ShortScale.org

stewart wrote:

benecol wrote:if I'd have known how good the standard one was, I might not have bothered

i did try to tell you.

quietly.

The standard trems are pretty good. THe only reason I replaced mine was that I had a spare one hanging about.

Interested to hear how you get on with the baritone strings Benecol. I was looking to do something similar (white VI, Staytrem bridge, A-A) but not sure if I'd need something with a shorter scale as I wanted to be able to play it more like a guitar than a bass.

Personally, I like the 30" scale with baritone tuning. The longer scale for baritone gives the strings more snap and attack, and they sustain nicely as well. There's perhaps a little less fundamental in the tone, but it can be fuckin' aggressive, or melodic. I tend to play my bass tuned VIs somewhat bass-like (it is the bass in my band), but incorporate some guitar techniques as well... tuned baritone, it's all guitar style work.

It may be just me, switching between 34, 30, 25.5, 24 and 22.5" scales regularly, but I really don't find all that much of a difference between 30" baritone playing and 27" baritone playing. If it's just the neck/fret length that you're worried about, just ignore it and approach it with an open mind... your fingers will do what they need to.

Thanks Ankhanu. I think I am probably over thinking it tbh. I switch between 24", 24.75", 25.5" guitars and my 30" bass all the time without any real problems but playing chords on my bass had me worried about playing a VI like a guitar (although baritone strings would obviously be considerably lighter).

Benecol, what Circle K strings did you plump for? Been looking at their site and they seem to do several thousand (okay, not quite) different Bass VI sets.

Playing the VI with baritone strings feels a little like playing .011s on a 24-25.5", tension wise. Not very bendy, but reasonably comfortable for most things. Tone-wise, there's clarity in chords all the way through the scale, and the extra length gives a little bit of snap to the notes. Contrasted against playing chords on standard tuned VI, where open chords stop being clear and start muddying around a G# down without some clever EQ play.

BearBoy wrote:Benecol, what Circle K strings did you plump for? Been looking at their site and they seem to do several thousand (okay, not quite) different Bass VI sets.

Skip at Circle K is a gent - I mailed him and he recommended a few sets, sure he won't mind if I C&P his response here...

"If you will switch between A and B standard tunings the tension swings 6 to 7 pounds. It can be done, but you should set up the instrument tuned to A# for intonation accuracy IMO.

For A/B - http://circlekstrings.com/store/product3758.html

For A - http://circlekstrings.com/store/product3756.html

For B - http://circlekstrings.com/store/product3760.html

I like my Squire Bass VI - one of the best values out there right now in my opinion."

Also, he posted this over at Surfguitar101:

"Customarily a Bass VI has 30 pounds of tension per string. This straddles the difference in tension between bass and guitar almost perfectly.

If you intend to play this more as a guitar you can go lighter, but you should have more tension than a standard guitar to keep the strings from rattling against the frets due to its longer scale length. For people like this I suggest a 25 pound tension spec. B at 25 pounds tension would be this set; http://circlekstrings.com/store/product3761.html A would be this set; http://circlekstrings.com/store/product3759.html

If you are inclined to go to 30 pounds, a good B set would be; http://circlekstrings.com/store/product3758.html A would be http://circlekstrings.com/store/product3755.html

The .067 set ( http://circlekstrings.com/store/product3758.html ) is an interesting pick because at B its is slightly more than 30 pounds, but at A is slightly less than 25 pounds. If you are looking for one set to experiment with to find out what your personal preference is I would start with this one."

I went for the 67 set as a halfway house.

The last of the kit (the AVRI trem) arrived today, so bodged it all together this afternoon. The Staytrem bridge is a corker, lovely and heavy duty, makes the unplugged sound much louder, and all the adjustment you could wish for. Fitted one of their collets on the tailpiece too. While the standard trem is actually pretty good, I love the AVRI one. Much easier, free-er action. Put a sandpaper shim in the neck socket, because I do this with all offsets. Strung it, tuned it A-A, used the tremloc as a set-point, and it's grand.

String tension-wise, I'm a bit of a genetic throwback and play 11s on everything, so found it pretty easy while it was strung E-E as standard, so I'm flying around on it on thinner strings with less resistance.

Prefer it A-A, but surprised how much I enjoyed it E-E.

Thanks Benecol. I'll have a proper read of that when I've got the children off to bed.

ALSO MEANT TO SAY: while the postage from Circle K may seem a bit steep (cost more than the strings did for me), it:

• - avoided comedy tax.
  - was quick.
  - was cheaper than a set of Pyramid strings (main competition).

Yeah, noticed that although the strings were very reasonable, the postage was about three times as much. As an overall package though they weren't too bad. Good to hear about the tax. Was thinking of buying a few sets to reduce the string/postage ratio but suspect it would attract the attention of the customs chaps and bump the cost up again.

I've really got to look into a .095 set from Circle K... I've been in need of new strings since the LaBella Hellcat strings sextoupled in price in the summer. Hope shipping to Canada is better

How are you getting on with this after a month Benecol?

So, after my usual prevaricating I decided to pull the trigger on my Benecolesque baritone VI only to find that:

1) The VM Squier VIs all seem to have taken a pretty hefty price rise in the UK (they're £330 everywhere now - probably still good value but )
2) John from Staytrem is on his hols so I cannot order a bridge
3) The Circle K website has gone kaput (although it looks like they're trying to get it up and running under a new domain name)