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Double Bass Strings balance?

AndreaVeneziani

AndreaVeneziani

Apr 24, 2010
139
8
New York
www.andreaveneziani.com
#1
i recently switched from spirocore weich 3/4 to spirocore Mittel 4/4 to have a little more volume and it worked well. One wierd thing though. If I put the weich E with Mittel ADG the whole bass sounds more deep and free (although I don't like the weich e). If I use the Mittel E the bass choke a little and lose some low end. How can I fix this without using a weich E? It might need to adjust the balance of every strings since every string is different in order to distribute the weight evenly on the bridge and on the too of the bass consequently. OR I need to adjust lenght and position of sound post to accommodate the higher tension of the strings? Sounds a bit extreme cause just the E string change the whole balance on the bass, even the top two strings sound much better...
 
#2
This is strange since the S42 (4/4 Mittel) E has almost the same tension as the 3886.0W (3/4 Weich) E.
Use the full S42 set and play for two weeks without any other string experiments. If it is still choked, you might want to try a Jazzer E (but I'm not completely sure about the tension).
The chocked sound could also be from the new stiff strings. I had something similar with the A and E of the Innovation Braided set. To make the strings more flexible quickly, I run them bent over my thumb the whole length of the string several times and repo listed them with fine steel wool afterwards. Before the sustain was short, after that the sustain was much longer. I don't know if this will help with steel core strings. Maybe get a dead set of S42 to try.
 
#6
5.5 lbs. are about 2.5 kg. (Since I've grown up and live in Europe I'm not so much familiar with that measuments, so I will give the info in metrical dimensions.)

From the Thomatik data sheet:
E of S42 set on 110 cm: 34 kg
E of 3886.0W set on 104-106 cm: 30 kg

Assuming a string length of 105 cm for the 3/4 Weich E tension information, I recalculated the S42 E from 110 to 105 cm and got 30.98 kg (so almost 31 kg).
So this is closer to 2.2 lbs. than 5.5 lbs. more tension for the S42 E.

I also looked into my database of string tensions that I measured myself:
3886.0W E at 105 cm: 29.5 kg (two years on my EUB before the measurement)
S42 E at 105 cm: 30 kg (more than 20 years on my acoustic DB before meas.)
S42 E at 105 cm: 29.5 kg (got that string with the EUB used, probably very old)

I was not sure about the last one being a S42 E or a 3886.0 E, but the tension is much too low for a Mittel 3/4 E. And tension on the EUB with 3886.0W is not much different from the set that I got with the EUB.

So they are quite similar, but since the OP has a used 3/4 Weich E and a new 4/4 Mittel E, the tension difference might be a bit higher than from my measurements, where the E string from the S42 set was older than the one from the 3886.0W set. Strings stretch over time and loose tension that way (because mass disappears into the peg box).
I still guess that the choked sound is just a stiff string. Play it for a year with the bow or get a used S42 E to check out.
I won't recommend a downtuned Solo string, if at all, then a 3/4 Solo F#. Tension would be about the same as tuning the E a halftone lower.

BTW, try to tune the S42 E to Eb and if it still sounds choked after a few days or a week, it is the result of the stiffness of the string you hear, not the tension/bridge/top pressure choking the bass.
 
#8
Yeah my bass is exactly 105cm and I love the Mittel E 4/4 so I wanna try to get the same result with that string. I tried to detune the string but it doesn't get me the same result, I really think that probably the new Mittel E has to break in and then will open up the whole bass. I'll wait a bit with it and see. I hope to get there the difference was dramatic!
 
#10
DoubleMIDI said:
That oversimplification happens to me too sometimes. But if I think it might be wrong, I take out the data and calculator. I' just a bit lazy sometimes ...

BTW, I used this formula:
New_Tension=Measured_Tension * ((New_Stringlength / Measured_Stringlength) ^ 2)
Click to expand...

Exactly. I left out the "^ 2". Makes a difference.
 

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