Floppy B String on 5 and 6 String Bass
I noticed that a great many Bass Guitar Forums discuss what must be a chronic problem in the 5-String and 6-String bass world, that is, floppy B strings. (for the newly Initiated, Bass Guitars traditionally come with just 4 strings – and E, A, D, and G. On a 5 String, the extra string is a big fat B String on the low side of the neck. On a six string bass the extra extra string is not an even fatter low string, but a higher string on the other side of the traditional fours strings – a little skinny High B String.)
On a great many postings, people are blaming the particular basses involved. This can be a valid complaint, as long as people are comparing their respective basses only in regards to their Neck Scale. You see, given a string of a particular thickness and weight, or ‘mass’ as we should call it, it will be most ‘floppy’ on the shortest neck. All other things being equal, ‘long’ equals lower, and so to bring up the pitch on a string stretched over a longer distance between nut and bridge, well, it must be made more tight, that is, less ‘floppy’. So we should expect the most complaints of floppiness to come from those whose basses have the shortest neck scales
The different Neck Scales are as follows: – Short is 30 inches, mediums are 32, 34 inches is ‘long (with the proviso that one source has it that while 34 inches is considered ‘long’ for 4 string basses, a five and six string bass are not ‘long’ until 35 inches, but this represents less than a 3% difference in length and so is probably not overly consequential), and extra longs are 36 inches. Oh, scale is measured from the nut at the top of the neck to the saddle of the bridge, so, really, the only part of the string involved in the scale measurement is the part the wiggles back and forth while making the sound.
While Neck Scale helps us to understand the problem of B String Floppiness, it is not really something we can do anything about, unless we want to solve our floppiness problem simply by buying a new bass. Most people would hold off on that particular variable until driven to it as a last resort.
I’ve seen some online forum posts which posit the idea of fixing B String floppiness by shimming or placing spacers between the string retainer and the ball. They no doubt suppose that it is taking some of the slack out of the string. However, we need to remember the basic physics of our equation here – we are only concerned with the strings width and weight (Mass) between the Nut and the Bridge Saddle. You can put a mile of shims and spacers AFTER the Bridge Saddle and it won’t make the slightest bit of difference. Where people say that such things help, well, that is the Placebo Effect at work. After going through all that trouble, they don’t wish to admit to themselves that they wasted so much time and effort, or that they had been taken in by such blunt stupidity. So, it is my guess that if the guitar works after the installation of shims and spacers, then it probably was not in such bad shape before all that useless stuff was added into the mix.
The real important variable in all these matters of B String Floppiness is the actual string. Since we are stuck with our Neck Scale dimension, the only thing we can easily change is the Mass of the string we use. All things being equal, fatter strings are lower and will tune with greater tension then a skinny string. And if the width is held equal, then a denser heavier steel and chrome steel string will tune tighter than those made of lighter materials such as nickel and aluminum (Aluminum plagues the world of violin strings – it gives a nice enough tone but it is so brittle and fragile as to fall apart after only hours of any really exerted practicing).
So look for the specifications of your ‘floppy’ B String. B strings average around .125 inches in diameter, but you can get round wound steel strings all the way up to .145 ( for example, D’addario and DR String), or flatwounds up to about .136 (Thomastik-Infeld, though they are costly… about $45 for just one B string, but you can buy them singly). Now, while the round wounds seem to come in fatter sizes than the flatwounds, remember that the density of the flats are inherently greater, because they are filled in level to the very limits of their width dimension, while round wounds have all those empty spaces within all those little round grooves – they don’t completely fill in their given diameters and so they are actually less dense than their given diameters would imply.
I myself have a Fender 5 String Bass… I think all these Fender 5 Strings come in 34 Inch ‘Long’ Scale. These guitars, given their popularity, are the one’s most often complained about. I strung my particular Fender 5 String in D’addario long scale Flats, and the B String is a .132 diameter and it is wrapped in chrome steel, making it fatter and denser than the industry average. And, yes, while the B String certainly creates for itself a great deal side to side wiggle room when it sounds, the tone is fine.
