My friend just got an Ashbory Bass and is having some fun with it - it sounds awesome! He has had some trouble with tuning in these first few days but he says it is getting a little easier to keep in tune but that aspect is still a bit painful. The guy from 'largesound.com' told him when he ordered the bass to not plan on attending any jams for a couple of weeks because it takes time to get the strings settled into decent tunings. This was 'sound advice' for sure!

Does anybody have any experiences or thoughts they might share about tuning the Ashbory and any thoughts about how long it takes to get some stable tunings?

Pre-stretching the strings before you install them helps a lot. Largesound ships the Ashbory with an instruction sheet that describes the pre-stretching process but it still takes a while for the strings to stretch out. After about a week or so, you might be able to jam if you retune after every couple of songs, maybe you might be able to go a little longer. By then it shouldn't be any worse than trying to jam on mandolin or guitar with a brand new set of strings -- still a pain but not insurmountable. The good news is that the E and A strings last forever and there's no tonal advantage to new ones. The D string will eventually break, sometimes sooner than later, and with the G string you just never know. I find if you they survive the first couple of weeks, they can last months, but they're unpredictable.

Regards,
Art

Art

That helps a lot. He has me playing the Ashbory now and we are getting better tunings already. Your answers help us understand what is happening and we appreciate your help.

Phil

Yup, just give the strings time to settle. Different strings settle at different rates. Tune it up in the morning, tune it before bed.

And keep in in a room with little temp change. I have learned that all of my instruments are fairly stable with their tuning because my Man Cave is near constant 68 degrees.

Phil, glad I could help. These Ashborys are great fun to play and have a really good sound for bluegrass and other acoustic music. One of these days, I'm gonna try the alternative strings which are polyurethane and more durable than the standard silicone strings. When I do, I'll report on them here.

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Originally posted by Roll Player

Phil, glad I could help. These Ashborys are great fun to play and have a really good sound for bluegrass and other acoustic music. One of these days, I'm gonna try the alternative strings which are polyurethane and more durable than the standard silicone strings. When I do, I'll report on them here.

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Edited by - Kemo Sabe on 03/06/2010 11:08:38

Small world indeed! Tell Bob I said hi. One of these days, I want to play his Hatfield. There were a couple of times I was going to and just didn't quite manage to fit it in with all the jamming I was doing.

Art

I finally got around to trying the polyurethane "Pahoehoe" strings on my Ashbory and so far, I'm very happy with them. They sound just fine to me, maybe closer to an upright than the silicone strings and they seem very durable. I haven't recorded with them yet, but I'll post here when I do.

Road Toad Music in San Jose, CA sells these strings. They also make bass ukeleles!