That's a very unbalanced set to start with; when you get that 110 down to a B, flop city. I love VERY light strings, and my BEAD is strung with 50-70-95-130. THAT's a well balanced set tension wise. The reason people complain about floppy B string is they insist on having strings with an arithmetic progression in diameter - 40-60-80-100-120, or something like that. While that seems like it'd be matched, it isn't. Strings are tuned in frequencies that have a constant RATIO between strings. Therefore, a balanced set maintains a geometric progression (constant ratio), where each string's diameter is about 1.33x the diameter of the previous one.
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Tried 30-50-70-90
- Thread starter 600 Ohms
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That's a very unbalanced set to start with; when you get that 110 down to a B, flop city. I love VERY light strings, and my BEAD is strung with 50-70-95-130. THAT's a well balanced set tension wise. The reason people complain about floppy B string is they insist on having strings with an arithmetic progression in diameter - 40-60-80-100-120, or something like that. While that seems like it'd be matched, it isn't. Strings are tuned in frequencies that have a constant RATIO between strings. Therefore, a balanced set maintains a geometric progression (constant ratio), where each string's diameter is about 1.33x the diameter of the previous one.
ya I'll let you know, we've been playing a lot of pop punk, just fast eighth note grooves with a pick and I'm spending the huge majority of my time on the E and A. Was wondering what picking would feel like on the lighter E and A. Seems like it would be easier with a lighter gauge. Should be an interesting experiment anyway.
Horribly. My Jazz is a 7.25 radius, so it frets out half way through. My new Sadowsky, which should arrive next week, will be a 10" radius and should be better.
This exercise has shown that, although I find 30-90 a bit too loose, they sound great and a smaller gauge for me may be the way forward. I'm thinking 40-95 might be the magic number. In Nickel Lo-Riders, of course, my favorite string by a mile. I will likely try those D'Addario 35 nickels as well.
Keep in mind that 40-95 is a 'top heavy' set, it has more tension on the strings that have less need for tension, and less tension on the strings that have more need for tension.
30 50 70 90 is 'middle heavy', 35 50 70 95 has more equal tensions.
What i discovered by trying to find the lowest practical gauges/tensions, is that 'light top' sets are optimum.
Not 'light top' as in 'relative to most sets', i mean tension falling from low to high. This is the opposite of traditional and pre-packaged sets like this do not exist.
Because larger gauges have more mass and momentum and are more prone to flopping around, their minimum practical tension is higher than smaller gauges.
For example, for a 'tight' and controlled vibration with good tone, bass B strings need around 30lbs, but a guitar top E only needs around 10lbs.
So when you reduce tensions as far as practical, the larger gauges end up with higher tension.
For example, for EADG, 85 60 40 25.
30 50 70 90 is 'middle heavy', 35 50 70 95 has more equal tensions.
What i discovered by trying to find the lowest practical gauges/tensions, is that 'light top' sets are optimum.
Not 'light top' as in 'relative to most sets', i mean tension falling from low to high. This is the opposite of traditional and pre-packaged sets like this do not exist.
Because larger gauges have more mass and momentum and are more prone to flopping around, their minimum practical tension is higher than smaller gauges.
For example, for a 'tight' and controlled vibration with good tone, bass B strings need around 30lbs, but a guitar top E only needs around 10lbs.
So when you reduce tensions as far as practical, the larger gauges end up with higher tension.
For example, for EADG, 85 60 40 25.
Not necessarily... It all depends on what's in between the 40 and the 95.
For example, GHS Boomers L3045, 40-55-75-95, is very even right across all four strings.
G 040 - 33.6 lbs.
D 055 - 35.2
A 075 - 35.9
E 095 - 36.1
D'Addario EXL220, 40-60-75-95, is one of those "top heavy" sets.
G 040 - 32.4 lbs.
D 060 - 40.9
A 075 - 35.4
E 095 - 31.7
Also, as you can see from the above examples, two strings of the same gauges (095) can have different tensions depending on how they're constructed.
I use 30-90 on one of my fretless basses, it helps to make it sing. I did try this gauge on a couple of fretted basses but found them too light and the G string kind of gets lost in the mix. I've kind of settled for 40-100 for most things but 45-105 if I want a bigger sound.
Agreed. I have gone even lighter to .028 - .075! The sound is full and the 'bass/low end' is not compromised at all. The only caveat is having to raise my action because the string excursion is greater, and I like low action. They sound great just the same.
On the strength of your post, and my boredom, I tried a set. I love 'em. I'm finally doing the bending harmonics that I have heard from Stanley Clarke and Mark King. It's awesome. I'll probably saw through the nut.
But you're right - they're a blast to play on.
Thanks!
Yes, thanks. I was too used to knowing 45-100 is top heavy, and forgot that 45 -> 40 is a bigger tension drop than 100 -> 95.
Actually, I think that means an exponential progression, but either, way, it's true. If I'm doing a custom set starting with .040 or .o45, I keep a .015 difference between the G and D, then an .020 diff between the D and A, then an .025 diff between the A and E. However, I usually just take what's offered in .045-.105 because it's cheaper.
In our case, it's a geometric progression.
This will help you understand:
How to make an exponential progression
I defer. It took me 2 years to get through geometry, but I aced Algebra 2, physics and the like. Go figure.
No worries. I was the math/science geek in my school. Somebody had to do it.
Geddy Lee used Rotosound 30-85/90 set on his Wal when recording the Power Windows album.
Correct. The approximate rule to acheive equal tension on 2 strings tuned a fourth apart and with the same scale length is:
'Gauge multiplied or divided by 1.335 (roughly 4/3) going from string to adjacent string.'
I've derived this by working through the physics.
Me too. Worked at it long enough to get a degree in Acoustical Physics. We studied string vibrations, among many other musical instrument Acoustics topics.
