Your string choices over time

[deepbass5]

Hi All

 

I'm just changing strings on my basses having not done so since I stopped playing rock n pop back in Dec 2020. But just started again 😁

 

It got me thinking about how my preferences have changed and how these were influenced often by availability.  From memory this is my journey over the last 40 years. would be interesting to hear yours.

 

My first bass was a 77P I bought off John East in 1979.  He used Roto sound solo. back then they came with with a separate teardrop brass ball end and you had to cut the single bridge wire to length and thread it back on itself to hold in position.

So i stuck with these as long as i could get hold of them, they were pressure wound. and these saw me into the gigging world. These later changed to having conventional ball end as they do today. But also disappeared from sale for a few years.

 

  Music shops around the country never kept a great range of bass strings,  always every guitar string on the planet and just a handful of bass strings 😠

Then Bass center Elites seemed to be marketed hard and these seem to push out other brands so often it was these or nothing, no internet shopping back then. So i went over to them and was quite happy still into Stainless steel. Then i discovered their ground wound which was similar to the Roto pressure wound if not a little rougher. But like all others manufacturers they seem to have blips in supply and I couldn't always get these.

some bass dealing at the Gallery in the 1990's introduced me to GHS strings they also did pressure wound strings. So for some years i ordered through them. As you would never see these or DR out in the Shires.

Then at some point I found Status strings on their site, also doing a ground wound string at very reasonable prices and so ran with these for a few years. But alas they too stopped and from looking at Basschat and basses for sale everyone seemed to be using D'Addario so gave these a try and dipped my toe into the world of Nickle wound string. and with exception of a pack of SIT strings I was sent with a cab purchase have been with D'Addario ever since and very happy.

Would just like to say I have had a couple of special strings made up for my 32" bass by Newtone strings, really nice and great service. If and when you need something special.

 

That's all Over to you guys.

[Steve Browning]

I think the sets I actually bought first were Albion. Then flirted with Dean Markley Blue Steel but soon settled on Rotosound and have been a happy customer since then (probably about 1987). Swing Bass Nickel on the single bass I have that is strung with rounds and Jazz Bass on all the others.

[BigRedX]

My string choices are directly linked to the basses I am using at any given time. I'm not using the same strings that I was when I bought my first bass in 1981 because I'm now playing completely different basses.

[TheGreek]

When I started it was Rotos or Dean Markley - I don't think that there was even a choice of gauges - not in my local shop anyway.

 

I now use flats or tapewounds where possible. They may seen expensive initially but they seem to last forever and I wouldn't be surprised if Noah used them on The Ark in his spare time.

[Lozz196]

Rotosound steel rounds for years, loved the sound of them when worn in.

 

Warwick Red Label steel rounds, in my last band I needed the fresh new string sound and these kept that much better than the Rotos.

 

Elixir steel rounds, play and feel great, out of the pack sound like steel rounds that have been played for a week or two and retain this for about a year.

[TheGreek]

35 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

Warwick Red Label steel rounds, in my last band I needed the fresh new string sound and these kept that much better than the Rotos.

 

...which sell for less than a tenner if you shop around.

 

https://www.bax-shop.co.uk/electric-bass-guitar-strings/warwick-42200-m-red-strings-stainless-steel-4-string-medium-electric-bass-guitar-strings-045-105?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=surfaces&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=18344726315&utm_term=&adgroup=&creative=&gclid=CjwKCAjw69moBhBgEiwAUFCx2Mjm7981Na0i-2luIx5U-Mn01_AM0L7ojkyzI1cvOV_1pvOZkCKzpRoCybYQAvD_BwE

[acidbass]

Flats-wise, I started with TIs and found tension to be much too floppy, so graduated to La Bella Deep Talkin which I have been using for around 10 years.

 

Rounds-wise, I have always been a nickel guy.  The first brand I used was Elixir and then moved to DR Lo Rider.  Back to Elixir now for the lifespan and tone, as I don't really use roundwounds on my basses so it's nice to have a fresh sounding set when they are called upon.

[TheGreek]

I've just looked at the Warwick Black label strings (which used to be around £15) - they've shot up in price to over £20. 

[Pow_22]

Flats wise I've tried pretty much everything - finally settled on Elites for years but the dead E's started becoming more of a problem.  Eventually switched back to Fenders.

 

Rounds wise for years i switched back and forth between DR Fat Beams and Rotosound Solo's.  Eventually when i do use rounds its normally fender 7150 pure nickels

[kodiakblair]

2 hours ago, deepbass5 said:

That's all Over to you guys.

