Tape wound strings on a headless bass ?

[Dave Higham]

I'm thinking about building a 4-string short scale 'headless' and putting D'Addario tape wound strings on it. I've heard about the problems of tape-wound and flat-wound strings unravelling because the locking screws cut through the tape, so this bass would have a 'head', so that the locking screws would be well into the silk-wound part of the string. The fact that the strings are bent at right angles before the locking screws might help too. The surplus length of string would be cut off after the screws wre tightened. The 'head' also means I can hang it on a normal guitar stand. Any opinions or experience would be welcome.

 

[michael_t]

A headless bass with a head... Very interesting concept.

 

[ardgedee]

What you propose is kind of how the tuning bridge on the NS Design basses work: The string bends 90° into the body and is solidly clamped by the tuner inside the body, the user cuts off the excess string from a gutter on the backside.

You might want to look into how Ibanez clamps strings on their EHB series. Looks like a simple bolt clamp but they're considerably larger than the usual grub screws. The head end also flares out a bit beyond the nut, I don't know if it's enough for a guitar hanger but it's wide enough to be noticeable.

I've seen headless string clamps that have two rows of grub screws. I've imagined that might be a solution for this problem: The rearward screw can be wrenched down hard to hold the string in place, the forward screw can be screwed down more lightly to hold down the outer wrap. I don't know if they work that way in practice, though.

 

[Jens Telemark]

Heat shrink tubing over the string before you clamp and cut it?

 

[ardgedee]

Heat shrink tubing over the string before you clamp and cut it?

Oh man that's a good idea. The string + shrink wrap would have to fit in the clamp though.

 

[Jens Telemark]

Oh man that's a good idea. The string + shrink wrap would have to fit in the clamp though.

If the headstock clamp will accommodate a B string you should be ok with an E. If you try it make sure to use heat shrink that reduces 3x rather than 2x or one size might not go tight on all the string gauges. Probably have to go to a real electronics store to find that.

 

[ardgedee]

If the headstock clamp will accommodate a B string you should be ok with an E. If you try it make sure to use heat shrink that reduces 3x rather than 2x or one size might not go tight on all the string gauges. Probably have to go to a real electronics store to find that.

3x and 4x will result in a thicker, rigid plastic around the string relative to 2x. Most 3x I've dealt with are also lined with glue (even when they're not advertised as such), which will also add thickness and rigidity making it harder to clamp down properly, and also make it absolutely miserable to remove the heat shrink.

On a 5-string set a B string will usually be roughly 3 times the diameter of the G. You could reasonably wrap all of them with 2:1 tubing with the follow inner diameters: 3/64", 1/12", 9/64", which corresponds roughly to .047", .083", and .140". A quick skim of Amazon called up a few sampler packs that have those sizes and many others, and can set you up with more tubing than you could ever use for about $5. There will be similar offers elsewhere.

On the other hand, instead of having heat shrink sheath the whole end of the string, maybe a small collar between the clamp and the nut might be enough to prevent any unraveling from extending to the speaking part of the string? In that case, glue-lined heat shrink could be preferable.

Since I'm already taking this idea too seriously, I'll conclude by saying that the heat necessary to apply the heatshrink would probably affect the synthetic wrap or coating on strings that have them. It might be better to leave well enough alone.