What Strings Are Doing it For You?

[FinnDave 2,734]

2 hours ago, Sibob said:

I"m currently all La Bella, best strings I've ever played:

760FL on my 71 Precision
760FS on my upcoming Lakland 44-64 (had La Bella send strings direct to Lakland for me)
760F-MUS on my Mustang 
Gold White Nylons on my Lakland 55-01
RX Nickels on my Lakland 44-94 & ACG 6er

Si

Both my six string basses have LaBella FLs and I play with a pick - perfect sound for what I play (Grateful Dead tribute band)

[LiamPodmore 52]

Elixir Stainless on my P bass, nickels on my 5 string, and i've recently tried a set of D'Addario EXL115's on my electric and absolutely hate them. Will be putting another set of Elixirs on there very soon.

[project_c 473]

NYXL on my MIJ jazz, HiBeams on the active jazz dlx (which I mainly play passive), HiBeams on my fretless PJ with Quarter Pounders, DAddario tapes on both my Tony Franklin fretted and my 83 P. I love the sound of DAddario tapes more than any other strings, especially when they’re new, but I’m going through a bit of a roundwound / tone-almost-off phase recently. 

[Jus Lukin 2,609]

I'm waiting for Status or The Bass Centre to start making 45-105 half-rounds again...

[knirirr 173]

MIJ Fender Jazz: Rotosound Jazz Bass 77 flatwounds, medium.
Fretless Jazz from various non-Fender parts: Labella copper white nylon, light.

These strings feel and sound quite different but each seems to suit the instrument on which they are fitted. I am particularly pleased with the nylon ones - I only heard about such things recently and was initially unsure but they work well on the fretless bass.

 

 

 

 

Edited October 19, 2018 by knirirr

[la bam 849]

Rotosound 77 flatwounds for me in a 40-100 scale.

lovely.

[Shambo 207]

Used to swear by the heaviest Labella flats. Loved 'em, loved 'em, loved 'em on my S1 Jazz. Smooth, creamy, full bass and not too stiff one you've gotten used to them.

Then I sold the Jazz and was Labellaless for a couple of years.

Got a jap Jazz this year and bought a Ki0gon series/parallel loom, intent on recreating my old S1 Jazz feel. The music store I got the strings from had the best prices for, well most strings tbh, (musicstore.de), so I bought two packs of Jamersons plus a pack of Thomastiks as well to reach the £100 free shipping threshold.

Thought I'd try the Thomastiks on first and, well... loved 'em, loved 'em, loved 'em. Haven't taken them off yet and probably never will. Lovely feel, lovely tone and more articulate than the Labellas.

I sold one unopened pack and kept the other Labella for future use... which was this weekend when I fitted them to a CV Precision. Turns out I still love them as well.

I'm not a roundwound fan as you might have gathered but I did like the Bacchus roundwounds that came on the Jazz, but they're hard to find.

tl;dr? Thomastik Jazz & Labella 'Jamersons' flats and also Bacchus roundwounds.

[markdavid 81]

Have yet to find a set that I have settled on but the 2 sets I really like so far are TI Jazz flats and the Shortscale version of Rotosound flatwounds, much lower tension than the long-scale version and sound really thick and meaty.

[loveboatcaptain 4]

If anyone wants a set of DR sunbeams brand new in box 100-45, message me

£25 posted

[Jono Bolton 115]

I'm using Fender 9050Ms; they're 55-105 gauge flatwounds but by Christ they feel a lot heavier. They're not unenjoyable to play, and a bit brighter than flats I've had in the past, but I can't quite get the action as low as I did when I had lighter gauge rounds on.

[mangotango 347]

I've been using Rotosound Swings on all of my bass guitars.....because it was the easy option. However, one of my basses is newly fretless and I'm bothered about fingerboard wear. 

When I had a fretless all those years ago, I used D'Addario half-rounds and they worked fine. However, in those days I had two basses - a 4 string bass guitar and Double Bass. Choices were pretty easy.

Nowadays, there are a lot more options. And I'm struggling to wade through all of the different choices. Please note: I use TI strings on my jazz guitars, and for bass have used Rotosound Trubass, and D'Addario Chromes before, so I have an idea of the quality involved.

So could I ask you please for your recommendations for the following:-

*   Bass Collection SB 5-string active bass, 2 x J p/ups - need a bright, attack-y sound as I slap as well as plucking. Rounds obligatory here.

*   Fernandes Gravity 5 string passive deftretted bass, 2 x J p/ups  - looking for brightness but with upper-middle-y presence and plenty of warmth (no slapping going on here, obviously!). Maybe half-rounds or very bright flats, to avoid chewing up the fingerboard?

*   Bass Collection SB 4-string passive bass, P/J configuration - rumbly warmth needed here. Again, possibly half-rounds?

*   Aria SB-04 Electric Upright Bass - mostly played pizzicato but intend to use bow occasionally (when I become good enough!) Quite middle-y sound wanted in order to cut through keys and horns, but versatile enough to sound old school when needed. Not sure what's on there at the moment, to be honest!

Ladeez an' gennulmen - start your (search) engines!!

[ForestPoetry 36]

EB Cobalt Power Slinkies if I have the cash to spare. Failing that, Roto Swing Bass.

