Before going crazy with this stretching thing, make sure the witness points are set properly first.
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TI Flats Question
- Thread starter smtp4me
- Start date
Before going crazy with this stretching thing, make sure the witness points are set properly first.
Be prepared that the strings speak to a lot of players, but the A string in particular is flimsy and is not balanced to the rest of the set; it is as loose as a bad rubber band.
I play with both fingers and a pick, and love the tone and the supple feel (I'm no fan of high tension strings.)
JeezyMcNuggles
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Right on. Thanks man3-6 mths for the initial break-in, then they naturally mature into "vintage fine wine" for the next 10 yrs.
0.o You sure you wrapped it far enough down the tuning peg? Notorious Fender headstock break angle requiring at least 3 or 4 wraps down the A string peg if not all the way down to the bottom of it? Or lacking that, a string tree for the A string?
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This should help: What Is a Witness Point and How Do I "Set" It?
I've never been in the habit of manually stretching new strings. But once I learned about the importance of "witness points", tuning stability on new strings has greatly improved.
JeezyMcNuggles
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I've stretched every set of strings that have ever been on my instruments. From bridge to nut on every string. Tune, stretch, tune, set points. They stay in tune after that.Heavens, don't *stretch* strings before tuning.Every manufacturer of bass strings will warn you against that. It doesn't speed up the realignment mechanism associated with "settling in" and it can certainly damage the strings.
My point being proper witness points have more bearing on tuning stability of new strings than stretching. I'm not against "light stretching"; all I'm saying is I've never had to stretch any new strings to achieve tuning stability.
Also tend to play some light bends with any new set of strings. When I was younger I did it way wrong and pulled them away from the fretboard which, probably wasn't healthy for any necks but I never broke anything thankfully.
It's mostly a habit from playing guitars, but frankly I find bass strings need some time to get used to the tension as well so there's no harm in helping them out.
Here's a good article on witness points. I don't think it really matters much if you do it before or after stretching, just that they're seated correctly in the long run. I like it because instead of just saying "set witness points" it shows you why you should in a way that's easy to understand.
String Seating and Witness Points — Haze Guitars
some photos from the article.
The two actions are not completely exclusive of each other. "Slack and elasticity removed." in the illustration above.
Luv 'em on my Jazz and Hofner, but not on the Pbass. Just didn't sound right, but I may even try some on my Mustang, but not sure how they'll react to being strung through the body on that one. The lower tension required some small adjustments to both the truss rod and my playing style but worth the small effort.
I've tried TI JF's on my basses; I've played them on friend's basses; this includes both 4-in-line and 2+2, flat and angled back headstocks; and I have been wrapping strings properly all the way down tuning posts since 1976. I'll be blunt: in my 45+ years of playing bass, TI Jazz Flat A strings suck. Even La Bella found that out. The first iteration of their LTF's were to compete with TI's. So they copied them, albeit in stainless flat wrap instead of nickel, including making a similar loose A string. It was so bad that after a couple of years La Bella reformulated the A string from a 70 to a 75 to better balance the set. TI needs to do the same thing.
Less IME ...3-6 mths for the initial break-in, then they naturally mature into "vintage fine wine" for the next 10 yrs.
Lol this video is worthy of a thread of its own, no way I would ever do that with any of my basses
It dominates the early part of this otherwise extremely useful thread.
Stringing, Tuning, Intonation and Witnesses
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