Alembic Guitars Club

Alembic products => Owning an Alembic => Fun Stories => Topic started by: dnburgess on October 11, 2003, 01:37:06 AM

Title: Piccolo strings
Post by: dnburgess on October 11, 2003, 01:37:06 AM

I wish to retune my short scale S1 to piccolo tuning. Can anyone suggest string gauges or recommend brands?
 
Mica or Val (or anybody): What does Stanley put on his?

Title: Piccolo strings
Post by: malthumb on October 11, 2003, 10:03:39 AM

Don't know what Stanley uses, but when I had a short scale tuned piccolo, I used D'Addario.  They worked out fine (my piccolo bass playing didn't).
 
Peace,
 
James

Title: Piccolo strings
Post by: valvil on October 11, 2003, 05:27:22 PM

I believe Mica once told me Stanley uses 30 to 90 sets, but that was many years ago, so I'd want her to confirm it.
 
Valentino

Title: Piccolo strings
Post by: dnburgess on October 11, 2003, 10:01:06 PM

Val, thanks but those look very heavy for piccolo. The regular Alembic CX-3 short scale set is .045 to .105. By comparison the octave strings in an 8 string set are .020 to .045.
 
A bit more research (i.e. visit to JustStrings) reveals four piccolo sets:
 
D'Addario XL .020-.052
GHS Boomers .018-.050
Ken Smith Burners .018-.045 & .020-.050
La Bella Hard Rockin Steel .012-.030 & .030-.080
 
Does anyone have experience / recommendations regarding these brand / types?
 
These appear to be 34 scale sets. Are there any issues using them on a short scale?
 
Are there any issues regarding neck tension in using a heavy gauge set - e.g. 30 to 80?

Title: Piccolo strings
Post by: xlrogue6 on October 13, 2003, 08:45:41 AM

Depends on your choice of piccolo tuning.  It sounds like you're going for the octave up tuning.  Stanley's first piccolo stuff was done in what is sometimes referred to as tenor tuning, A-D-G-C.  Later on, I believe he also had some tuned D-G-C-F, but I'm not a Stanley authority.
 
The D'Addario, LaBella 12-30, and GHS sets will all work for octave up tuning.  You can get away with using long scale strings on your short scale-avoid twisting them-wind them slowly and carefully when you're installing them.

Title: Piccolo strings
Post by: mica on October 13, 2003, 06:39:26 PM

I looked up the file for the last Vermilion Series I bass we made for Stanley. The guages of strings were .030 - .040 - .065 -.080 but the tuning wasn't recorded. I think I remember this being tuned DGCF.  
 
I sent a message to Stanley to find our exactly what he's using and how he's tuning these days, so i'll pass the details along when I find out more.