Hi Marco,
If you're trying to decide between 34, 35, and 36, then I definitely agree with Wayne that it's more important to stick Ebony in the neck first. All things being equal (which they won't), this will probably be the best way to move in the direction of deep, clear, bass, and something I might think of as more piano-like.
But that's not cheap, of course, and you have other good questions regarding string availability, and tensions.
Most 34 strings just won't fit a 36. Some might barely fit a 35, and if they do then they will end up feeling tighter, Whether they will sound better by virtue of being tighter is unclear, and may depend on the strings. But they may feel a little different, and that may fit your playing style, and end up sounding better. Or not.
I haven't seen enough numbers to generalize, but at least in the case of TI Jazz Flats, the 36 strings (on a 36 inch instrument, of course) are designed to have slightly higher tension than a set of 34's on a 34. If you put these strings on a 35, you get tension in between, but still a bit more than 34-on-34 (I think).
To make this a little more concrete, if you put a set of TI-JF34's on a 35 scale, the tension on each string will increase on average from about 38 to 40 lbs (i.e. an increase of 2 pounds, which is probably around the threshold of sensation). I have a bunch of these numbers on a spreadsheet, and could look them up if you're really interested.
But I do recall that in the case of these particular strings, using a 34 set on a 35 instrument turned out to be about the same as having them on a 34 bass and tuning the low B up just barely over B#; by the time you got to the D and G strings, you could approximate the tension on a 35 by tuning them up sightly less than a half step.
That's not very much difference. I think I'm pretty sensitive to tension, but most definitely do not have perfect pitch. When I take the strings off for some reason and put them back, I find that I can usually tune just by tension (no reference pitch) to within 2-3 whole steps (but not always...). So a half step difference is pretty slight.
My personal opinion is that if your bottom string is an E, 34 is sufficient and there is little to be gained by going longer, plus you have a wide selection of strings, and tensions, to choose from.
However, with a 5 string I feel you can do better with some extra length. So if you have a favorite set of 34 strings but would like them to be just a little tighter, you might try to figure out whether they will fit on a 35 - but I caution you that the answer is probably no, so you should check this carefully. Or if you know the strings you like are available in 36 scale, then just go for it.
Overall, start with the Ebony neck lams at 34. If you're getting a 4 string, I'd stop there; if you're going for 5 strings *and* you know that you have a favorite string set that is available in a 36 length, I think you'll get some incremental benefit by going longer.
-Bob
(Message edited by bob on April 03, 2004)
