Quote:
Originally Posted by Emanuele Carbone
Hi, I'm back to this topic since that set of orchestral Flexocor I was talking about in my previous post which sounds a bit dead to me (especially the A string) on my bass, recently surprised me when I tried to tune it one tone up for solo tuning: it comes to life! the 3rd string, from having no body and punch, comes alive and gets plenty of power as a B, the tension is tauter but fine for me... tuning it back to EADG makes it floppy and as I said before the 3rd string and particularly its open A doesn't seem to speak well, from what I hear when playing. Playing that A on the 4th string (eg: 4th finger in 1st and half position) doesn't help that much. Raising the bridge action doesn't help much as well.
If I tune them up to F#BEA (solo) and play that A on the 4th string (eg: 4th finger in half position, what you read as G but plays as A), the bass and the same note sounds way more convincing.
I know that you'd rather have the instrument in front of you, but basing on this feedback, would you say it's more likely to be the instrument itself having an issue with certain notes/frequencies or more simply (and hopefully) a quite unfortunate mismatch of string model and bass, which doesn't work as a combination for orchestra tuning and changing them in favour of a tauter, heavier set might do the trick?
The color code of the strings suggest they definitely are an orchestra setting, but they feel and sound better as solo  |
It's funny that you just posted on this because it was just today that I was talking strings with Arnold Schnitzer and at the ISB earlier this month while changing strings on some of his basses there he found the Flex 92s to work best on some basses. I asked him today because I was looking for a new string for one of my basses and wanted some suggestions. I took a set of 92s off a bass that had been there for 14 years and put it on the the bass I was trying to improve and they worked fine. In those 14 years however that other bass had barely been played, a 4/4 JB Allen that was restored in 1999. Being too big for most, it rarely gets tried out in the shop and has only been out on trial a few times in that period. So, under tension for 14 years but played maybe a month or two worth of regular hours in that time
On your bass, it might have a loose tension from many things, TP length/angle, Neck Set, thickness of neck and FB, bridge height, bassbar, top thickness, etc.. All these things can affect a bass's tension and some basses just work better with different string types and gauges.
I would suggest (if you like the 92s) to try the Stark gauge. They are only slightly thicker but have greater tension and a thicker and darker tone. Basses with lighter strength bellies (tops) would benefit from lighter strings.
So, try the Stark 92s if you liked your result tuning up with the regular gauge.