String silks/windings

[Thunderbird]

I'm just wondering if anybody knows why nearly all cheap bass strings have silk windings at the ends and also some quite expensive ones have windings too I always thought it was done on expensive strings to make them look better also does anybody else find strings with windings on a bit of a pain cos sometimes the windings don't like certain bridges or nuts etc

Hope that all made sense lol

Edited June 11, 2020 by Thunderbird

[Reggaebass]

I know certain brands use them for identification, and I think the silks help to grip the tuning peg and prevent them from slipping, also I’m pretty sure the silk is wound into flats to prevent them from unwinding,       and on a few occasions I’ve had them go over the bridge saddle and I’ve had to trim them back a bit,  which is not good . 🙂

[Thunderbird]

31 minutes ago, Reggaebass said:

I know certain brands use them for identification, and I think the silks help to grip the tuning peg and prevent them from slipping, also I’m pretty sure the silk is wound into flats to prevent them from unwinding,       and on a few occasions I’ve had them go over the bridge saddle and I’ve had to trim them back a bit,  which is not good . 🙂

Thanks for the answer 

I agree trimming the silks back is a nightmare 

[Reggaebass]

4 minutes ago, Thunderbird said:

I agree trimming the silks back is a nightmare 

Yeah definitely thunderbird, I can’t remember which brand they were now but I didn’t buy them again, there’s a thread on here somewhere about silks, I’ll see if I can find it ☝️

[Thunderbird]

4 minutes ago, Reggaebass said:

Yeah definitely thunderbird, I can’t remember which brand they were now but I didn’t buy them again, there’s a thread on here somewhere about silks, I’ll see if I can find it ☝️

Thanks I did have a look for a thread but couldn't find it hence the new one lol 👍

[WingedWords]

I remember asking my cello teacher about this. A long time ago, but as far as I can remember, she said string manufacturers use different silk windings to distinguish different gauges/tensions/materials etc and also that the winding at the peg end helps the string grip the peg and at the bridge end it helps damp down resonance between bridge and tailpiece. We were talking about strings for the violin family of course. On electric bass strings I suspect it's just to add an appearance of class.

[Si600]

I had to cut the silk off of the b string on the flats I've just fitted, it wouldn't go through either the hole in the bridge or the hole in the body. All the others were fine.