| Author | Message | ||
| Bryan Threlkeld (vikingman)
Junior Username: vikingman Post Number: 19 Registered: 8-2002 |
I started this post on a different thread, but decided it needed it's own category. I had Mike Tobias build me a bass ~20 years ago, when I lived in L.A., and I asked him why the strings on some of his basses seemed to have a very "taunt" feel, while others had a "looser" feel. Since he was using the same gauge GHS Boomers on all of his basses, it was NOT the strings that made the difference - it came down to the design of the bass. As I recall, his reply was that it had to do with various issues (wood settling, etc.), but that he had no way to gauge this until the bass was actually "born." Is this the case? I personally like a looser string tension overall because I usually play over the back pickup (closest to bridge), which is naturally a very taunt part of the string. I noticed that Alembic places their back pickup VERY close to the bridge, so often times it's TOO taunt for me to play there. I'm sure Alembic could reposition the bridge/or pickup so that I could play over it where it's not quite so taunt, but would that affect the "Alembic sound?" Mica, have you found any way to control how taunt or loose the strings will set-up on the bass prior to it being produced? What does control this (other than string brand/gauge)? Finally, I would suspect that the taunter the string, the lower the action would truly be. However, the looser the string, the easier it would actually be to play. Am I correct? Waiting for some great input! Bryan |
