic basses, all of which had dramatically lower action than this Glarry. What steps might you folks suggest to make the action better (including whether you think I can safely tighten the truss Rod even more). Many thanks again!

 

[HaphAsSard]

Sorry, I had one more question. Someone suggested a compensated bridge saddle. I didn’t know that was an option for acoustic basses. Could someone suggest one that I might order?

I basically meant you could bring the bass to a luthier and have a compensated saddle made, but IMO you should worry about it if and when you aren't satisfied with intonation after installing the strings you like and bringing action down to your liking. The custom saddle would be tailor-made to the new string set anyway.

I am sorry, but I have one additional question, which really is less about strings per se, than string height. The action on this bass a bit higher than I would like at the 12th fret. I have already tightened the truss Rod three 1/4 turns since I brought it and I have been anxious about going any tighter since I have never owned an acoustic bass. However, just this afternoon I was at GuitarCenter and happened to try a few other acoustic basses, all of which had dramatically lower action than this Glarry. What steps might you folks suggest to make the action better (including whether you think I can safely tighten the truss Rod even more). Many thanks again!

If the rod seems to work correctly, I do think you can safely tighten it more. However, if - again with the new strings installed - you get to a point where it seems action cannot be brought down even with a nearly straight neck, it may be a matter of removing the saddle and sanding the bottom down a little.

 

[Deleted member 271037]

Sorry, I had one more question. Someone suggested a compensated bridge saddle. I didn’t know that was an option for acoustic basses. Could someone suggest one that I might order?

You didn't know because compensated bass saddles aren't really an option. Well, not like on acoustic guitars anyway.

The saddle on your bass is slanted backwards from G to E inside the bridge, which means it's in fact already compensated. Saddles on acoustic GUITARS are more complicated because of the transition between plain/wound strings. The reason for this is that the CORE of the string is really what matters. A plain B-string is much thicker than than the core of a wound G-string. Thicker core needs more compensation so the B-string saddle on an acoustic guitar needs to be further back than both the high E and G (provided that you use a wound G-string of course, if not the transition would be between D and G).

This means a straight saddle won't be ideal on an acoustic guitar. The saddle itself needs to be compensated, in addition to the compensation provided by the saddle being slanted backwards from high E to low E.

On a bass you don't have a transition between plain/wound strings (unless you play piccolo bass...). As long as the saddle is installed with the correct angle (which isn't always the case on cheap instruments...) your intonation should be ok. Intonation will never be 100% with acoustic saddles though. You might get a SLIGHTLY better result if you file the saddle to fine-tune the compensation of each string but this is a lot of work and it still won't be perfect, especially the E-string. The intonation will also change whenever you change to different types or gauges of strings. With acoustics it really is a matter of accepting "good enough" intonation, rather than "perfect". Compensating an acoustic bass saddle is just a lot of work with very little (if any) improvement.

As for the holes in the bridge... That's a really poor design for an acoustic bass bridge. There's not much you can do about it. You won't be able to widen that hole without risk of damaging the instrument. And even if you did I would be wary about removing any wood back there and weaken an already poor design.

If you want heavier gauge strings I think you will be better off selling this bass and get a new, better brand/model.

Having said that, I've always found lighter gauge strings to work better with acoustic basses. On electrics I never use lighter than 45-105 (roundwounds) or 40-100 (flatwounds) but I generally find these gauges too stiff with acoustics. Lighter gauges make the strings vibrate with a bigger amplitude = better tone on an acoustic IMO. My favourite acoustic bass strings (BY FAR!) are actually the ultra light Thomastik Bronze strings. They feel a bit weird (rolling under the fingers like nylon guitar strings) but the TONE is significantly better than any other acoustic bass strings I've played (for MY taste of course).

 

[Boneless]

Careful mounting flatwounds on an acoustic. They have higher tension and might lead to the dreaded "belly bulge" (technically more of a problem with higher-end instruments, since they tend to be less braced and with thinner woods, but I've had a cheap laminate acoustic guitar do that with .013s). With an acoustic bass, I would either stick with round/halfrounds or tapewounds. Tapewounds might be tricky to install if the holes are really tight, because gauges tend to be thick (and the thin gauges are really floppy).

 

[bassliner50]

If it were me, I'd be looking for a way to carefully enlarge the hole in the bridge. Considering its location, a small focused file could remove just enough material as to pass the string. Lay protection on the body of the bass while working.

 

[dangedKY]

These are all terrific suggestions. Thanks so much!

 

[loveandbass]

will they pull through under tension? Meaning if you string them through and wind them will they eventually just pull through?

 

[Thumpin6string]

If action is too high, truss rod adjustment isn't the answer. Once you get the string situation figured out and the truss rod adjusted properly, you can remove the bridge saddle and sand off the bottom the amount you want to lower it. So basically you're lowering the bridge.

 

[dangedKY]

That's a very good question, loveandbass. Perhaps they would have but I was a bit scared to try that, especially with the flat wound strings which were fairly expensive. I didn't want to risk ruining them in the process, since I figured I would put them on one of my electric basses instead as the package was already opened and I didn’t think I could return them.