Perhaps a great many people are concerned that the B Strings seem to take up so much room ‘wiggling’ back and forth. Well, this is all to be expected. I used to work with ‘Accelerometers’, that is, little devices designed to measure acceleration G Forces, and one of the immutable laws of Acceleration is that given similar G Force intensities, lower frequency movement will have the furthest displacement. Simply speaking, for the same sound volume as another string of higher note, a lower note will create more side to side wiggle movement in order to do the same job. Your B String, by its very nature, is simply going to ‘look’ more ‘floppy’ than the other strings.
So do you really have a problem? If you get the right tone and note from your B String, and if it doesn’t buzz on the lower frets and whack against the wood, then you probably don’t really have a problem with B String floppiness… or your problem is merely psychological. But if it really bothers you and you need to do something about it, then look for a thicker string wrapped in steel. The tighter tension of the greater mass will cut down on some of that floppy looking wiggle room that so annoys you.
Oh, there are instances where strings just seem to go crazy – seeming to violate all the rules of physics. One hears of ‘dead’ strings that no longer sound. Well, this probably involves the strings separating within their windings, creating light spots and heavy spots which cause vector interactions – the string wiggles all wrong and sounds funny. But such a string will not even tune, or will rise and fall or ‘warble’ in tone. This is not ‘floppiness’… it is an entirely different problem.
But there is way in which an aged string can become ‘floppy’ over time. It happens more often with violin strings. A string stretches out, slowly over time decreasing in diameter, and as more and more string ends up getting wound up onto the tuner, then less mass is left between the Nut and the Bridge Saddle. The old stretched out string gets thinner and becomes ‘floppy’. So in cases where you have a very old string that starts to buzz on the lower frets or begins to smack the wood, when it never used to before, then it is probably just getting old, and its time to replace the old baby. Now, if you buy somebody’s used bass and you have what you believe is significant B String floppiness, and you don’t know whether to attribute the problem to String Type or to String Age… well, its probably good to get a new set of strings in any case… make the Bass your own with a shiny new set of strings. And make sure you get a set with a relatively high diameter B string. More than .130 for Flat Wounds, and more than .135 for Rounds. And then, as long as everything sounds fine, you will soon enough get used to larger oscillation swings of your B String… that just means its working right.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Open Letter to the UFO People
This World is in crisis. Control of everything is in the hands of the slightest percentage of people whose only guide and compass for their behavior is their own greedy self-interest, driving them to increase their own relative wealth by continuously increasing their levels of exploitation of both the Environment and their Fellow Man. Humanity has thus been vanquished and enslaved, and the World consigned to plunder. It will only end when every Being has been ground down to nothing, and every resource entirely exhausted. Then the last man standing will be able to declare himself the Winner of what had been a Grand Competition. You see, our System, if it can be so briefly described, is all about Competition. Of Billions of People, only one Winner will emerge, and everyone else will have to take the hind-most. The only consolation for the Losers will be that the Winner will be left with nothing much more than a cinder – a spent Planet in ruins and chaos.
Yes, of course, the People of this World should be able to perceive their own problems and arrive at their own solutions. We shouldn’t have to ask UFO People for help. The problem arises that the very people who are thinking clearly – thinking only of the Public Good without the burdens and blind-spots of self-interest and personal agenda – such people are effectively marginalized and silenced. What we have in this World is a situation where upwards of 90% of the Propaganda Media is owned and directed by just two extremely wealthy individuals. Obviously the Policy they seek to advance is the maintenance of the exactly the kind of Anarchy which allows two private individuals to buy up for themselves 90% of the World’s Propaganda Media. And then, most of the remaining 10% of the Propaganda Media is caught up in binding business partnerships which require adherence to the same anarchistic policies of the Majority Holders. Given the situation, we cannot expect that the Public would be so very well informed, either in regards to the Truth of purported Events, the ‘News’, or in regards to the span and possibilities of the choices they could be making.
Of course, in reference to our own History, and in what we can still discern from the News that they do concede to give us, we should still be able to piece together for ourselves a viable direction to take. But most people are tricked by being presented with just a few false choices. The Slave Drivers and the Plunders labor to present alternatives that seem worse than even Slave Drivers and Plunders – mostly they succeed by calling everybody else exactly what they are themselves. It’s the Burglar who allays suspicion by yelling “Stop Thief!” himself.
