neepheid Posted April 2, 2009 Share Posted April 2, 2009 (edited) I'm looking for strings to put on the Hagstrom. It's a short scale bass, but normal short scale strings don't fit - the wraps kick in far too soon. The scale length appears to be around 31", and there's just over 2" between the bridge and the end of the tailpiece. Therefore I need strings that need to be at least 33" before the silks kick in or the wraps taper off. Does anyone use any of the following: Rotosound RS66M Standard - Medium Scale 40 50 75 90 D'addario EXL220M Medium scale - Super Light 40 60 75 95 Can someone check if they are at least 33" from ball end to the beginning of silks/end of wraps? Cheers Edited April 2, 2009 by neepheid Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 [quote name='neepheid' post='452879' date='Apr 3 2009, 12:10 AM']Does anyone use any of the following: Rotosound RS66M Standard - Medium Scale 40 50 75 90 D'addario EXL220M Medium scale - Super Light 40 60 75 95 Can someone check if they are at least 33" from ball end to the beginning of silks/end of wraps? Cheers[/quote] Personally I would count 31" as Medium Scale rather than Short Scale (30.5" and under). If those Rotosounds are the standard round-wound bass strings but with a Medium Scale length then they should be fine as these were the strings I used to buy for my Hagstrom Futurama Bass. However this was 25 years ago and the specs on the strings may have changed since then. Might be worth emailing Rotosound to be sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lozbass Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 I can't comment on the d'Addario or Rotosounds but Alembic short-scale strings should fit (they're easily available and not too expensive). Alembics are designed to fit their 30.75" scale basses - there's silking at either end of the string and length accounts for distance between string anchor and bridge saddles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neepheid Posted April 6, 2009 Author Share Posted April 6, 2009 Just for everyone's info, I went for the D'addario XL medium scale and they fit very well, even on the E string, with the wraps tapering off between the nut and the E tuner with room to spare - just what I was looking for. According to the Rotosound website, at 35.25" ball end to silks I was worried that their definition of medium scale was maybe just half an inch to an inch too long for my needs (2" between tailpiece and bridge, 31" scale length, leaving approximately 2.25" before the silks, I feared I would be winding full width E string on the post again.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lozbass Posted April 6, 2009 Share Posted April 6, 2009 Thanks for the update and I'm pleased to hear that you sorted the problem - I may try a set of medium length d'Addarios on one of my short-scales Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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