Short scale basses sound better with...

[Doug4321]

It’s tricky. In general….. For short scale, you might want heavier gauges compared to long scale, to keep the same or adequate tension. But that will make for stiff strings, and the shorter scale itself increases stiffness, all of which can make for poor performance including intonation. Especially with flat wounds. So you might want to go with a lighter gauge and more flexible construction.

I was going with the idea of lighter gauge, flexible construction flats. Worked well for a Guild Starfire with La Bella LTF 42-100 or Pyramid Gold flats 40-100. But with an old Gibson EB-0 that tack made for too loose, floppy and bass-heavy strings. So a heavier ground round seems better, GHS brite flats 49-108, though maybe a little too heavy.

 

[Boneless]

O

It’s tricky. In general….. For short scale, you might want heavier gauges compared to long scale, to keep the same or adequate tension. But that will make for stiff strings, and the shorter scale itself increases stiffness, all of which can make for poor performance including intonation. Especially with flat wounds. So you might want to go with a lighter gauge and more flexible construction.

I was going with the idea of lighter gauge, flexible construction flats. Worked well for a Guild Starfire with La Bella LTF 42-100 or Pyramid Gold flats 40-100. But with an old Gibson EB-0 that tack made for too loose, floppy and bass-heavy strings. So a heavier ground round seems better, GHS brite flats 49-108, though maybe a little too heavy.

On my Guild Starfire, I find that LaBella Extralight DTFs work well, with a caveat: the low tension causes the G and D string to vibrate against the bridge. My guitar tech added some sort of a shim at the tailpiece to lengthen the G and D strings somewhat, and add a tiny bit of tension. The D string is fixed, while the G string does still rattle a bit if I play with a heavier touch. They sound really nice though. I might try GHS 45-95s, or Pyramid Golds (which are very unbalanced string to string, but sound great, with a texture I have never heard in any other string) but for the time being I'm OK with the LaBellas.