Slinkys on a J bass

[whyachi]

I play a Fender Standard J-Bass (MIM) and I recently switched to Slinky's after my guitar buddies talked me into it.

I picked up a set of Regular Slinky's, and E A and G tuned up perfectly after I put them on and sound great.

D is giving me problems. I'm not sure if its just the string, or what, but on an electronic tuner I can get it tuned to 3A and after that it jumps to Low B, then High C.

I've never seen B or C come up while tuning my bass... I've been playing about four months.

Could this just be a bad string? Its wound the same as the others, and I can get it tuned to just about everything but 2D which is what its supposed to be.

The string in that spot came out of the envelope marked 70, out of 50 70 85 105.



Thanks,
whyachi

 

[Jimmyb]

Maybe it's the tuner, Have you tried a different model?

What does it sound like when you fret the A string on the 5th fret? If it's the same pitch, it's not your string.

 

[whyachi]

The fifth fret on the A string sounds like a proper D, where the D string is a lot lower.

I took the D down to loose and flopping around, then tuned it slowly up til it was tight enough I was worried it'd snap, I got 4E 3A LB and HC on the tuner.

No 2D, no 1G.

 

[Jimmyb]

What does it sound like acoustically on the D string?

 

[strummer]

Does the string tune to audible pitch?
Is the tuner a guitar tuner?

 

[whyachi]

The tuner is a Korg GA-30 Guitar / Bass tuner, yeah its set to bass. Its always worked before.

As far as tuning to audible pitch... Not entirely sure what you mean. I plug my bass into the tuner with the cable, it doesn't use a microphone if thats what you mean.


Acoustically, the D sounds.., I'm not sure of how to describe it. When its at 3A on the tuner it sounds spot-on 3A, I can't tell the difference in the strings. But when I tighten it more and it switches over to LB, it sounds different than E, but just as low. Its not the same sound by any means but its definitely not getting higher.

I'm not even sure thats possible. Tightening it any amount would raise it, right?

I'm not extremely knowledgeable on this stuff, as far as wording how it sounds. I'm four months in on this and I've been using the stock Fender strings til I changed to the Slinky's.

Could this just be like a problem with how its wound on the post or something?


I'm starting to feel really ignorant here, I'm sorry I can't describe this better for you guys.

 

[whyachi]

I took the string off and put it back on, making sure it was wound downwards and all that, and it tuned right up.

All is solved.

 

[Jodizzle]

AS I read more and more of this post I was hoping that I could give you an answer and help you out. Too late. Glad everything worked our for ya


Is that flyleaf?

 

[whyachi]

Yeah its Flyleaf, they're actually the band that brought MusicMan to my attention. I saw the bass player in their video and went looking for what he was using.

Previously I'd just known about the strings, which I'm loving.

 

[Jodizzle]

Nice!
I love flyleaf

 

[Big Poppa]

could you please edit your thread title as the problem was not the strings and it looks like it was thanks a bunch!

 

[whyachi]

Sorry, I'm not seeing how to edit the actual title of the thread

 

[Chewie]

I'll do it if someone tells me what it should be called.

I don't know if normal users have the ability to change the title of a thread, and probably for good reason. If they change the title and it's an older thread that someone bookmarked or google had already indexed, then the url will become invalid. At least that's the only good reason I can think off

 

[Bass_Beast]

honestly, I had the exact same issue when I did my first string change
I panicked, and took the strings off and put them back on
2-3 tries later, my Jay Turser was sounding amazing with those new hybrids !
Ernie Ball is the way to go!

 

[bovinehost]

I got it, Chewie....I have a feel for these things now.