EB Flatwound + '51 reissue P-Bass...

[max cooper]

I grabbed a set of Ernie Ball Group III Flatwounds last night and the 100 seems too short for the '51 reissue P-Bass I'm using.

The blue wrapping at the end of the string extends past the nut; the others are long enough.

They're not short scale strings, and the bass scale length is 34", just like any P-Bass.

The bridge is a string-thru-body, like most P-basses.

I'm I losing my mind, or is this a mistake?

If this is a QC thing, does it happen often?

 

[bovinehost]

I forget...are those RI Ps string thru body?

 

[shamus63]

I forget...are those RI Ps string thru body?

I was surprised to see that the Sting Sig Bass was a string-thru-body, being a '53 RI (or is it '55?).

When did the first STB's start appearing, anyway?

Jeopardy music playing...again.

 

[max cooper]

The originals were string-thru-body. In many ways, it's a Telecaster. There's no contour on the body, the headstock, the bridge, the string-thru design, the control plate, the pickup (OK, I guess it's an Esquire!) The '70's (?) Telecaster basses were a little weird; they had that fugly chrome pickup, kinda like a Tele Custom.

http://www.abrown.com/c.htm

Here's a link to some photos of a '51. The guy is asking $12,000 fer it, and I think if I had the coin, I'd buy the thing. I saw one years ago, and the design of the thing just looked so 'right' to me.

Fender did their research on this one. It's pretty accurate, except there's no thumb-rest where you don't usually need a thumb-rest. (Actually, I see that the one in the photo also lacks the thumb rest on the South side of the strings.) I didn't get ashtrays, either, but I bought it second-hand. The front-horn strap button is placed 'round towards the neck further on this one, but I know there was a bit of variation on the early ones.

A couple of guys mentioned that I need to get something like GHS Extra Long-Scale. I get that the length of a bass string needs to be fairly accurate so the fat part of the string isn't wound around the machine head too much.

Anyhow, guess EB doesn't seem to make Extra Long Scale.