 

[J Posega]

Put painters tape down on the face of the bass behind the bridge and use a file or a very long drill bit to slightly enlarge the holes in the bridge, aiming to make most of the embiggening happen to the bottom of the holes since you don't want to risk thinning out the top of them too much. The tape is to protect the finish of the bass.

Lots of cheap basses or cheap bass bridges have this problem where the holes for the strings aren't big enough to fit many brands of strings.

You can use a lighter to burn the silks off of strings.

One you get the strings on and tuned up, you need to check how straight the neck is. It should bow ever so slightly up, in the direction of the strings or be completely straight. Just hold the bass up like a rifle and look down the edge of the neck from the tuner or bridge end. Bow in the neck is typically also called neck relief.

If there isn't too much relief but the action is too high, you need to sand down the bridge saddle.

Stick a piece of sandpaper to a surface that you know is dead flat and slowly sand the bottom of the bridge saddle against that. Make sure you're doing so evenly across the whole thing and not putting pressure on one end or the other. Sand off only a millimeter or so at a time and recheck against your bass.

You won't find many aftermarket parts for acoustic bass guitars because they aren't very popular instruments. If you want to adjust the intonation, you can buy a bridge saddle blank and very tediously file it yourself. But the saddle might not be wide enough to make any difference. Being stuck with the intonation that's given to you is a downside to fretted acoustic basses.

 

[Deleted member 271037]

I am sorry, but I have one additional question, which really is less about strings per se, than string height. The action on this bass a bit higher than I would like at the 12th fret. I have already tightened the truss Rod three 1/4 turns since I brought it and I have been anxious about going any tighter since I have never owned an acoustic bass. However, just this afternoon I was at GuitarCenter and happened to try a few other acoustic basses, all of which had dramatically lower action than this Glarry. What steps might you folks suggest to make the action better (including whether you think I can safely tighten the truss Rod even more). Many thanks again!

First of all: You must NEVER use the truss rod to lower the action. The truss rod should be used to adjust the correct amount of neck relief. This will slightly affect the action but that's really just a side effect. Do NOT use the truss rod to lower your action (unless the main problem is too much neck relief of course).

To lower the action on an acoustic you will need to file the nut slots and lower the saddle (by sanding the bottom of the saddle). Probably both, as they are both typically WAY too high on an instrument in this price range. Only lowering the saddle (like someone suggested) will most likely leave the instrument just as hard to play in lower frets. You'll need to lower the strings at both ends. How much they need to be lowered can be a balancing act which needs a bit of experience to get 100% right. Plus there isn't really a standardized "100% right" as the best nut slot height, saddle height AND relief will depend on your playing style, your instrument and your choice of strings.

Be aware that you may experience fret buzz if you lower the action. The fretwork on basses in this price range is often very poor, which is probably part of the reason why they ship them out with such high action, to hide the poor fretwork. Which means the frets MAY need to be levelled/crowned when you lower the action. This will probably cost most than you paid for the instrument but that's the problem with ultra-cheap instruments: The aren't really finished at the factory. They leave the final work, that needs skilled labor, to the customer, or the store, if you buy from a proper store that sets up the instruments for you, rather than from an online box shipper. Sadly most major "musical instrument stores" are really more like logistics companies these days and will ship out instruments in factory sealed boxes without setting them up properly.

If the bass has a piezo you will need to make sure the bottom of the saddle is perfectly flat and 90 degrees vs the sides of the saddle. If not you will get poor contact with the piezo and all kinds of tonal/balance issues can occur. Of course the saddle should be perfectly flat without a piezo as well but with a piezo it's even more critical.

The fact that you need to ask about this tells me that you should NOT attempt this yourself. Bring the instrument to a luthier or an EXPERIENCED guitar tech (not just some guy at a guitar store) and pay for a professional setup. This should include filing the nut slots, lowering the saddle, adjust the neck relief and levelling/crowning the frets if needed. It will probably cost more than you paid for the instrument but at least you will get a playable instrument.

 

[Deleted member 271037]

will they pull through under tension? Meaning if you string them through and wind them will they eventually just pull through?

This sometimes works on electric bass METAL bridges.

But on this acoustic bass it's metal strings vs wooden bridge and guess which one will break first? The only way these strings will pull through the bridge is if you pull splinters out of the wood. It could be negligible damage or it could be critical damage. Absolutely not worth the risk IMO.

Using higher tension strings on this instrument might not even be a good idea to begin with.

 

[dangedKY]

So I wanted to let you all know that I followed earlier suggestions and I used a combination of a utility knife and lighter to cut off/burn off the silks on the set of Chromes that I previously purchased for this instrument after seeing recommendations on a different thread about acoustic bass strings. And that narrowed the E string enough that it got through the hole. I strung it up and it sounds and plays TERRIFIC now. Thank you so much folks for all your advice on this. I truly appreciate it.

 

[Lance Bunyon]

Super Shiny Bass!