High Tension Flats for Doom and Downtuning

[bluehevy75]

Team,

I am new to the wonderful world of Doom and am setting up a downtuned bass for “A” standard tuning.

I am using a fender precision bass. I do not want to buy another bass for this project.

Currently, the bass is strung with Labella “original” flats, a five string set, with the G thrown away.

My issue is that my low B string, tuned to A, has very weird overtones higher on the neck (around the 12th fret and higher).

The issue is not my pickup height or sympathetic residence on another part of the bass. It is the string— i’ve had a luthier check it out.

I’ve search the threads but the information is a little daunting....

So, what other brands of flat wounds are high tension and come in a five string set that I can try?

 

[lz4005]

Tension is a product of thickness (assuming the tuning and scale length are constant). So any string of an appropriate gauge will be "high tension".

The problem with very thick flats, in the .120+ range of low B strings, is that they're very inflexible. Particularly when you fret them high on the neck. They have odd overtones because they are vibrating more like a solid piece of metal than like a string.

To get rid of the problem what you want are the most flexible strings you can get. Those are often incorrectly called "low tension".

In the simplest terms, you want a very thick, very bendy string. If you also want it to be flatwound you may be out of luck.

 

[bass40hz]

I use Rotosound Steve Harris signatures on my Pbass and its tuned BEAD...no complaints. I know you are going lower, I haven't tried lower than BEAD so I cant tell you on that but these strings are pretty stiff.

Rock on.

 

[HaphAsSard]

Team,

I am new to the wonderful world of Doom and am setting up a downtuned bass for “A” standard tuning.

I am using a fender precision bass. I do not want to buy another bass for this project.

Currently, the bass is strung with Labella “original” flats, a five string set, with the G thrown away.

My issue is that my low B string, tuned to A, has very weird overtones higher on the neck (around the 12th fret and higher).

The issue is not my pickup height or sympathetic residence on another part of the bass. It is the string— i’ve had a luthier check it out.

I’ve search the threads but the information is a little daunting....

So, what other brands of flat wounds are high tension and come in a five string set that I can try?

You need the string to be flatwound, hard-tension and low-inharmonicity up the neck when tuned to A0, at 34". The hard-tension requirement means a Thomastik-Infeld JF34136 is out (very flexible, best candidate for most usable length of fretboard, but low-tension to begin with). You may indeed be out of luck.

Before giving up (or caving and ordering a Dingwall Combustion fiver with a 37" scale lowest string), contact Garry Goodman (Octave4Plus.com):
Contact Us
Sub Contra Flatwounds
^ Scroll down to "Single Stainless Steel Flatwound Strings". I'd guess your best bet is the .140; see what Garry recommends though. Besides tuning, make sure you clearly mention that what you're trying to solve is both inadequate tension and inharmonicity above the 12th fret.

 

[ixlramp]

What lz4005 wrote is correct. Maybe you're new to flatwound Bs? Bs are problematically stiff even as roundwounds, more so as flatwounds, just don't play high up the string, playing above the 12th fret is usually not good on any B.

What LaBella set are you uising, what gauges? Is it '0760M-B Deep Talkin’ Bass, 1954 Style' .052, .073, .095, .110., .128T?
As a 4 string set those are very top-heavy and bottom-light, even more so as a 5 string set, so your B is at low tension. But a larger gauge for more tension means more stiffness and so more weird overtones.

Flatwounds are problematic with low tunings, they were intended for 4 string basses, the extra flexibility of roundwounds is what made low B practical.

 

[bassboysam]

if you're playing doom, why are you even going past the 7th fret?

 

[knumbskull]

Chromes have a high tension feel and handle down-tuning well.

Their 5 string set goes down to .132, which is lighter than most people would want for a low A but might work fine in the real world.

(I’ve only tried the 4-string set, which you can drop a full step and still sounds good to me. But heavier strings are a bit of a law unto themselves).

 

[bluehevy75]

Thanks team. These worked:

I like high tension strings but that 132 seems to be fine.

 

[bluehevy75]

if you're playing doom, why are you even going past the 7th fret?

Great point.
1. I’m new to Doom
2. I probably won’t play up there but it feels good to know I can.

 

[Diesel Kilgore]

Chromes. They are taut.