Author Topic: Intro and Question on strings (Read 235 times)

joebassman · « **on:** November 07, 2009, 06:01:39 PM »

Hi:

I'm a retired person who took up the ecectric bass about 6 years ago. I purchased my Alembic from someone who was selling it on E-bay. I actually went to the seller's house in Encino, Ca. as he lived within 30 miles from my place. I was told that the bass was an 83 Spoiler.

I play with a senior group where we perform for mostly other seniors. However, I also play with a combo group where we play out of the fake books and Abersold books.

I would appreciate it if anyone can give me advice as to what make and type of bass strings would be best for playing on a 83 Spoiler and give me a good walking bass sound.

keith_h · « **Reply #1 on:** November 08, 2009, 06:00:26 AM »

Welcome Joe,
If you are not looking for a lot of brightness or planning on do any slapping you might want to use a try a flat wound string. Two popular flat wound brands around here are D'Addario Chromes and Thomastik-Infeld Jazz Flats. If you would like something in between you could consider a ground round wound such as the GHS Brite Flats.

Someone else will chime in on the length but I would suggest long scale strings even if yours is a 32 (medium) scale neck. Alembics require a longer string due to the additional length added by the tail piece.

Keith

(Message edited by keith_h on November 08, 2009)

pauldo · « **Reply #2 on:** November 08, 2009, 07:28:44 AM »

Yo Joe!
Welcome to the club.
Keith pretty much hit it on the head with string choices.

Looks like there are tape wound strings on your gourgeous looking Spoiler in the picture - are those not 'warm' enough?

David Houck · « **Reply #3 on:** November 10, 2009, 06:09:28 PM »

Hi Joe, welcome to the board and congrats on the Spoiler! Very nice looking top! I agree that Keith's made some good suggestions as a starting point on strings.

Your bass appears to have been repaired around the quarter inch jack. Someone probably stepped on a cable while it was still plugged in and cracked the top around the jack. It appears to be a nice looking repair though. I used to have a Koa topped Spoiler that was very comfortable to play and had a very nice tone; they're great basses!

jacko · « **Reply #4 on:** November 11, 2009, 01:34:56 AM »

Nice bass Joe. Welcome to the club from Scotland. I have LaBella deep talkin flats on my Kelly dragonfly and it almost sounds like an upright. Pauld, those strings could be DR black beauty roundwounds - I have DR coloured strings on all my Alembic basses and love them for their brightness ;-)

Graeme

joebassman · « **Reply #5 on:** November 13, 2009, 07:42:49 AM »

Hello, and thanks to all who responded to my question.
I am going to take Keith's advice and install Thomastik-infeld Jazz flats.
Pauldo, what good eyes you have. Yes the stings on the bass now are a very old set of Rickenbacker electro flat wound.
I didn't like them at first, but getting to like them more. I originally had on a set of Rotosound Spacers which were round wound, I believe, and liked them. However, Rotosound no longer makes them because they told me they were too expensive to make. There is a very different feel between round and flat wound strings. It took me awhile to get used to the new feel. Now there must be a reason for Thomastik flat wound strings being so much more expensive than other flat wounds. Well, I'm going to find out if that is true.
Again , thanks for your help.

mario_farufyno · « **Reply #6 on:** November 13, 2009, 09:49:51 AM »

To get a more uprighty sound I would try Tapewound Flats (those with black nylon tape winding). I had a Carvin semi-acoustic fretless bass strung with those and it sounded as close to an upright as an eletric bass could get (something like an EUB). That is a try.

I also noticed that soloing the Neck PU gives me a great woody tone very suitable to get an Upright tone on my Rogue (specially with the Q switch on though).