I purchased a Guild Jumbo Junior acoustic bass and was wondering if anybody who owns one has any experience with string replacement options. I like nylon tapewound strings so I tried purchasing a set of D'Addario ETB92S Tapewound Bass Guitar Strings, Medium, 50-105, Short Scale, however, they were too long. When I trimmed them to needed length (2" above the post) they became unwound because there was little/no end wrapping. Does anybody here own one and have any suggestions? Thanks!!!
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Short Scale Bass Strings
- Thread starter Daddylouc
- Start date
- Sep 9, 2007
- 5,309
- 4,977
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist: Eventide, GHS Strings, G&L Guitars, NS Design, Tsunami Cables
According to the Web, your Guild has a scale length of 23.75”, correct? If that’s the case, you are limited to probably what comes on the bass. There might be one or two other options out there, but sadly I don’t know of any.
- Sep 9, 2007
- 5,309
- 4,977
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist: Eventide, GHS Strings, G&L Guitars, NS Design, Tsunami Cables
And to be fair, I feel that if a company comes out with an instrument that is different enough from the "industry standard" that is out there, the onus is on THEM to let you know what is/isn't available.
Hmm. If you could find a way to attach the loop ends to the bridge, the lowest three strings of a gitarron set are usually made for a scale length between 25 1/2 and 27 inches, but might be amenable to shortening at the bridge. Then any G string will work, as it is so thin it doesn't matter how much is wound around the tuner post. For example:
GUI Guitarrón | La Bella Strings
Mariachi Guitarron | Other Instruments | D'Addario
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I've played guitarrons with the Selmer strings. They are steel round wound. I have not played the other two sets, bronze on steel.
GUI Guitarrón | La Bella Strings
Mariachi Guitarron | Other Instruments | D'Addario
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I've played guitarrons with the Selmer strings. They are steel round wound. I have not played the other two sets, bronze on steel.
I believe the strings that come on that Guild bass are,
D'Addario EXPPBB190GS GS Mini Acoustic Bass Coated Phosphor Bronze 23.5 Scale Acoustic Bass - .037-.090.
These strings have a nylon core and are very low tension. They were initially designed for the Taylor Mini Bass, now many other sub-short scale basses(23.5)use them. A concern in using a more conventional string may be the tension and whether the bass design itself is reinforced enough to handle the increase in tension. Worth checking with Guild.
D'Addario EXPPBB190GS GS Mini Acoustic Bass Coated Phosphor Bronze 23.5 Scale Acoustic Bass - .037-.090.
These strings have a nylon core and are very low tension. They were initially designed for the Taylor Mini Bass, now many other sub-short scale basses(23.5)use them. A concern in using a more conventional string may be the tension and whether the bass design itself is reinforced enough to handle the increase in tension. Worth checking with Guild.
^ This.
@Daddylouc: think of your basslet as a classical guitar. There's no law against replacing its strings with steel-core strings, but it would immediately suffer from intonation problems (the bridge was originally placed with flexible strings in mind, and has too little compensation for steel-cores -you'd have to move it back), and possibly exhibit medium- or long-term structural problems (the top and its bracing are likely to have been designed in order for the bass to provide *some* acoustic volume, and may be too lightly built for all-metal strings).
Have a look at this thread for alternatives to the D'Addario EXPPBB190GS set:
Guitar Scale Acoustic Basses
Cliffs Notes: there are some options, but nothing flatwound or tapewound that fits.
[There is one set of each type, both made by Galli Strings (KA-BASS-4FW, made for Kala, and UXB810, respectively) that would work, in principle, because they have synthetic cores: unfortunately, their winding length is probably not enough for the Guild (they're made for ukulele basses, which have shorter scale lengths).]
I have a couple of short scale basses. Use Rotosound Funkmasters on them. If the tuners don't allow for funkmasters, i don't know what will.
Labella came out with flatwound strings for the Gold Tone ME-Bass, which has roughly the same scale length as your bass. MBLS MicroBass LaBella Flat Wound Strings They don't recommend putting them on their fretted Microbasses for intonation reasons though, so that might be a problem with them for you too. There are several kinds of nylon core strings for very short scale acoustic bass guitars if you want to go that route.
Just last week, I got a set of the Gold Tone Microbass Labella flats mentioned just above. I found them on Ebay. I have a old '60's Kent (Teisco) 24-1/2" scale bass and I was having trouble finding suitable strings. They fit just right and sound good.
Talk with Pyramid of Germany. They make an ultra short scale set of strings and will also make you anything you need. But they’ll cost you!
@Daddylouc:
remember my mentioning a chrome steel flatwound, as well as a black nylon tapewound set, both nylon-core and both made by Galli Strings of Italy, which may work well, with correct-ish intonation and tension, on the Guild Jumbo Junior Bass if only they were long enough?
Codenames KA-BASS-4FW (aka UXB910C) and UXB810, respectively.
probably
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According to Mike the length of the flatwounds, from the ball-end to where they taper, is 26.5" (depending on your specific length requirement, you may have to expose some of that by peeling back the silk at the headstock end):
remember my mentioning a chrome steel flatwound, as well as a black nylon tapewound set, both nylon-core and both made by Galli Strings of Italy, which may work well, with correct-ish intonation and tension, on the Guild Jumbo Junior Bass if only they were long enough?
Codenames KA-BASS-4FW (aka UXB910C) and UXB810, respectively.
It turns out, thanks to @kohanmike who tried them in chrome steel flat flavour, that there is a longer version for each of those two sets, sold through Strings By Mail:
probably
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According to Mike the length of the flatwounds, from the ball-end to where they taper, is 26.5" (depending on your specific length requirement, you may have to expose some of that by peeling back the silk at the headstock end):