[Delberthot 831]

On 13/10/2018 at 14:26, Delberthot said:

I'm finding the current D'addario EXL220BT strings too low tension and fancied a change so I've ordered myself a set of Fender 7250ML strings. Going to see for myself if the rumours are true that it is D'addario that make them. Worth a punt at £12.80 for a set delivered from Amazon when it's £18ish for a set of EXL165s

3 gigs in I'm convinced that these are either EXL165s or are that close as to not be able to tell the difference. The reason that I think this is that I only use the A, D & G from this set with a 110 E D'addario EXL and they all feel and sound consistent and each string as smooth as each other.

I've just put a set of the Fender flats on my Rickenbacker and they feel similar to Chromes but have green silks as opposed to none on the Chromes. I'm going to try it out on Saturday night's gig

Edited November 25, 2018 by Delberthot

[Bridgehouse 5,600]

1 hour ago, Delberthot said:

3 gigs in I'm convinced that these are either EXL165s or are that close as to not be able to tell the difference. The reason that I think this is that I only use the A, D & G from this set with a 110 E D'addario EXL and they all feel and sound consistent and each string as smooth as each other.

I've just put a set of the Fender flats on my Rickenbacker and they feel similar to Chromes but have green silks as opposed to none on the Chromes. I'm going to try it out on Saturday night's gig

You have Chromes with no silks?!

[Delberthot 831]

Now you come to mention it, it's been a while - are they blue?

[RedVee 139]

EB Flatwound Cobalts on my Stingray, Bongo and G&L L-2000. TI Flatwounds on my P Basses and DR Hi Beam Roundwounds on my Jazz Bass. Oh and La Bella White Nylon Tapewounds on my Fender Kingman ABG.

[Ricky 4000 7,617]

Reading this thread with interest. 👍

I see no mention of the Roto' FM66 "Funkmasters" that I've put on my xmas list...?

 

*That's right - Funkmaster!*

😁

[PatrickJ 910]

Just now, Ricky 4000 said:

Reading this thread with interest. 👍

I see no mention of the Roto' FM66 "Funkmasters" that I've put on my xmas list...?

 

*That's right - Funkmaster!*

😁

I'm sold, just because of the name!!  They'd match my Klotz FunkMaster cables 

[Ricky 4000 7,617]

6 minutes ago, PJ-Bassist said:

I'm sold, just because of the name!!  They'd match my Klotz FunkMaster cables 

You'd love them the most!! 

(I'm hoping 30.50.70.90 isn't toooo extremely funky!!!)

[The59Sound 263]

A new set of DR Fat Beams just came through my letterbox. If you want steels that are broken in but still retain all of their SS punch with the flexibility of roundcores then these are perfect. 

[naxos10 264]

Another Newtone user here,  I have them fitted on all my short scale basses. I tend to go for the Platinum nickels with a round core, but you could always talk to them as the customer service is excellent.

[dmccombe7 4,421]

On 13/10/2018 at 14:26, Delberthot said:

I'm finding the current D'addario EXL220BT strings too low tension and fancied a change so I've ordered myself a set of Fender 7250ML strings. Going to see for myself if the rumours are true that it is D'addario that make them. Worth a punt at £12.80 for a set delivered from Amazon when it's £18ish for a set of EXL165s

When i bought my Jazz bass quite a few yrs ago it came with Fender strings and i started putting on the Fender nickel 7250's. Few yrs ago i decided to try others and ended up with the D'addario EXL190's

I've been using Daddario EXL190 Nickel or variations around that gauge but nearly always come back to the 190's. Thought i would go back to the 7250's as i had heard D'addario were making them (if that's true ?). Put them on today and found the feel was actually smoother than the EXL190's but the twang wasn't quite as noticeable with the Fenders. They feel god to play tho and at £12.99 from GAK they are a lot cheaper. I did notice that the G & D strings are slightly more noticeable than the EXL190's Not sure if its a volume thing or just the string tone makes it sound more upfront. Its not a lot and only something i would notice at home but not at a gig. Again its not really obvious across the 4 fender strings but just compared to the D'addarios. 

Curious to see how long they'll last as the EXL190's were on for 3mths altho i wasn't using that particular bass in the band and just at home. My Precision has had EXL190's on for 2mths now and they still sound OK and just starting to go slightly dull. The P bass is the one i use most in my current band.

If they last a minimum of 2mths on my jazz i'll maybe start using them across my basses again.

I do like the D'addarios but when a string is 2/3 the price then its a no brainer for me.

Dave 

[PatrickJ 910]

Since starting this thread I've tried a few string sets, Ernie Ball Slinky Roundwounds, Ernie Ball Cobalt flats, DR Sunbeams, La Bella Deep Bass, D'Addario Chromed etc.

The strings I've liked the most, and by a long way were the EB Cobalt Flats (pink gauge).  This is despite having a string snap on one set (50£ down the pan). I find they are a really nice blend between the advantages of Roundwounds and Flatwounds with not too many compromises.

Not cheap but definitely my string of choice from this day forth 

Edited February 21, 2019 by PJ-Bassist

[itu 933]

I think this thread would be more informational if there were separate questions for:

- gauges (sets or individual strings, like E: 30/35/40/45/XX...)

- material SS/Ni/other

- RW/HR/FW

I am not very good in making a questionnaire that shows percentage of different answers. Who is able to make one?

[danny-79 125]

Stainless Steel Elixirs 50-105 on Stingrays & Bongo. 

Cobalt flats on the Jazz. also 50-105