People who are able to arrive at the Truth themselves, well, as I’ve said before, they’re marginalized. No publishing company will publish them. No University, now controlled by Wealthy Alumni Groups, will take them on in Academia. Civilized Public Rationalism has been driven into Exile. ‘Freedom of Speech’ is now confined to some fairly narrow Corporate-Friendly limits.
This is where you UFO People could make a huge difference. You UFO People could bust wide open through the presentation of limited False Choices, and provide a Real, True, Proven, and Time-tested Alternative. You UFO People could provide a compelling glimpse of your own History, and an outline of your own Socio-Economic Institutions, that is, how you became Civilized, and how you managed to stay that way.
Yes, yes… it is obvious that you UFO People at one time or another signed some sort of a “Non-Interference” agreement. Well, while that may be true, is there any reason why you should honor such an agreement more stringently than the Earthlings you signed with. Why not do as the Earthlings themselves would – violate the agreement and leave it to some Court settle it. Screw the Contract, get a good Lawyer, and buy the Judge. Yes, it’s absolutely charming that you hold yourself to a higher ethical and moral Standard than your Partners in this Conspiracy of Silence. But they are probably just laughing at you for it. They’d never be so guilty of such naiveté.
Yes, I heard a rumor that you UFO People had once tried something close to ‘Interference’ before, and were burned for it. The World Governments were annoyed that there was so much UFO probing going on – people ‘abducted’ for study, and animals dissected and analyzed, and then just left to mysteriously rot away in the fields – it was all arousing so much suspicion that it was decided that you UFO People had violated the Non-Interference Clause of your Agreement, and sanctions were implemented. I heard a couple squadrons of Jet Bombers obliterated the Base that had been allocated for your use. Apparently they were also testing your defenses. Despite your advanced Technologies the guess was good that you UFO People did not prioritize bringing very many Weapon’s Systems with you in your odyssey across the Galaxy. We were able to figure out that you UFO People travel light. So, you are defenseless and everybody knows it. My guess is that you retreated to Deep Sea Bases that are a bit more difficult to detect and attack.
It also makes me wonder whether the losses you sustained in that Attack have permanently embittered you toward Humanity… something that the Governing Earthlings may have been counting on… an effective guarantee that you UFO People would continue to mind your own business, without any bothersome sympathies for the People of this damned World. A few people made you Enemies and attacked you so that you would hate us All. Please, I would hope you would reconsider. We are not all that bad. Many of us do not even Vote.
Anyway, we can stipulate to your reluctance to interfere in the Affairs of the World. But you need to remember that in all of this, you UFO People have now been here long enough to have some Standing… some Say… in what goes on. As it is, this World is now entirely regulated by the Push-Pull of various Special Interests, so why should your own Special Interest in all of these affairs count for nothing? How can it be to your own benefit that this Planet be plundered and destroyed by a relatively small band of ruthless Barbarian?
So, honestly speaking, as we say, the ball is in your court… it’s your move. Believe me, if your intention is to Help, than certainly nobody could possibly have grounds to blame you for speaking up.
And the Window of Opportunity is only open for a Moment. Now, this minute, the World Wide Web is still almost entirely unrestricted for most Computer Users. The Media Propaganda Companies have not yet figured out how to restrict it for just their own select Content. But it is only a matter of time until the Big Search Engines are fined tuned enough to isolate and reject, or ‘last page’ what it sees as contrary to the Accepted Media Propaganda. The time to act was Yesterday. Today is only second best but we must hurry.
What can you do? Well, three things. First, prove to everybody that you exist. Second, provide a viable example for our budding Civilization. And Third,… well, I’ll get to that.
Proving that you really exist is important. As it stands, the Powers that Be have been able to marginalize, ruin, discredit or otherwise silence anybody coming forward with information regarding your Existence. People are honestly afraid to speak seriously about the UFO People out of fear for their careers and professional standing. In one case I heard of the Government simply withdrawing all the identification, career and education credentials, and credit history of a certain individual. One day he was a Respected Scientist speaking out about UFO People, and the next he was reduced to being a penniless and homeless man, living on the street, begging his meals. It didn’t matter what he said… everybody figured he was crazy. The same trick works every time.
