The Squier Mini Precision Bass Club

[GrahamNN3]

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Thanks, but that seems odd.

I have never seen a maker market strings by any other diameter than the final outside one.

Your comparison pic helps some though.
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oh.. must be something in my tea!

I double checked with Pyramid the tapewound strings are:
.055 .075 .095 .112

 

[RodRy]

I don’t have the flatwounds on my mini at the moment - but here’s a photo I posted earlier of Pyramid bespoke / custom length tapewound strings - which were the same price as the flatwounds I quoted before.

View attachment 4118567

Wow, those look perfect. Did you get them through Pyramid's website?

 

[SBassman]

Something must be wrong with my email. I missed lots of action here.

For the person who doesn't want to read the thread: my current pick in the flats arena is - DAddario Halfs. They are working really well, and cutting them was fine.

Regarding the thickness-is-no-good-at-this-scale dialog: I won't join that club. I had a very successful - profitless but successful - venture many years ago with a 25" inch bass design - that was strung essentially with 5 string gauges - to yield stability and proper tension. About a dozen people around the world purchased the bass, and 100% of the feedback I got on it was super positive.

We all have different likes and dislikes, and we all sometimes hear things differently. I personally can work with a 95. But it is never my choice. It always feels and sounds too wimpy too me. I want a 100 to 110 on a bass of this scale.

EMMV. Peace.

 

[RodRy]

E strings compared

View attachment 4118723

Interesting, my Pyramid Gold flats are longer, and have green threads. These are the ones for a Hofner violin bass, so they run long for a 30" scale P-bass. (It's not a Squier Mini P ) As can be seen, the full thickness of the string wraps around the E string. I guess that can't be too much of a problem, they've been on there for close to 20 years.

Sorry about the dust.

 

[SBassman]

Interesting, my Pyramid Gold flats are longer, and have green threads. These are the ones for a Hofner violin bass, so they run long for a 30" scale P-bass. (It's not a Squier Mini P ) As can be seen, the full thickness of the string wraps around the E string. I guess that can't be too much of a problem, they've been on there for close to 20 years.
View attachment 4119056

Sorry about the dust.

20 years. Now we're talking.
I, too, really love a broken in, aged string. Nothing better.

 

[RodRy]

20 years. Now we're talking.
I, too, really love a broken in, aged string. Nothing better.

I find these strings are more even and balanced now than they were in the first 5 years.

 

[DavesnothereCA]

oh.. must be something in my tea!

I double checked with Pyramid the tapewound strings are:
.055 .075 .095 .112

~
Are you SURE that it's Tetley ?

Those numbers make better sense.

The only time that I ever encountered tapes as light as your flats were some which Rickenbacker used to make/sell, back when their strings were sold in glossy red paper covered cardboard boxes during the 70s.

I bought one set of them for my Ric, and played them for a while.

But over 40 years ago, I forget what I thought of them.

They might still be somewhere in a plastic tote or wine box, possibly along with the original parts which I pulled of my Ric in doing upgrades.

BTW, did you notice that your 1st 3 Pyramid strings are each exactly 10 thousandths larger diameter for the tapes than for the flats ?

Coincidence ?

Dunno.
~

 

[GrahamNN3]

Wow, those look perfect. Did you get them through Pyramid's website?

I made contact with Pyramid through FB messenger - but then we moved to email. [email protected]

There were no problems, we communicated in English, delivery was about two weeks.

 

[andare]

oh.. must be something in my tea!

I double checked with Pyramid the tapewound strings are:
.055 .075 .095 .112

Obligatory question: how did you enlarge the nut slots? I can't find nut files in those gauges

 

[RodRy]

oh.. must be something in my tea!

I double checked with Pyramid the tapewound strings are:
.055 .075 .095 .112

Interesting. The tapes from D'Addario are 50-105.
ETB92S Tapewound | Bass Guitar Strings | D'Addario

Not sure why short scale tapes from Pyramid would be significantly larger.

 

[DavesnothereCA]

Something must be wrong with my email. I missed lots of action here.

For the person who doesn't want to read the thread: my current pick in the flats arena is - DAddario Halfs. They are working really well, and cutting them was fine.

Regarding the thickness-is-no-good-at-this-scale dialog: I won't join that club. I had a very successful - profitless but successful - venture many years ago with a 25" inch bass design - that was strung essentially with 5 string gauges - to yield stability and proper tension. About a dozen people around the world purchased the bass, and 100% of the feedback I got on it was super positive.

We all have different likes and dislikes, and we all sometimes hear things differently. I personally can work with a 95. But it is never my choice. It always feels and sounds too wimpy too me. I want a 100 to 110 on a bass of this scale.

EMMV. Peace.

~
Sometimes, I too have encountered outages of notifications from active TB threads.

Then, after a day or so, I visit and see that the alerts are here on the site though.

Just curious, what did you use for strings for those 25" scale basses ?

Brands, types, gauges, and were the strings custom made for you ?

And I do have a long time soft spot for half-wound/ground strings, though I mostly went for the GHS [formerly Dean Markley] version, first on my Ric not long after buying it, and recently on some other basses [Warning, long post coming soon about them !]

