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>>That's what I'm after. What string guages do you use?
Nik<<
bottom four of a five string set, so 130/105/85/65 sort of thing. the thicker the better in terms of preserving the tone, but there are some trade-offs.
I've done all this stuff to a fender p, a fender p with a jazz neck, an ibanez musician & a tokai fretless jazz. these are some of the major issues:
actual playability,
pickup-pull
(wolf-notes, the guitar tech books call this- it sounds like mild ring modulation. in any case, you'll have to back the pickups away from the fat string because the extra mass makes it louder),
the bend-angle over the bridge saddle (especially since this latter has to be pulled right back to correct the intonation of the fat string, often as far as it can go. this may lead you to shimming the neck, if it's a bolt-on, to reduce the problem of the bridge height.... you'll need a shim at the front-edge of the neck pocket so that the neck is angled slightly away from you as you play. this enables the bridge saddles to be set lower overall for the same action, & thus reduces the break-angle of the strings over the saddles),
the string height at the nut
(you may have to open up the slot a bit- think long & hard about this on any "vintage" instrument),
the truss rod adjustment
(if you go for a heavier string for the B to preserve the tone, take the others up a notch too or you'll risk twisting the neck whatever you do with the truss rod. go 5 heavier across the board. I may be worrying unneccesarily on this point, but I don't like to take chances with 40 year old timber!),
the overall tension on the neck won't be much greater, but you may need to relax the truss rod to let the string "breathe" across the fingerboard as it vibrates.... the string excursions, as leo described them, are that bit greater. so, more neck relief than usual is required.
the wrap around the tuning post.
'pon this latter- I've always felt that "regular" long-scale strings, designed for 33-34" scale basses, are too long. there's too much of the wound part & not enough of the end bit with the silk round it. especially on fenders & especially on the low E, I find that I'm wrapping the fat part of the string round the peg & the silky bit has all but disappeared.
steve lawson has a great deal more experience than I do in terms of "playing out" with these low tunings, & some of his findings or opinions may fly in the face of the "pure physics" take on this.
a lighter string certainly seems to work better as you use less & less of it (i.e. as you play higher up the neck). but for recording purposes, I tend to have worked out a part that stays below the E on the B string, & thus I prefer a heavier string so that I get a nice fat tone.
ideally, one would have fender's custom shop make a nice b-width precision neck with 35" scale. it would still just about fit in a normal case, but it would carry the lower string/tuning that little bit more convincingly.
as usual, with all the above, ymmv.
duncan.
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