But if you UFO People were to make a sudden, concerted and deliberately large Show of yourselves, before the largest Urban Centers, and before the largest possible crowds, then the Method of Discreditation would no longer work… they can’t throw everybody on the street… at least not all at once. Yes, the Media would definitely go into a Frenzy of trying to prove to everybody that they did not really see what they saw, claiming mass hysteria or video projections tricks behind it all, and many people who are conditioned to believe the TV before they believe their own two eyes would be swayed into discrediting themselves. But if your UFO “Unveiling” is accomplished on a large enough scale, and everybody gets to See, then it would end in the decision that the People who still refuse to believe, that they are the new Crazy Ones.
Once your Existence is no longer questioned, then you could add your Voice to the Grand Debate – what is it to be a Civilized and Moral Being, and how does a collection of People come together to create a durable, sustainable, and yet still enjoyable Civilization. As I suggested at the top of this essay, you UFO People could publish On Line, while you still have a chance, a History of your Civilization and Blue Print of your Social, Economic and Governmental Institutions. Of course, if your Civilization is upwards to 50 Million Year Old then any detailed History would seem to go on endlessly. But in any case, selection and editing would have to cut down the bulk of it all to some reasonable length. How much? I would suggest 10 Volumes of about a 1000 Pages each. That would be 10,000 Pages. Most people can read 200 pages a week in their spare time without being excessively burdened, and at 200 pages a week one could read 10,000 pages in a year. It would help if the content, as much as possible, could be kept pithy and interesting – a lot of heroic characters doing and saying clever things – after all, we would want people to be able to feel some connection and sympathy with the Ten Volumes. This would without a doubt break through the Limited Choices problem now stifling our Intellectual Debates. Given the Solidity and Certainty of your Civilization, the Ways and Means of your Civilization could no longer be ignored out of some sense of Political Correctness – that anything not entirely good for Rich People is bad for Everybody.
The Third Thing… well, that is a special favor. So that the Ten Volumes will have some relatively rapid influence, it would probably be wise to publish it first in the most common vernacular Languages – English, Mandarin, Portuguese, Spanish, French, German, Russian, Japanese, Korean… to name a few. But the greatest coup would be to have the Ten Volumes published in a Universal Language. It could be Your Language, providing Human tongues could wrap around it, or it could be an Intelligent Language created out of the wealth of the World’s already most prevalent languages… but with consistent rules, no ‘irregular’ verbs, and easy spelling.
Ever since the Tower of Babel Humanity has been divided by competing languages, jealous of their position and relative influence. One Language, presented as a Gift from outside, showing no favoritism to any particular group or nation, would be a veritable God-Send. The Foundation of a One World Civilization would be a One World Language.
Also, there would be a great many Interests out to discredit the Ten Volumes as some kind of contrived fiction – a huge fraud. But given a New Universal Language, with Reference Materials of course to aid in translation and study, then any opposing Interest Group would have a difficult time of it trying to equate the Scale of such an Accomplishment to being a merely just an On Line Trick. Yes, while some diligent crackpot somewhere could write a pile of books, and even get them translated somehow, it would be virtually impossible to do the same with a unique and comprehensive Language… not without some very extensive Institutionalized Resources. With all of our Spies, Police, and Intelligence Agents – Public and Private – it would soon become clear to everybody who had the means to check that no Human Office generated such content. .
Anyway, perhaps it will all help us to turn the corner and become a better World and a better People. We too can arrive at being Civilized – Moral and Caring People living in a Sustainable Way in a Healthy World. We just might need a little outside help in getting there.
Yes, of course, the People of this World should be able to perceive their own problems and arrive at their own solutions. We shouldn’t have to ask UFO People for help. The problem arises that the very people who are thinking clearly – thinking only of the Public Good without the burdens and blind-spots of self-interest and personal agenda – such people are effectively marginalized and silenced. What we have in this World is a situation where upwards of 90% of the Propaganda Media is owned and directed by just two extremely wealthy individuals. Obviously the Policy they seek to advance is the maintenance of the exactly the kind of Anarchy which allows two private individuals to buy up for themselves 90% of the World’s Propaganda Media. And then, most of the remaining 10% of the Propaganda Media is caught up in binding business partnerships which require adherence to the same anarchistic policies of the Majority Holders. Given the situation, we cannot expect that the Public would be so very well informed, either in regards to the Truth of purported Events, the ‘News’, or in regards to the span and possibilities of the choices they could be making.
