BEAD pros or cons

I like BEAD over a 5 string. I found it easy to adapt to, and it’s easy to work around the lack of G on many songs. But if I need a G, I still have a bass with it. Lookin good there @PamPurrs

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Your apparent lack of winds on the B and A strings gives me anxiety. :rofl:

Enjoy it - I may try that (BEAD) someday myself - I don’t have that much interest in switching to 5 string, but the B string is tempting…

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Me too. I use the ‘4-inch rule’.
@PamPurrs if you are clipping strings so close this may be why that other G string from the Thomastik set failed.

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I didn’t trim those, I installed them the way they came.

(I think it was because you “pre-stretched” them :rofl: )

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I had to live with the way I had trimmed them before i moved them. If this had been a brand new set, I wouldn’t have trimmed them this close. But there is plenty of winding, so ease your anxiety @skydvr :smiley_cat:

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Perhaps you will dispel another myth now with these windings!
Myth busters!!

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:rofl:

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So I have decided to mod my Frank Bello bass as well, only in a differnet way.
I ordered the FB Pickup/Electronic set from ESP, this is the active set found in the $4,000 version of his bass they sell.

I figure I can sell the passive electronics and recoup a good amount of the new.

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Very cool guys, think we need to create a Jazz Bass workbench thread and start it with these two mods.
Maybe black out could be first John

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The FB pickups would be an upgrade to my Jag PJ. Let me know if you sell them

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Will do!
Assuming the actives do what I want they will go up for sale.

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No need to get anxiety about the B string, there are 3 complete winds on that peg (the silk taper is black so you can’t see it). The E, A, and D strings have short windings due to having moved them up a groove on the nut, and thus farther away from the pegs. But, not to worry, there’s enough winding there and they won’t fall off :smiley_cat:

@John_E the “4-inch rule” sounds appropriate enough. The rule I use is to go just past the next furthest peg and trim the silk there (I learned this from Mark Smith). Unfortunately, when you move strings around like I did, it messes up the execution of that rule.

In any case, I’m going to replace the A, E, and D strings with these, and will be able to trim them properly for this configuration.

P.S. As always, I WON’T be pre-stretching them :rofl:

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Be careful with those. They give a very specific tone. You may not like how specific and you will most likely need to open your nut up for those to sit properly

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I have a set of these on my Jazz and they are very specific. Luckily I’m playing Motown with them, but they’re not versatile.

But they sound great for what they do

Yeah, I’ve already sent a cancellation request to Amazon. I’m going to reorder the standard set .043 .065 .085 .105

I use them on my ‘61 P for all things old school but wouldn’t on an ‘everyday bass’

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Now that I’ve been playing BEAD for a few days, I’m pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to adapt. Now, when I see a note on the top line or higher of the stave, my fingers automatically move up 5 frets on the D string to emulate the G string. Yeah, I realize it’s a slightly different timbre, but it works. If I ever have to play a piece of music that’s mainly in the higher register, I can always use my EADG bass.

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@skydvr @John_E @joergkutter you can all rest easy now. I’ve put a new set of LaBella .065, .085, .105 (plus the .128 string that was already there) strings on her, and there is plenty of silk to wind around the pegs. Also, I didn’t forget to put the strings under the round thingy this time @joergkutter. These strings have black silk instead of the red silk the other ones have, so you can’t see the windings, but they are definitely there.

Mission accoumplished. Zero fret installed, and bass converted to BEAD. This upgrade is done!

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All good, Pam - enjoy the BEAD :grin:

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Ran across this Billy Sheehan article today

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