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My wife has been working on learning bass. She's working a short-scale Epiphone, which is good for her hand-span. But she picked up my 35" scale Dearmond Pilot the other day, and while the stretches are enormous, the string tension was much more manageable for her to play the notes. If playing wouldn't hurt the hand so much, well, it'd be more fun.

So I guess we're looking for some loose feeling strings. I've read that Thomastik are floppy at 34", but I don't know that that'll carry to short scale, and I think they do 32" and not 30" as their short scale. What else is out there? Flats, roundwound, hell, tapewound -- what are our options?

(Suffering being good for the soul or the hands isn't a particularly helpful answer.)

Any lighter gauge strings would lower the tension if you kept the same tuning.

You could also just lower the tuning a half/full step on her bass and keep the strings that are already on it.

Thomastik Nickel Jazz Flatwounds

I play a shortscale and I really like La Bella flat wounds. I find flats to be much much easier on my hands. I think Aen has D'Addario flats on his shortscale and I think they are way harder to play. I have lots of issues with my hands/wrists/shoulders, so it's pretty important that the tension is low and the string is easy on my fingers.

dorfmeister wrote:Thomastik Nickel Jazz Flatwounds

Fuck yup

On standard 34" scale theyre already pretty damn low tension

They may be fuckin shoelaces on a short scale but I dunno

http://www.myrareguitars.com/1960s-supr ... ass-guitar

see it in action here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-A5WAec ... re=related

Again, TIs are the wrong scale. Pyramids? LaBellas? Rotosound? Bueller? Bueller?

Long scale stringe work fine. Just look for the proper gauge, and clip 'em off.

kaeth wrote:Long scale stringe work fine. Just look for the proper gauge, and clip 'em off.

I keep reading that I'm in for trouble trying this. Is there a right way to cut them?

I don't see why it would be a problem, unless the holes/slots in your tuners are too small to accept the wound part of the low strings. Might wanna check that first. Been doing it on my short-scales for years without issue. I just use wire-cutters to clip them.

kaeth wrote:I don't see why it would be a problem, unless the holes/slots in your tuners are too small to accept the wound part of the low strings. Might wanna check that first. Been doing it on my short-scales for years without issue. I just use wire-cutters to clip them.

Word

Just check the action periodically to make sure there's no problems

It'd probably help to tighten yer truss rod a little bit before slapping them on if yer worried about the extra tension from using standard gauge strings on a short scale

If she is having trouble with the tension, I would also go in and have her bass set up for her. I had my upright set up a few months ago and it was amazing how much better it felt to play after that.

Fuzz_Pi wrote:Word

Just check the action periodically to make sure there's no problems

It'd probably help to tighten yer truss rod a little bit before slapping them on if yer worried about the extra tension from using standard gauge strings on a short scale

But the idea is to reduce tension. So this won't help?

Gone Fission wrote:

Fuzz_Pi wrote:Word

Just check the action periodically to make sure there's no problems

It'd probably help to tighten yer truss rod a little bit before slapping them on if yer worried about the extra tension from using standard gauge strings on a short scale

But the idea is to reduce tension. So this won't help?

But it will help with yer bass handling that tension, so that tension's not a problem

Truthfully, suffering is good for the soul...I kid I kid, truthfully just get the 32" scale TI's and call it a day