Of course, in reference to our own History, and in what we can still discern from the News that they do concede to give us, we should still be able to piece together for ourselves a viable direction to take. But most people are tricked by being presented with just a few false choices. The Slave Drivers and the Plunders labor to present alternatives that seem worse than even Slave Drivers and Plunders – mostly they succeed by calling everybody else exactly what they are themselves. It’s the Burglar who allays suspicion by yelling “Stop Thief!” himself.
People who are able to arrive at the Truth themselves, well, as I’ve said before, they’re marginalized. No publishing company will publish them. No University, now controlled by Wealthy Alumni Groups, will take them on in Academia. Civilized Public Rationalism has been driven into Exile. ‘Freedom of Speech’ is now confined to some fairly narrow Corporate-Friendly limits.
This is where you UFO People could make a huge difference. You UFO People could bust wide open through the presentation of limited False Choices, and provide a Real, True, Proven, and Time-tested Alternative. You UFO People could provide a compelling glimpse of your own History, and an outline of your own Socio-Economic Institutions, that is, how you became Civilized, and how you managed to stay that way.
Yes, yes… it is obvious that you UFO People at one time or another signed some sort of a “Non-Interference” agreement. Well, while that may be true, is there any reason why you should honor such an agreement more stringently than the Earthlings you signed with. Why not do as the Earthlings themselves would – violate the agreement and leave it to some Court settle it. Screw the Contract, get a good Lawyer, and buy the Judge. Yes, it’s absolutely charming that you hold yourself to a higher ethical and moral Standard than your Partners in this Conspiracy of Silence. But they are probably just laughing at you for it. They’d never be so guilty of such naiveté.
Yes, I heard a rumor that you UFO People had once tried something close to ‘Interference’ before, and were burned for it. The World Governments were annoyed that there was so much UFO probing going on – people ‘abducted’ for study, and animals dissected and analyzed, and then just left to mysteriously rot away in the fields – it was all arousing so much suspicion that it was decided that you UFO People had violated the Non-Interference Clause of your Agreement, and sanctions were implemented. I heard a couple squadrons of Jet Bombers obliterated the Base that had been allocated for your use. Apparently they were also testing your defenses. Despite your advanced Technologies the guess was good that you UFO People did not prioritize bringing very many Weapon’s Systems with you in your odyssey across the Galaxy. We were able to figure out that you UFO People travel light. So, you are defenseless and everybody knows it. My guess is that you retreated to Deep Sea Bases that are a bit more difficult to detect and attack.
It also makes me wonder whether the losses you sustained in that Attack have permanently embittered you toward Humanity… something that the Governing Earthlings may have been counting on… an effective guarantee that you UFO People would continue to mind your own business, without any bothersome sympathies for the People of this damned World. A few people made you Enemies and attacked you so that you would hate us All. Please, I would hope you would reconsider. We are not all that bad. Many of us do not even Vote.
Anyway, we can stipulate to your reluctance to interfere in the Affairs of the World. But you need to remember that in all of this, you UFO People have now been here long enough to have some Standing… some Say… in what goes on. As it is, this World is now entirely regulated by the Push-Pull of various Special Interests, so why should your own Special Interest in all of these affairs count for nothing? How can it be to your own benefit that this Planet be plundered and destroyed by a relatively small band of ruthless Barbarian?
So, honestly speaking, as we say, the ball is in your court… it’s your move. Believe me, if your intention is to Help, than certainly nobody could possibly have grounds to blame you for speaking up.
And the Window of Opportunity is only open for a Moment. Now, this minute, the World Wide Web is still almost entirely unrestricted for most Computer Users. The Media Propaganda Companies have not yet figured out how to restrict it for just their own select Content. But it is only a matter of time until the Big Search Engines are fined tuned enough to isolate and reject, or ‘last page’ what it sees as contrary to the Accepted Media Propaganda. The time to act was Yesterday. Today is only second best but we must hurry.
