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String Micro Cracking

manbass

manbass

May 20, 2004
700
220
Tampa Bay
www.facebook.com
#1
I read an interview with a Manring Student who mentioned (but did not elaborate) that String micro cracking is a concern. How would one even be aware of this outside of "oh that sounds dead" and change it out? Are there some types more prone to this issue than others? Playing styles, environmental or Bass condition causes to learn about to keep this from effecting Strings and string life?
 
#3
OK...well then theres a "person" named Mark on ebay telling a story about you then....

"By the late 90s I began collecting one off custom made basses and made an agreement with Steve Azola of Azola basses to build a Bartolini equipped long scale hollow body bass as most of my vintage ones were short scale with passive pups. I took delivery in late 2001 and was asked by Steve to be a guest artist at the 2002 Southern California NAMM show.
On my last day, leaving the venue, I saw Michael Manring in another booth and introduced myself. I'd been a fan of Michael since his early days at Windam Hill Records. I found out he lived close to me in Oakland, California and arranged for a few lessons. It took a while to schedule as Michael is often touring, but we finally met for the first time at his Oakland home in early 2004.
What a nice guy...Humble, Professional, Knowledgeable & EXTREMELY TALENTED!
We talked basses, strings and the music industry. I'd always been a "if it ain't wood, it's not a real bass" kind of guy. But after talking with Michael about string micro-cracking around tuning posts along with the tone & stability of Composite Necks, I became a ZON fan and ordered my first ZON Vinny Bass shortly thereafter. I took delivery in July, 2004 and loved the ring, the sustain, the playability & dead on tuning regardless of weather. Most importantly, I could get virtually any sound I wanted out of it. I to this day remain a Zon fan and also have purchased a Sonus 8 string. My Vinny is my go to bass."

"Micro Cracking" is metal fatigue from bending. If you take a spoon and bend it back and forth, the metal weakens because it gets "Micro Cracks" (metal fractures) and looses it's strength. Sounds trivial, but when you use a headless configuration, the strings are pulled end to end. The metal is not wound around a post and fatigued. My single neck ZON headless bass rarely needs tuning. True on all headless designs. i.e Steinberger, Kubicki etc. Strings also seem to have more snap & ring to them...Manring actually demonstrated this to me. He bent a string 90 degress then placed it on a headless bass then pulled a new string without a bend and installed. You could easily hear the difference. AMAZING! Thank you for your interest"

I though maybe I was onto something.
 
#4
Ah OK, this sounds a bit more familiar now. I am a big fan of the headless bass concept and I believe it probably is more efficient to pull a string straight to tautness as opposed to winding around a post. I don't recall a specific discussion of "micro-cracking" but it sounds like this was quite a few years ago -- it may have slipped my memory.
 

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