Is it a crime to put acoustic strings on my electric??

[I play metal]

Stupid question?probably!

But damm,the strings on my acoustic stay crisp and clean for a year on end!!I get max of 3 months on my electric.booo

Any thoughts?

Thx yis'all!!

[Fletcher Lanning]

You can play whatever sounds good on your instrument with your playstyle, but I think you'll find that the acoustic strings are built differently. Electric basses are sensitive to a lot of things in a string that acoustic bass guitars are not sensitive to; and vice versa, acoustic strings need to create a lot more acoustic volume than an electric string does. Electric strings are designed to best interact with magnetic pickups. Acoustic strings also have a lower tension in general. If you find one that sounds good on the opposite instrument, theres no reason not to try, but I don't think they will (generally speaking).

Easiest solution is to string up your electric with the strings that are already on your acoustic and see if it sounds good. You might not want to do the reverse in case your acoustic's bridge can't handle the extra tension.

[bassist4dalord]

Whoa okay calm down. I'm not sure what language this post is in, but I'll do my best...

Acoustic strings are made with phosphor and bronze. These metals sound great on an acoustic instrument because of how full they sound. Acoustic-electric instruments typically have a piezo pickup under the bridge. This differs from an electric in that the sound is NOT picked up magnetically.

If you were to put acoustic strings on your electric bass, you would have a drastic decrease in volume. Your electric bass's pickups are looking for magnetic metals (such as nickel and steel) to pick up on.

So no, it's not a crime, but it will sound like garbage.

Hope this helps.

[I play metal]

thx guys.Makes sense....generally what I though also.Just kinda tempting to try.My acoustic kinda has the tone I crave.But u you cant turn rock into gold haha

But I see your point for sure.Thx alot..

BTW...gonna try anyway for the he*ll of it.

hooowaaa

[PB&J]

Not a crime but the tone might be a little sketchy without a piezo. I had an old Ibanez with a piezo and experimented with trying this. It sounded absolutely fantastic on the piezo however the tone was horrific on the normal magnetic pickups. Acoustic strings (especially bass) are just not designed for use with magnetic pickups but feel free to experiment. I managed to find a nice growly tone by blending the piezo and the bridge jazz pup and who knows, depending on the brand of strings and your pickup configuration you could find a really unique tone.

[JTE]

bassit4dalord is right and there's no conjecture there.

If your acoustic bass has bronze strings, they won't have enough magnetically active metal to get a good sound out of them. Electric bass strings have steel and/or nickle combinations so the create an electric current in the coils of the pickups. Bronze strings don't need that so the wrap wires are chose for their impact on acoustic sound. Putting bronze strings on an electric bass means the bass will only pick up the movement of the core wires through the magnetic field of the PUP, and that won't generate much signal in the PUP.

John

[Bruce Lindfield]

Some basses have piezos built in though - I used to own a Yamaha TRB 6P which did!