What can you do? Well, three things. First, prove to everybody that you exist. Second, provide a viable example for our budding Civilization. And Third,… well, I’ll get to that.
Proving that you really exist is important. As it stands, the Powers that Be have been able to marginalize, ruin, discredit or otherwise silence anybody coming forward with information regarding your Existence. People are honestly afraid to speak seriously about the UFO People out of fear for their careers and professional standing. In one case I heard of the Government simply withdrawing all the identification, career and education credentials, and credit history of a certain individual. One day he was a Respected Scientist speaking out about UFO People, and the next he was reduced to being a penniless and homeless man, living on the street, begging his meals. It didn’t matter what he said… everybody figured he was crazy. The same trick works every time.
But if you UFO People were to make a sudden, concerted and deliberately large Show of yourselves, before the largest Urban Centers, and before the largest possible crowds, then the Method of Discreditation would no longer work… they can’t throw everybody on the street… at least not all at once. Yes, the Media would definitely go into a Frenzy of trying to prove to everybody that they did not really see what they saw, claiming mass hysteria or video projections tricks behind it all, and many people who are conditioned to believe the TV before they believe their own two eyes would be swayed into discrediting themselves. But if your UFO “Unveiling” is accomplished on a large enough scale, and everybody gets to See, then it would end in the decision that the People who still refuse to believe, that they are the new Crazy Ones.
Once your Existence is no longer questioned, then you could add your Voice to the Grand Debate – what is it to be a Civilized and Moral Being, and how does a collection of People come together to create a durable, sustainable, and yet still enjoyable Civilization. As I suggested at the top of this essay, you UFO People could publish On Line, while you still have a chance, a History of your Civilization and Blue Print of your Social, Economic and Governmental Institutions. Of course, if your Civilization is upwards to 50 Million Year Old then any detailed History would seem to go on endlessly. But in any case, selection and editing would have to cut down the bulk of it all to some reasonable length. How much? I would suggest 10 Volumes of about a 1000 Pages each. That would be 10,000 Pages. Most people can read 200 pages a week in their spare time without being excessively burdened, and at 200 pages a week one could read 10,000 pages in a year. It would help if the content, as much as possible, could be kept pithy and interesting – a lot of heroic characters doing and saying clever things – after all, we would want people to be able to feel some connection and sympathy with the Ten Volumes. This would without a doubt break through the Limited Choices problem now stifling our Intellectual Debates. Given the Solidity and Certainty of your Civilization, the Ways and Means of your Civilization could no longer be ignored out of some sense of Political Correctness – that anything not entirely good for Rich People is bad for Everybody.
The Third Thing… well, that is a special favor. So that the Ten Volumes will have some relatively rapid influence, it would probably be wise to publish it first in the most common vernacular Languages – English, Mandarin, Portuguese, Spanish, French, German, Russian, Japanese, Korean… to name a few. But the greatest coup would be to have the Ten Volumes published in a Universal Language. It could be Your Language, providing Human tongues could wrap around it, or it could be an Intelligent Language created out of the wealth of the World’s already most prevalent languages… but with consistent rules, no ‘irregular’ verbs, and easy spelling.
Ever since the Tower of Babel Humanity has been divided by competing languages, jealous of their position and relative influence. One Language, presented as a Gift from outside, showing no favoritism to any particular group or nation, would be a veritable God-Send. The Foundation of a One World Civilization would be a One World Language.
Also, there would be a great many Interests out to discredit the Ten Volumes as some kind of contrived fiction – a huge fraud. But given a New Universal Language, with Reference Materials of course to aid in translation and study, then any opposing Interest Group would have a difficult time of it trying to equate the Scale of such an Accomplishment to being a merely just an On Line Trick. Yes, while some diligent crackpot somewhere could write a pile of books, and even get them translated somehow, it would be virtually impossible to do the same with a unique and comprehensive Language… not without some very extensive Institutionalized Resources. With all of our Spies, Police, and Intelligence Agents – Public and Private – it would soon become clear to everybody who had the means to check that no Human Office generated such content. .
Anyway, perhaps it will all help us to turn the corner and become a better World and a better People. We too can arrive at being Civilized – Moral and Caring People living in a Sustainable Way in a Healthy World. We just might need a little outside help in getting there.
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