Strings for Ibanez SRC6

Ibanez SRC6 strings

 

I have no idea what strings came with your SRC6 since you considered them (especially the higher ones) as quite heavy. TBH, I don't exactly sure what the stock strings are. My SRC6 came from the factory with a paper tag tied on the headstock (as if) naming the strings are Elixirs. From doing some online searches, I found no info about Elixir making any string sets with .024/.034/.044/.056/.072/.084 gauge, just as described on Ibanez SRC6 webpage. These are exactly the gauge of D'Addario EXL156 set.

The gauge of La Bella HC6 sets referred on the link to my older post are .026/.035/.044/.056/.075/.095. So, they are only marginally heavier than stocks. The most obvious difference is only the low-E string, which many players criticized, on the stock .084, as being too floppy.

And they aren't heavy. The tension data of D'Addario EXL156 set are 27.4/30.0/30.6/27.7/25.6/19.8 lbs. La Bella doesn't publicize tension data. These numbers are considered quite low tension. More so on the low-E string. So, La Bella HC6 sets are actually fixing the complaints on the floppy/lack of tension low-E string.

 

As mentioned, D'Addario EXL156 is lighter than any of the La Bella HC6 sets or you can purchase customized Bass VI set from Kalium Strings.

 

Is the issue with each and every string in the stock set, which is identical in gauges to the D'Addario EXL156 i.e.

?
If so, just get single strings that are below those gauges, and Bob's your uncle.
My advice is not to bother with short-scale strings, go for long-scale ones: they're cheaper, easier to find and in more gauges plus, in my experience, strings at or below .08" are flexible enough not to break even if wound full-gauge on a tuning post, including guitar-style ones. Over 080 yes, it's safer to look for strings of correct winding length (full winding until the nut, tapered at the post), otherwise my experience says no probo.

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Single Bass Guitar Strings

An alternative would be to experiment with guitar single strings. Many brands (e.g. D'Addario, GHS) wind them plenty long for your needs (38" ball to exposed core, and the Ibanez SRC6 has a 3+3 headstock), so a custom set of your chosen gauges might be made of guitar strings in part, or even completely (D'Ad nickels go from .017" to .08").
I wouldn't expect tone to be categorically different between bass and guitar strings either, especially for gauges below .05". (Bass G strings and higher are single-winding, just as guitar ones are; the latter also get double- and maybe triple-wound past a certain gauge, but there may be an interval where they're made differently than bass ones; they're less expensive though, so easier to experiment on.)

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Single Guitar Strings

 

Guitar strings will be ideal for tapping as they're likely to have thinner cores (designed for lower tensions) so be more flexible. Cheaper too.
Detach the bass ball-ends from your old bass strings (buy a cutter tool that can snip the core wire that forms the loop), if you thread one of these onto a guitar string it effectively gives it a bass size ball-end.

My suggestion after years of experimenting with optimising gauges for tapping:
Design a set with carefully chosen gauges (use the D'Addario String Tension Pro website) such that tension falls steadily from low to high strings. Light bottom, ultra light top. Almost guitar and bass sets are not like this. 'Bass VI' sets certainly aren't.
Then also your low strings remain well tensioned. Larger mass strings require more tension to keep the vibration under control.

 

That's stated from high to low. You can see it's very top-heavy and bottom light. Lots of tension where it's not needed and inconvenient, and undertensioned where its needed most.
Traditional string sets make me despair.

 

That's why I prefer La Bellas' which have heavier bottom strings, especially the low-E, than D'Addario set.

But none of them was actually considered heavy in the first place. The heaviest tension of the stock D'Addario was 30.6 lbs, which is very light in my vocabulary. Couldn't understand why OP has a problem with them for tapping. But why do I know... I don't do tapping other than when I need to use my right plucking hand for turning the music sheet or checking my cell phone while still playing.

 

Yes, 30lbs is light for bass, but overly tight for tapping the higher strings, fine for the lowest strings.
A shorter scale also doesn't need as much tension.

For comparison here are the tensions of the Chapman-Steinberger NS Stick (34" scale) stock string set, which is designed to be very tappable but also cope with conventional bass techniques:

.128 B 35lbs
.092 E 33lbs
.065 A 30lbs
.044 D 25lbs
.030 G 22lbs
.020w C 18lbs
.013p F 14lbs
.011p Bb 17.5lbs

 

DR Lo-Riders would be great, but they don't come in Short-Scale.
Hi-Beams do:



You'd have to buy the C separately.

 

I don't have the Ibanez. I do have a Danelectro baritone I converted to E-E a few years ago. I found the Ernie Ball Bass Silhouette strings to be decently balanced in A. But the best strings for E have proven to be the LaBella Hellcat strings.

 

Thanks for the figures. Seems I should practice more on my tapping skills.

The Ibanez SRC6 couldn't just use some short scale strings... It needs strings with smaller size ball ends (which I thought the same size as electric guitar string ball ends, but IIRC Jason of BSO/FN said that neither they are guitar size ball ends) and the required winding length is in between 32.5" ~ 34.25" (unless the owner wouldn't mind having the thick part of the low E strings got wound on to the string post).

IIRC, the Silhouette strings winding length are too short for the SRC6.

 

Interesting. The Dano is 29.5”, which helps in that regard. I still like the Hellcats best.

 

The SRC6 is 30" scale, but since the strings are installed thru body, thus the required string winding length is 32.5"~34.25".

Hellcat string sets have the perfect winding length for the SRC6. I put the La Bella HC6-F set on mine, which is the flatwound version of the Hellcat string sets.

 

DR "short"-scale strings happen to be wound 34" long, just as medium-scale strings from other manufacturers, so it seems like they would be a good fit, uh, length-wise, for the SRC6 actually.
(Not that set in this case, of course: as per the OP's posts, the need here is for lighter than stock, not heavier - nor low B tuning for that matter. Or, at most, only the 45-65-85 part of the set might partly fit the OP's needs. Due to the round core, the .085" former A string may feel lighter than the stock .084" low E.)
As for ball-end size, yeah, the DR's would stick out of the Ibanez's ferrules, or would need to be manually replaced with smaller ones (and not just any size will do, apparently).