solo for less tension

[Martin Sheridan]

Originally Posted by Ken Smith

Martin, will you be tuning Solo up a whole step or just need light tensioned strings?

If not Solo tuning, try the Evah Weichs. I have them on my 'big boy' now and they play like butter. Great for Orchestra and smokin' for jazz. At least that's how they work on my bass.

Yes, I'm going with regular tuning. With the short string length there is more tension at pitch. I tend to play like a mad man for a week or so and then the next thing I know the bass as been sitting for a week gathering dust and my hands have softened up, so I'm looking for something else. I like playing on butter! It's not bad on toast either.
Also, I'm going to take the bass back to the states and put it up for sale so I'm looking for a good hybrid.
Those Evah's sound like they might be the ticket. I have Spirocore Weich's on the bass now which is normally my string of choice, but they have too much tension at this string length. It seemed like a good idea at the time and I had a lot of small people (aka women) looking at basses then who needed a shorter string length. I had played on a lot of short string basses and maybe I was playing more hours then, but I never realized that the tension would seem so much greater.