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Post subject: Replacing strings on my newly purchased '78 Mustang.
Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 6:46 pm
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Recenlty purchased a '78 Mustang and am wanting to give a good general cleaning and new strings. The Fender "how to" section recommends replacing and re-tuning the strings one at a time. How much risk (and what can go wrong) by slowly unwinding the existing strings, removing all four, then installing the new strings and slowly and evenly bringing them up to tone? I'm fairly new to the bass and have never owned an expensive guitar, do just needing to know.
And, btw, the '78 Mustang is awesome - just kind of growels and punches out a distinct but fabulous tone.


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Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 6:56 pm
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I remove all the strings on my Guitars and Basses whenever I do a string change.

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Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 11:28 am
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CAFeathers wrote:
I remove all the strings on my Guitars and Basses whenever I do a string change.




I don't always remove all four/six when doing a string change but if I do I just try to be careful to bring the tension up on all of them evenly.


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Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 3:16 pm
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I do it all of the time.

I remove all 4 bass strings to clean up a bass esp. after I just bought it used.

Fender basses are pretty tough instruments and they can take a alot of what you may consider abuse and still work and play fine.

There is no problem in removing all of your bass strings to restring.

This is not a 100 year old Martin guitar that you have to worry about the tension on the neck.

Its a solid body bass that is very well built.

How do you clean the fingerboard w/o taking all of the strings off?

How would you change the neck or add a shim?

Sometimes you have to take off all of the strings. Go ahead and do it.

These basses are not that fragile.

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Post subject: Thanks - Plus, one more piece of this story
Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 10:02 pm
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Thanks for the tips. I did remove all the strings, applied some fretboard oil and gave it a general cleaning. I must say though that i liked the way it sounded with the old (I'm talking old and mis-matched) strings than it does with a new set of roundwound Fender Short Scales. I changed the strings then ran out to a jam session with some real good pickers and was dissappointed in my sound. Hope the sound migrates back to the warm growl that I was getting from the old set. Opinions?


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Post subject: Re: Thanks - Plus, one more piece of this story
Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 7:41 am
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DeeReyTx wrote:
Thanks for the tips. I did remove all the strings, applied some fretboard oil and gave it a general cleaning. I must say though that i liked the way it sounded with the old (I'm talking old and mis-matched) strings than it does with a new set of roundwound Fender Short Scales. I changed the strings then ran out to a jam session with some real good pickers and was dissappointed in my sound. Hope the sound migrates back to the warm growl that I was getting from the old set. Opinions?



I can relate to this a little, I hate the sound of new strings, very poppy and trebly, yech. I prefer old and dead ones that just sort of rumble and than give the amp a little treble if needed. Sounds wrong I know but to me an old broken in bass string is just more comfortable to play, they seem "looser" to me somehow.

It's all about what feels good to you, others may hate it but you make it work however it feels right to you. There is no "right" way for alot of this stuff, just "your" way, or "my" way, ya know?


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Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 9:58 am
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Some strings just don't have that fat bottom end that you want after breaking in the set.

Its just goes with the string brand and trial and error.

I like GHS boomers. These are reletively cheap strings and they have and end up with a nice bottom end.

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Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 9:42 pm
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Thanks for chiming in. I live in a relatively small town and so the selection of short scale strings was very limited - the nickel roundwound Fenders being the only selection at one store and an set I've never heard of at another. I ordered a set of half-round D'Aardios (sp?) online. I'll give the Fenders some time to break in and mellow out, but my next switch will be to give the half-rounds a try. I notice on the original manual for the vintage Fender that they came with flatwounds installed. Anybody using those on an old Mustang? How do they sound?
I put flatwounds on my P bass when I first started and they blistered my picking fingers. ???


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Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 9:15 am
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I have flats on one of my Mustang basses. They were on it when I bought it and they sound fine but they will not sound as punchy as roundwounds.

I often got blisters when I used to use flatwound strings all of the time on all of my basses.
The problem is that you will subconciously pluck harder in order to be heard. That takes a toll on your fingertips and will result in more blisters.

This is IMHO the best reason to use roundwound bass strings. Some rounds are easier on fret wear than others. I like GHS boomers because they seen to get good tone without chewing up the frets.

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Last edited by BCbassman on Mon Jan 25, 2010 9:40 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Posted: Sun Jan 24, 2010 7:45 am
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I prefer ernie ball strings, they last forever and have a great tone.


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Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 9:44 am
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There are a lot of good brands of strings. I would consider any DR, Dean Markley, GHS, Ken Smith, Ernie Ball, Fender, Labella or Gibson strings that fit your bass and style of playing.

I know that there are Rotosound users and I have tried their strings but I would stay away from their round wound strings because of the excessive fret wear caused by this brand of string.
Their Jazz Flats are a great string that is very bright for a flatwound string and they will not tear up your frets.

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Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 9:10 pm
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Thanks to everyone for their input.

wow, there's lots of different ideas on what's advisable as far as something as basic as changing strings on a guitar. For instance, i bought one of those "Bass guitar for Dummies" books. The author actually stated it was ok to simply cut the old strings off of the bass with wire cutters. Man, that seems kind of drastic. Wouldn't that create a sudden change in the forces at work on the neck and perhaps cause it to crack or warp or something? I was surprised to see that in a widely circulated book written by someone of enough renown to have written a book on the bass guitar.


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Posted: Thu Jan 28, 2010 12:15 pm
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I don't endorse that method of restringing but your Fender bass would probably withstand that sort of treatment. (Cutting the strings off while under full tension). Watch out for the flying cut ends of the strings. Those suckers can take your eye out!

I would recommend that you loosen the strings first and since I am a recycling nut, I like to keep my old strings because I always seem to come across another used bass that has strings in worse condition than the ones I just took off of my bass. That's why I don't cut them off. I unwrap them from the tuners and pull them out through the bridge so that I can use them again.

Many sets of strings can be helped by a good cleaning. Even dipping them in boiling water will clean out the dirt and restore some brilliance to the the sound of the strings.

Bass strings aren't cheap. Why just throw away a set when you can often use them to help out another bass to sound better?

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Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2010 9:28 am
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Check out Rotosound flatwound for 30" scale necks. They retial about 40 bucks, but they have that fat, booming bass reminiscent of '70s rock bands.


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