D'Addario CS Rocks...

[doktorfeelgood]

A month or so ago I bought a Twin Pack of D'Addario EXL-220's online from The Perfect Bass. I didn't need to install any new strings on any of my basses at the time, but when I wanted to put a new set of strings on my new Squier VM P-Bass, I finally opened the box. I didn't notice any problems with any of the strings when I opened the package and didn't really look for any problems. I've used D'Addario strings exclusively for over 20 years and have NEVER had any issues whatsoever with their bass strings. Anyway, I got all the strings on and brought all the strings up to tune. Every thing was cool EXCEPT that the E string was flapping around and buzzing off the fretboard so much that I thought the string wasn't up to pitch. I re-checked the tuning and it was right on. And still flapping and buzzing. So I brought the bass into another room that had better light to look at the strings and when I looked at the E string I could NOT believe what I saw... The final outer wrap of the E string STOPPED about 13 inches up from the ball end and the rest of the string was the wrap underneath and looked about like an A string. I was totally shocked. The final wrap missing for the rest of the string explained why the string was buzzing so bad....Not the correct tension at pitch. Anyway, I tried to call D'Addario's Customer Support the next day, which was a Friday, and got the voice mail and left a message telling what had happened and asking if I could get some sort of replacement. Never got a call back so on the following Tuesday, I called again and got shuffled to voice mail for CS AGAIN... I decided to also leave an email. Never heard back either by phone OR email so I called again yesterday and FINALLY got Hugh at Customer Support. I explained what had happened and he said he'd send me some new strings. He sent them alrighty... TODAY Fed-Ex shows up at my door with a package that had been over-nighted to me from D'Addario and contained 2 Twin packs of EXL-220's. It took awhile and some persistence to get thru, but Hugh at D'Addario's Customer Support really stepped up to the plate and came thru. I won't need to buy strings for awhile. )-(