Split Gauge strings

[YouMa]

Does anyone use a really heavy E and A and a light D and G? I watched an early vid of Louis Johnson and he appears to have his Stingray strung like this.

[Maude]

This is all just guessing but it's a common thing in the doublebass world to mix and match to get a set that works on your bass so back when he started it possibly didn't seem so strange. Also if he was predominantly slapping then two diffent techniques are applied to the two pairs of strings, so maybe heavy strings for the slapping and light for the popping. 

🤔

[Russ]

Yes, back when I had access to custom sets of Elites, I played 35-55-80-105-130, so very light to very heavy. I don't have easy access to custom sets anymore, so I've reverted to a standard light-gauge 5-string set.

It suited how I played at the time, and I still maintain that there's no reason that the same note needs to sound the same on each string - string-to-string balance is overrated.

[jrixn1]

9 hours ago, Maude said:

 it's a common thing in the doublebass world to mix and match to get a set that works

Yes, on my upright I have steel E & A and nylon D & G, which seems to work for me (but I haven't, and don't intend to, spend decades and £1000s trying out all the combinations...)

I applied the same idea on my 5-string bass guitar, so my B & E are whatever roundwounds comes stock with a Yamaha -- I think it's D'Addario Nickels, 130 and 100.  Then the A, D, & G are Fender 9050ML flatwounds, so 85, 65, 50.  Basically I like flats, but found I lost a bit of definition on the lowest notes.

[NikNik]

When I was young - like, really young - there wasn't the range of strings as we have today. I liked a .090 on the E and a .035 on the G back then and you could go into certain shops and rummage through a wooden box of custom gauges. That was fun.

[visog]

Isn't there a danger of uneven tension with split gauge strings? Actually, is 'uneven tension' even a thing? Am I just re-counting ancient myths which are baloney?

[petebassist]

On 13/11/2018 at 07:45, Maude said:

This is all just guessing but it's a common thing in the doublebass world to mix and match to get a set that works on your bass so back when he started it possibly didn't seem so strange. Also if he was predominantly slapping then two diffent techniques are applied to the two pairs of strings, so maybe heavy strings for the slapping and light for the popping. 

You're right, I wouldn't say common but upright players with gut strings sometimes don't like the response from the E & A gut string, so they have something like a Thomastik Spirocore metal would E & A and a pure gut D & G. Also upright strings, especially guts, are more expensive (often £150 - 300 a set) so tend to get reused/resold/repurposed more than electric bass strings, though I just priced up some La Bella tapewounds for an electric and they aren't cheap either...

[Delberthot]

Most bass string gauges are pretty unbalanced anyway  - especially 40-100 sets with heavier A & D strings and a fairly limp E. I have mine pretty close with D'addario EXL165 strings but I substitute the 105 for a 110 E string. It also comes in handy when I drop it to B

The perfect solution is something like 45, 62, 80, 110. Certainly with D'addario