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String ID
- Thread starter Bugspray
- Start date
hasbeen
Commercial User
- Sep 23, 2004
- 4,806
- 2,668
- Disclosures
- Executive Vice President, The Adam Hall Group
They don't look like Ken Smith to me. KS Burners have blue and gold silks, not red and blue.
B, E and A are taperwound... Hmmm... Not sure at this point what they are. Let me go check...
hasbeen
Commercial User
- Sep 23, 2004
- 4,806
- 2,668
- Disclosures
- Executive Vice President, The Adam Hall Group
Don't they have purple silk? Besides, looking at where the silks start at the tuner end in the OP's pic, they look too short to be Ken Smith, whose "long scale" is longer than most at 38" in winding length.
hasbeen
Commercial User
- Sep 23, 2004
- 4,806
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Yup....the used to have purple. I used them for a spell in the 1980's and 90's. I really think (think??) that the Ken Smith in my avatar came with strings (new) that had the orange and blue silk, with "taper" core strings. It was quite a few years ago though so I may be mistaken.
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I'd say they are more orange and blue. I really like the strings too but it is what were on the bass when I got it.
Yikes.
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Almost positive that they are Ken Smith BBM Bass Burners Nickel Plated Steel. I have a set of the light gauge 40-100. It's orange at the pegs and blue at the ball end.
The way the silked ends look at the tuner end, they definitely do look like they're made by GHS, which Ken Smith strings are. The only thing I'm still not sure about is the winding length. Ken Smith "long scale" is 38" from the ball end to the start of the silk. The way they look in the OP's pic, they're more like 37".
@Bugspray, would you be able to measure those strings from the ball end to the start of the silk (or the first taper) at the tuner end and see how long they are?
Yeah. I see what you mean. The set I have was on my Warwick thumb and the silks were pretty close to the pegs, so they being so close to the nut on this bass adds a bit of mystery. I looked up Carruthers 5 string basses and they seem to be 34.5 inch scale, which I don't think would make that much of a difference, right? Still, the silks do look exactly like what I have. Interesting. I like this game.
Thanks for this pic.
It's starting to look like they are in fact Ken Smith Taper Core Burners. @hasbeen had the right idea in the first place.
I somehow had the impression the silk on the Burners at the tuner end was more gold/yellow, but obviously I was wrong.
hasbeen
Commercial User
- Sep 23, 2004
- 4,806
- 2,668
- Disclosures
- Executive Vice President, The Adam Hall Group
I'm as shocked as you are that I was right, seriously. I mean....it was YEARS ago that I bought that bass.Thanks for this pic.
It's starting to look like they are in fact Ken Smith Taper Core Burners. @hasbeen had the right idea in the first place.
I somehow had the impression the silk on the Burners at the tuner end was more gold/yellow, but obviously I was wrong.
The B string is about 36 3/4 from silk to silk and has a silver ball end. The other strings have gold ball ends and are around 37 1/2 to 37 3/4". It is a 34 1/2" scale on the bass.