Started out with roundwound. Went a few years with those until I picked up a set of Roto TruBass tapes for £5; that was early 80's when most folks were all about the bright and zingy.

 

Tapes stayed on until 1986 when I got lost in a sea of active basses and roundwound strings. 2014, I bought a single coil P-bass; it got tapes (Status Hotwire) then another single coil bass was bought and strung with TI flats.

 

Don't see a return to roundwound happening again. 

[deepbass5]

My only deviation from my top post was when I got a Status electro and i tried every coated string available clear and black nylon, found the clear to have more bite. sold all the also rans with the bass as they were not on for long. And the other exception is My CS 62 fender P bass that has La Bella flats on, which will probably never be changed.

[Delberthot]

Apart from the odd one-off set here and there, since I was about 16 my strings have been:

 

Rotosound Nexus (the black coating came off the strings)

Elites Nickel (Nathan East Signature set on 5vers)

Ernie Ball Slinkies

D'addario Chromes

D'addario EXL165

Ernie Ball Hybrid Slinkies

[Ed_S]

To begin with, anonymous NPS rounds as fitted in the factory by Yamaha and Jackson.

 

 then, when I became a little more discerning...

D'Addario EXL220-5 NPS

D'Addario EPS220-5 ProSteel

 

 and then, when I moved back to 4s...

D'Addario EPS190 ProSteels or Rotosound SM66 Swing Bass

D'Addario EXL165 NPS

 

 and now I'm back on 5s...

D'Addario EXL170-5 NPS

Ernie Ball Regular Slinky Bass 5 (for the Stingray)

Dunlop Super Bright DBSBN45125 NPS (for the Jazz when stringing through-body)

 

So the boring truth of it is that I started not knowing enough to care, went through a steel rounds phase but eventually came back to NPS to save my frets, and I've moved to slightly thicker sets but not by much.

 

I've tried Fender 9050, D'Addario Chrome and Galli Jazz flats, none of which did it for me. Swore I'd never bother with any more, but just ordered a set of Slinky cobalt flats as a final-final attempt. Fully expect it to be a waste of sixty quid, but we'll see.

 

Tried DR and Elixir rounds, both of which I thought were fine but too expensive for no major benefit. Also tried to save money with a bulk buy of Warwick Red NPS, which was a mistake. Managed to use up most of them now, though, by either putting them on things I was selling, or shoving them in the front pockets of my gigbags on the basis that any string in one piece beats a broken one.

Edited September 30, 2023 by Ed_S
Clarity

[Paul S]

Pretty much everything and anything until abut 5 years ago, when I discovered the joys of TI Jazz Flats.  I have them on all my basses now - I love how they feel, I love how they sound.

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

I have various favourite sets for different basses, arrived at after trying quite a few different sets.

 

Mustangs — D'addario ECB81M Chromes

Precisions — Thomastik Infeld JF344 Flatwounds

Hohner B2A — A 20+ year old set of double ball end Picato flats which will probably last longer than me.

Epiphone Vintage Pro Thunderbirds — Ernie Ball PO2815 Cobalt Flatwounds

Squier Bass IV — LaBella Deep Talkin' Bass VI Flatwounds

Danelectro Longhorn — LaBella Danelecto Deep Talkin' Flatwounds

Kala U-Bass — Galli Flatwounds (Chrome steel wrapped around a nylon core)

Guild Starfire II — Status hotwire medium scale flatwounds (no longer available but I have a spare set)

Edited September 30, 2023 by Jean-Luc Pickguard

[LiamPodmore]

I started on Rotosound from 2007-2009ish, then for a change i switched over to EB Slinkies. Those were the choice for two years but i was killing them very quickly with gigs (my record being 40 minutes) so i gave Elixirs a try. Have only used either nickel or steel nanoweb's since then, other than very recently i've put a set of D'Addario XT's on one bass to try them out. 

 

Always 45-105 with either a 130 or 135 B string for the 5.

[Skybone]

Back in the 80's/90's, I used Rotosound RS66's, 40-90 IIRC, mainly because they were cheap, and readily available in most shops. The quality control was never that great, and they never seemed to last that long. They were cheap though.

 

Tried Elites Stadiums for a while, they were alright, wasn't blown away.

 

Fender Stainless Steels (7350?), were superb. Great sound, lasted for ages and were reasonably priced. Shame that they discontinued them.

 

Warwick Red Label Stainless Steels. Rough and ready, lasted for ages and sounded decent. Cheap & cheerful.

 

Dunlop Stainless Steel were great, on some basses, they sounded ace, on others, they sounded meh.

 

D'Addario Pro Steels, current favourites. Sound ace on the Ric.

