My 36" neck Celinder Jazz Bass Update with Fender style head and 4-1 tuning gear needs extra long scale strings, so I bought this. And being a 5 string bass with 4-1 tuning machine design, the longest string needed is the D-string. On my bass, the winding on the D-string stops short before making enough rounds on the tuning pin to get a solid grip, thus making it almost impossible to have a stable tuning. Now, on the Elixir outer casing the label says 4 extra long scale strings. The case inner sleeves though says long scale on the A, D and G strings, but extra long scale on E string.
Thomann says this is normal, and Elixir says this is how all their extra long scale sets are. This makes no sense to me?
E string would most often require the shortest length on most bassguitars, right?
To complete the confusion, Elixir use the term "useable length" about strings which is in fact the part with thickest surrounding winding from the bridge to just after the saddle. In a chart showing all extra long scale sets, the longest useable string is the G string (labelled long scale) and not the E string (labelled extra long scale).
This makes sense for a 4 string Jazz Bass where longest needed string is actually the G string. Then why the label long scale?
And most importantly to me: which brand can actually provide me with a D string with long enough winding?