I've been meaning to write and tell everyone how delighted I was with my new Ashbory. It's raised a lot of interest in my band - some people had heard of them, some hadn't. All are keen to try playing it. Some have found it a bit small, others are compiling lists of songs they think I ought to learn for it, and more than one band member is interested in getting their own.
So... on Sunday we had a small very informal gig in a town hall not far away, and I thought it would be good to take the Ashbory along. I put it in the gig bag and then Brock's words about the G string liking to break in the bag came to mind. I took it out again, grabbed the G tuner and whisked it round a couple of times. ZAP! Not only did it break, it zapped my left thumb. Fortunately the only digit that does not play an active role in my right handed bass playing.
I was astonished at how short the string is once it was broken. I had noticed before that the string tension in the G is way higher than the other strings. It seems likely that it was cut by the nut as I was carelessly unwinding it. So I will be a lot more careful about winding and unwinding from now on. If the nut (and maybe the bridge too) are culprits in breaking strings, has anyone considered changing the profile to eliminate sharp edges ? Or putting a layer of something under the string at the bridge and nut ? Or finding another string material that works at a lower tension ?
As my other basses are 5's, I've also considered lowering all strings to B, E, A, D. However I don't want to lose the top string. Did anyone ever get a 5 string Ashbory ?
