Decided to buy a set of Aquila polyurethane strings for my U-Bass. As I strung them up to pitch, the "A" string suddenly snapped out of the hole. The wrap-tie on the end of the string had slipped off. I searched through my junk drawer, found another, and put it on as tightly as I could. I was able to pull the string out of it as well. found another, and looped the end, and that felt solid. This is what it looked like, and as a comparison, a new replacement of OEM LaPahoehoe strings are shown next to my fix. As you can see, the OEM strings have much more solid end anchor, with a small red-plastic bushing to help it butt evenly on the underside of the top-and-bridge area. Here's a pic....
After stringing it back up to pitch, a curious thinning of the rubber began... it came up to pitch, but seemed to buzz more than the other strings. Can't help but wonder if the thinned diameter moved more on the saddle as it oscillated, causing it to buzz more readily on the fretboard. Here's two pics of what it looks like...
I've sent these pics back to the eBay seller, but for now I'm going to get a better tie or grommet of some sort, reverse the string from the tuning end, attach my new "anchor" without putting the loop in, tune it up and see if the taper disappears.
Other than this anomaly, the strings feel and sound very good. Maybe this is just a bad section of string coming from the extrusion process. If flipping the string doesn't work, I'll have to see if the seller is willing to send me a replacement. Will let you know how this plays out.....