And yes, a lot of what people use for strings is governed initially by what they can find, and in many instances, we grow accustomed to what we have found and used for a period.

For example, if I had played a Jazz instead of my Ric from 1974 until recently, I would now likely feel that a bass with a wider neck at the nut was very strange, no matter what other specs it had.

Hey, if I HAD to, I could prob'ly work with nearly any fretted electric bass and choice of strings, so long as it was properly set up and intonated.

But I also know what feels comfortable to me.
~

 

[GrahamNN3]

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Are you SURE that it's Tetley ?

Those numbers make better sense.
—//
BTW, did you notice that your 1st 3 Pyramid strings are each exactly 10 thousandths larger diameter for the tapes than for the flats ?

Coincidence ?

Dunno.
~

Before people started panic buying for COVID, I had already pre-panic bought for Brexit - but only the essentials Tetley Tea & Bourban biscuits.

Strings - no I didn’t notice - but that not unusual. I just took the advice of Pyramid MD Max Junger - he sorted my “err ... I need some strings” order out.

 

[GrahamNN3]

Obligatory question: how did you enlarge the nut slots? I can't find nut files in those gauges

I used a nail file.

 

[DavesnothereCA]

Interesting, my Pyramid Gold flats are longer, and have green threads. These are the ones for a Hofner violin bass, so they run long for a 30" scale P-bass. (It's not a Squier Mini P ) As can be seen, the full thickness of the string wraps around the E string. I guess that can't be too much of a problem, they've been on there for close to 20 years.
View attachment 4119056

Sorry about the dust.

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So the dust is also of a 20 year old vintage ?

I reckon that those strings would fit a medium scale 1982 Ibanez RS721 bass which I bought last May.
~

 

[DavesnothereCA]

20 years. Now we're talking.
I, too, really love a broken in, aged string. Nothing better.

~
Want to hear something possibly funny ?

2 or 3 years ago, I bought some GHS Brite Flats to put on my Ric to replace the Dean Markley Ground Round Wounds which had been on it since prior to 1985 [same strings, same gauges, just the silks are a different colour], with 20 years of that period unplayed, due to a hiatus which I took while running a business.

A few gigs later, I changed only the E one day, and played it for a gig.

The new E did not stand out in any significant way from the string which I had removed, nor from the other 3, so I never got around to changing the other 3.

And the bass sounds fine, and still tunes and intonates well.

Since then, I did buy some long scale extra light LaBella DT flats which might make their way onto the Ric, but as I am mostly playing short scale basses now, it would only be to satisfy my curiosity.

One takeaway from that experience is that half-round/ground strings do not change much as they age, starting out less bright than rounds, but moreso than flats, and not getting not too much less bright as they age.

That consistency is prob'ly much of what I like about them.
~

 

[GrahamNN3]

Interesting. The tapes from D'Addario are 50-105.
ETB92S Tapewound | Bass Guitar Strings | D'Addario

Not sure why short scale tapes from Pyramid would be significantly larger.

No idea - I have ETB92S on a Mustang PJ, they feel great and sound good.

But after hearing the Pyramid Tapewound strings on the Squirer Mini - I bought a set of Pyramid tapes for another Mustang I’ve acquired.

But like most things since COVID - I’ve not got round to putting them on yet.

 

[DavesnothereCA]

Interesting. The tapes from D'Addario are 50-105.
ETB92S Tapewound | Bass Guitar Strings | D'Addario

Not sure why short scale tapes from Pyramid would be significantly larger.

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It would depend a lot upon the diameter of the next layer under the tape.

And that could be based upon one of their other string types, or upon a unique design.

You would have to ruin some strings to find out for sure what is inside.

As I posted a few minutes ago, my old Ric tapes were near those gauges.
~

 

[DavesnothereCA]

Before people started panic buying for COVID, I had already pre-panic bought for Brexit - but only the essentials Tetley Tea & Bourban biscuits.

Strings - no I didn’t notice - but that's not unusual. I just took the advice of Pyramid MD Max Junger - he sorted my “err ... I need some strings” order out.

~
Are those the rectangular chocolate filled light chocolate sandwich biscuits found over here in the Peek Frean assortments ?

If so, I understand completely !

That said, I like many different kinds of cookies.
~

 

[DavesnothereCA]

....I double checked with Pyramid the tapewound strings are:
.055 .075 .095 .112

Obligatory question: how did you enlarge the nut slots? I can't find nut files in those gauges

I used a nail file.

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I have a couple of sets of mini 'Swiss pattern files', and there is a tapered round one in there which I often use on nuts of basses.

Swiss pattern files - Bing

Also sometimes for the E, I use a slightly larger round file which IIRC is meant to sharpen links in a chain saw chain.
~

 

[DavesnothereCA]

No idea - I have ETB92S on a Mustang PJ, they feel great and sound good.

But after hearing the Pyramid Tapewound strings on the Squirer Mini - I bought a set of Pyramid tapes for another Mustang I’ve acquired.

But like most things since COVID - I’ve not got round to putting them on yet.

~
I too have managed to not get some things done during the pandemic, and I have no plausible excuses, as there is less for me to do now than usual.
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