Strings for Warwick Alien?

[4000]

A couple of years back or so I bought a used Warwick Alien 4 string acoustic Rockbass from Promenade Music in Morecambe. I think it's an older one, made in Vietnam, with a neck like the early Thumbs (i.e. like a pencil), far slimmer than  the later ones I've played/owned. Medium scale (32"), obviously. 

I bought some new Warwick Red Label bronze strings some time ago to replace the ones on there but the gauge is heavier than the ones it came with (45-105 compared to approx 40-100)and they don't intonate correctly. As there's no intonation adjustment as such I assume whoever had it originally had the necessary work done on the bridge to allow the current strings to intonate, as I'm pretty sure they're lighter than what it would have come with. I've currently put the old ones back on but they won't last forever. Unfortunately I have no idea what make they are and I've been struggling to find 40-100 gauge bronze in medium scale.

Anyone have any suggestions, or had any experience cutting down long scales?  Another thought was possibly fitting flats. Does anyone have any experience fitting approx 40-100 gauge flats to an Alien? With flats typically costing so much more I'd be reluctant to find out the hard way that they don't intonate correctly. 

 

 

 

[4000]

Anybody?

[Monkey Steve]

Bit of googling shows that new Aliens come with the Warwick Red bronze strings, and that they only really come in 45 - 105, so I'm puzzled that yours was correctly set up for 40 - 100, as that's quite a bit of work to do to change the intonation on an acoustic - essentially moving the bridge.

No matter, however it's happened, if you want to put 40's on it you can simply use long scale ones.  There's no intrinsic difference beyond the amount of extra metal you'll have to deal with at the head end

[4000]

Thanks Steve. Puzzled me too, for the same reason. I've just tried the lower couple of strings from a set of 40-100 Roto steels on it and they seem to intonate ok, although they were more of a struggle to sort out at the headstock end. The strings it came with taper before the tuner (possibly suggesting they're actually medium scale strings), whereas the Rotos don't really and it gets a bit tight there. May be workable though, although I'm not sure it helps any with regards to flats. May have to just bite the bullet. 

[Monkey Steve]

I’ll typically cut my strings so that I only have a couple of winds on them, and all my basses are long scale.  I’ll bend them to a right angle and cut after the bend...no idea why,I must have read it like 30 years ago as being something to do if you’re cutting the end off strings.  Anyway, works fine if you need to shorten the strings

Edited June 21, 2019 by Monkey Steve

[Stub Mandrel]

59 minutes ago, Monkey Steve said:

I’ll bend them to a right angle and cut after the bend...no idea why,

I wondered too, but saw a video recently that says this stops the wrap unwinding and losing tension -  a major cause of 'dead strings'.

[4000]

15 hours ago, Monkey Steve said:

I’ll typically cut my strings so that I only have a couple of winds on them, and all my basses are long scale.  I’ll bend them to a right angle and cut after the bend...no idea why,I must have read it like 30 years ago as being something to do if you’re cutting the end off strings.  Anyway, works fine if you need to shorten the strings

Yeah, I’ve always done this too.

The problem with using long scale strings on a shorter scale is it often means the tapered part at the end, which normally goes round the tuner, isn’t where it should be, so you end up wrapping the full thickness of the string round the tuner, which makes it a bit clumsy. Of course this differs from manufacturer to manufacturer. 

I’ve actually found some Warwick black nylon wound medium scale 40-100 online but only available from Europe; can’t seem to find them here, and shipping was about £9, which is a pain. Dunlop also do some medium scale 40-100 flat wound, but they’re £45, which is a bit steep if they don’t work or I don’t like ‘em.