[deepbass5]

2 hours ago, Jean-Luc Pickguard said:

I have various favourite sets for different basses, arrived at after trying quite a few different sets.

 

Mustangs — D'addario ECB81M Chromes

Precisions — Thomastik Infeld JF344 Flatwounds

Hohner B2A — A 20+ year old set of double bass Picato flats which will probably last longer than me.

Epiphone Vintage Pro Thunderbirds — Ernie Ball PO2815 Cobalt Flatwounds

Squier Bass IV — LaBella Deep Talkin' Bass VI Flatwounds

Danelectro Longhorn — LaBella Danelecto Deep Talkin' Flatwounds

Kala U-Bass — Galli Flatwounds (Chrome steel wrapped around a nylon core)

Guild Starfire II — Status hotwire medium scale flatwounds (no longer available but I have a spare set)

 

Just wondering what music you and Paul S are playing to go flats on everything. I have flats on my P for Jazz and is also OK for 60's and Motown etc. but I worried enough about mid and top bite for rock and pop to go out and get another 4 string with round wound nickles on that would cut through the mix and band. That was just in case I got into that again which i now have.  So justified my gass   🤘

[chris_b]

Burns Tru Bass 88 black nylon coated strings in the 60's

Rotosound RS66's in the 70's and most of the 80's

Elites from the Bass Centre in the 80's and 90's

DR Lo-Riders, Hi-Beams, in the 00's and 10's

TI flats in the 10's and 20's

D'Addario NYXL in the 20's

 

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

1 hour ago, deepbass5 said:

 

Just wondering what music you and Paul S are playing to go flats on everything. I have flats on my P for Jazz and is also OK for 60's and Motown etc. but I worried enough about mid and top bite for rock and pop to go out and get another 4 string with round wound nickles on that would cut through the mix and band. That was just in case I got into that again which i now have.  So justified my gass   🤘

 

the Cobalt flats on the thunderbirds are surprisingly bright for flats, but my JMJ Mustangs are my main gigging basses currently. The band plays mostly 60s covers such as the who, small faces, kinks etc. I tend to dial in some grit to give the tone a bit of an added edge.

[itu]

Long ago it was Rotosound 606 30-90 SS. Now it has been 40-100 (+120) SS from GHS Long scale + or D'Addario. My basses (including fretlesses) have scales from 33" to 36".

Edited September 30, 2023 by itu

[Jonesy]

When I first started playing I grabbed whatever the local music shop had, Elites and Ernie Ball Slinkies mostly. Then I got into John Entwistle and started using Roto stainless steels, have been using them pretty much ever since. I have set on the Jazz I use in my more aggy band where I want that zing.

 

I use D'Addario XL's when I want a little more even tone from rounds and use them on a P in a blues band. They've been on a year or so and are nicely worn in.

 

I only got into flats about 4 years ago. Started with a Fender set but the tension made them feel like cables to me. TI Jazz flats are amazing, feel great and sound good to me. 

 

I've just picked up a new P and thought I'd try the whole La Bella's and P thing. I went in a bit apprehensive about the tension, but I really like them. Get to try them out at rehearsals this week so am looking forward to that!

[PaulThePlug]

Home Player, and for me it's €£$... especially with a few basses.

Adagio and Olympia are so reasonable if you want to give flats a first try. I also prefer their rounds to Rotosound - feel a lot cleaner and smoother... Basic Roto 45s are as rough as a badgers àŕśè...

[KingBollock]

For a very long time the only strings I used were Rotosound, because they were the only bass strings sold by the guitar shop I worked in when I was a kid. I wasn’t really aware of other brands.

 

Eventually, once I owned more than one bass, I just bought the cheapest strings I could find, and found I rather liked Dunlops.

 

Then I entered a thing that was linked to on BassChat and got sent a five string set of Elixirs. I love ‘em! I’d have never considered spending £50+ on strings before. So they go on my main basses, unless I can’t find them in stock in the gauge I want, in which case I go with D’Addario NYXL (which is what goes on my electric skinny string guitars).

 

My other basses either get used handmedowns or Dunlops.

[police squad]

mostly rotos swing bass

did elites when they were the thing

I had a trade account with Warwick 18 years ago and used their Framus branded strings. Very cheap and very good.

Also had an account with rotosound and used swing bass and their guitar strings. Very good guitar strngs actually

Now as a JHS endorsee, I use Dean Markely guitar strings on my 6 strings but Fender flats on my basses

 

I've also used, Dean Markely Blue steels, they were great

Optima Gold strings, awfully expensive and rubbish really, didn't last vey long despite the hype

Rotosound Spacers for a while, they looked good, felt weird but seemed ok