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Lose the groove light strings?


YouMa

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After a major period of losing bass mojo and nearly given up I switched to heavier strings thinking I would try anything. Went to a regular guage and everything seems to be coming back. Anybody else had this? I always assumed lighter strings would improve my playing but using heavier seems almost easier like the bass is driving itself a bit.

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Lighter strings in general are better with a lighter touch but can feel more “grabby” and hit the frets a bit more when played hard. 
Heavier strings will be higher tension when tuned up and can play faster.

I find I can play faster nearer the bridge but at the moment I’m playing TI flats mostly which are really low tension. 
That’s my experience anyway. 
 

 

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I  find the bounce has gone with lighter strings. They tend to rattle more as well with low action. I have girls hands so was surprised that they seem to help with lighter touch. It's a nice bonus that my six string guitar strings feels like playing air after working out on heavier strings. I have a feeling for the 70 80s funk and fusion that I tend to play is easier performed on non light strings. Think I got stuck in a Wooten trap. 

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2 hours ago, Bunion said:

Lighter strings in general are better with a lighter touch

 

I play with a very light touch and find the opposite: strings that are heavy enough to be quite stiff scarcely need to be struck to produce a rich resonant sound. If I try lighter strings, I find I have to go into them harder to find some character.

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I just can't play with light strings. 

Well I can if I had to but blah blah blah. 

My tone is heavy strings plucked hard. I just seem to lose 'my tone' when I play lightly with light strings. 

As has been mentioned early in this thread, they don't seem to bounce  and I find it much harder work to play fast without digging in. I can still dig in and rattle them off the frets if needed, softly for a mellow tone, or just normally (for me). 

I dare say I could adjust over time but heavy strings played hard give me a real solid tone, and as they say, if it ain't broke. 

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There is a remarkable difference to sound in string gauges. Years ago I used to use Rotosound steel rounds, 50-110 and at a time when I needed some new strings only 45-105s available. It seemed that although the notes were clearer in the mix I’d lost all of my low end.

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I much prefer lighter gauge strings.  My favourites are TI flats.  D'Addario nickel EXL220 or EXL220BT for rounds.  I play with a light touch and I find I can get a deeper tone this way as well as being able to play faster and with more comfort.  I really dislike high tension and heavy strings.  We're all different - obviously!

Frank.

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I find the biggest difference is the flexibility (tension) of the string rather than the gauge. I like the TIs and Galli strings as they're very flexible and have a soft feel on the fingers which suits my style of a playing (and to a certain extent influences the way I play).

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I like lighter strings couse i play with a lighter touch, it let's me play more comfortable. My favourites are D'addario EXL165-5. But obviosly we all think and play differt, do the hard maybe comfortable for different technique players. I think this is non stoppable discussion.

Edited by nilorius
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I normally use 100-45 strings on all my basses but tried a set of 95-35s on my Stingray 4HH. I found I used that bass almost exclusively for years. 
 

The difference I would describe is it made the bass sound far more modern sounding (eg Mark King - but without the level of skill (obviously!!), compared with say, Bernard Edwards, in term of sound).

 

Ive also had a 125 - 40 set (Ernie Ball pink pack roundwounds) on a Stingray 5 for a while and love the sound of that.

 

However I don’t think lighter gauge strings reduce the groove - groove is in the hands of the player. 
 

Clearly these comparisons are based on using Stingray basses which have quite a broad range of sounds anyway - I wouldn't know the difference they’d make say on a Precision. 

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On 01/05/2022 at 14:08, YouMa said:

After a major period of losing bass mojo and nearly given up I switched to heavier strings thinking I would try anything. Went to a regular guage and everything seems to be coming back. Anybody else had this? I always assumed lighter strings would improve my playing but using heavier seems almost easier like the bass is driving itself a bit.

 

Opposite for me. Started with heavy strings, now play and much prefer ultra-lights. Suits my low action and full body ramps better too.

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