Stanley's strings

[jl_mitchell]

Hello all,
 
I emailed Rotosound about the specific gauges that Stanley Clarke uses and got this interesting response:
 
Stanley has very special medium scale gauges made for him in the factory; they being 25,35,60 and 75. We only make special gauges for very special people on account of the cost involved which we recoup from advertising with them. No disrespect to you of course.
Hence your only option is to buy our RS66M set in the rather heavier gauges than Stanley at 40,50,75 and 90 but appreciate that they are somewhat different. We only make singles for long scale basses due to the much higher demand and popularity of 34scales.
 
James

[David Houck]

I'm wondering if they are referring to an A-D-G-C set?

[richbass939]

Stanley has in the past (maybe he still does) played a piccolo bass.  Would 25, 35, 60, 75 be strings for it, maybe?
Rich

[bigredbass]

Even bearing in mind the Stanley basses are short scale, IF this 25-75 set is strung to normal E-G pitches, they would be VERY tight!
And would also begin to explain how his tone is so un-bass like in spots.
 
I always love these little snippets where you can begin to see how the magician saws the woman in half . . .  
 
J o e y

[richbass939]

I'm not a physicist, but I think if the strings were that light they would be very loose and floppy, not tight, if tuned to E - G.  Correct me if I'm mistaken about that.
Rich

[hb3]

I think that's right -- they would be loose, explaining all that crazy bending, especially the bending thing he does above the nut. Still, it seems hard to believe.

[dnburgess]

The GHS piccolo sets are 20 to 52, D'Addario are 18 to 50.

[room037]

I think these strings for tenor tuning (A to C).
He often use tenor tuning that I heard.
Piccolo (octave above E to G) bass strings are around 050 gauge for E strings.
 
D'addario has EXL180 (095,075,055,035) for E to G tuning.
You can try Tenor tuning with additional Hi-C strings.
 
(Message edited by room037 on June 24, 2006)

[bigredbass]

I always get this damn tension business backwards . . . OF COURSE if I tuned my .80 A down to E it would be loose.  GEEZ . . .  
 
J o e y

[johnnybassboy]

My experience with Medium Scale rotos is that they are by far THE WORST string I have EVER played. I bought a set, couldn't tune them, returned them, and the replacement set were the same. The store had heard of the problem before... the harmonics of the string are not in tune with the fundamental. At least this was true 20 years ago... but I wouldn't try them again even now unless I had a 1/2 hour to burn, and someone paid me to do the experiment.

[lg71]

I was curious and interested as well, I read somewhere that Stanley uses A, D, G, C tuning on his brown Bass...
 
So, as I had an old + odd 6 strings set (Rotosound Swing Bass 66, gauge 120, 90, 70, 55, 35, 25) at home, and I strung the 70, 55, 35, 25 (A,D,G,E).
I was very please with the result: MP3 demo here. The music is by Mr Jason Karl/UK, I just improvised on the top.
 
This is NOT an Alembic Bass though, but an Aria SB four strings long scale.
 
(Message edited by LG71 on August 10, 2006)

[David Houck]

Your overdubbed lines sound nice!

[lg71]

Thanks for your feedback I appreciate.
 
 What do you mean by overdubbed? there was nothing lying underneath, just the chord progression and the drum loop.

[David Houck]

Perhaps I misused the word.  I was just referring to the fact that it was an existing piece that you had recorded on top of.

[lg71]

I see, I understand now, thanks. I though you were thinking that there was a similar part underneath, and I was repeating it.  
 
I quite like this tuning, it doesn't sound like a bass, but it's not a guitar sound either. Maybe we can call it a thick guitar;)