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Short scale flatwound piccolo bass strings... ?? :-)

Nordic Groover

Nordic Groover

Jun 17, 2011
62
3
Canberra, Australia
#1
Hi all,

I know I'm being demanding, but I'd love to string one of my short scale basses (Squier Jag SS) with some piccolo strings.

Ideally they'd be shorter strings, but I'm happy to make do with standard length strings.

What I'd REALLY love, is some flatwounds, or at least ground/semi-flat strings rather than roundwounds.

A cursory Google quest has been unfruitful. Any suggestions, inside knowledge, or am I doomed?

Cheers!
Chris
 
#2
Look for heavy flatwound guitar string singles in gauges approximately half as thick as you'd use for standard tuning on the same instrument. They're usually long enough to work on a 30" scale bass.
 
#3
The good news is you can use pretty much any scale length since you will be using the thinner diameter strings from a bass set.

The High string you are going to need a plain steel string. I have put a .020 P and .022 Flat on a bass and they sound exactly the same... The only difference in sound is the extra chaching in the wallet as the plain steel string is a 5th of the price.

So order 3 flatwound singles of your choice (or a 4-string set and save the E), and some plain steel .020's and call it a day.
 
#7
Thin wound strings of around .020-.022 have very thin cores of around .010-.012 and can't take more than guitar tension. G of octave-up EADG on a short scale is simialr tension to high F of a 7 string bass, and is tricky because the necessarily thin wound string will be very tight and close to breaking. You will need to use a plain steel string (which are 4 times stronger for the same gauge) or tune a little lower and use an all wound set.
I'm currently using D'Addario chromes guitar strings on my piccolo fretless, one is a .020 and i keep it at guitar tension. They are just long enough to reach the top tuner of a 2+2 headstock.
 
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#8
ixlramp said:
Thin wound strings of around .020-.022 have very thin cores of around .010-.012 and can't take more than guitar tension. G of octave-up EADG on a short scale is simialr tension to high F of a 7 string bass, and is tricky because the necessarily thin wound string will be very tight and close to breaking. You will need to use a plain steel string (which are 4 times stronger for the same gauge) or tune a little lower and use an all wound set.
I'm currently using D'Addario chromes guitar strings on my piccolo fretless, one is a .020 and i keep it at guitar tension. They are just long enough to reach the top tuner of a 2+2 headstock.
Click to expand...
sorry for the distance..I use a set of Daddario guitar chromes on my ibanez mikro tuned to piccolo..they work just fine. 50/40/30/20. the G, while still a fwound, is a bit much to play as a bass string, finger style. Still, the whole set is cheap and sounds fab.
 

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