Elixirs vs EB Slinkys review on a stingray.

[JonathanD]

EB Musicman Stingray 5 LE 2005
Eden Navigator, Presonus tube pre and ampeg svP Pro as test amps.
Through studio monitors, acme 210 and glockeklang quattro cabs.
Hughes and ketter Tube factor, with barge concepts VB-2 and a light mix of a line 6 bass pod XL live.


So, I got my stingray with slinkys and I loved the tone. With a set at about 2 days old I loved the slinkys and this lasted for about 1 month of 6 hours a week of playing. In that time they shimmered, and I truly enjoyed playing chords with a 5 finger plucking system. Then I would change them.

I recently tried to get the tone of Faith No More's bassist on King for a day fool for a lifetime, Clutch(any album) and a wide variety of other groups as I play to itunes on random Jaco, yes, Medeski Martin & Wood, TV on the radio, and Beck.

The sound of the Slinkys is just too thin for these sounds on a stingray.

So I tried Elixirs. Now, at first I thought they were klanly, but after a few hours and a nights rest the following 2 months was fantastic. Now, there is no shimmer like the Slinkys, but there is more of a vintage tight thud. A punch that lends itself much better to stoner rock, non-slap funk, hip hop, jazz, and rock in general.

If I was playing alone, I would probably go with the EB Slinkys, but in a band the roll of bass* is better filled with Elixirs on a stingray than Slinkys IMO.

* My humble and personal opinion of basses roll in a band at this current time: Get the butts to move, be felt as much as heard, sit in the mix so that you are loud and out there but no Obvious so that the melodies are more prominent.

LONGEVITY
The elixirs sound the same for about 2.5 months with ~6 hours of pay a week. They are not bad afterwards, they just loose the ability to break through the mix IMO.

The EB Slinkys work for me for 1 month, and thats kind of pushing it. After that they still don;t carry much thump, and lack luster in the shimmering areas.

Growl

I have to say the Elixirs cant growl 1/10th as well as the EB slinkys. Not even close. I love growl, the elixirs are just not providing it for me.


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If I could use an EQ as an very general analogy,

The Slinkys have a slight cut at 120hz and boost around 900-2000hz.
The Elixirs have a nice tone up to about 800 hz with a slow gradual drop off in an arch after that with a climb back in the Fret noise range.



I a going with the elixirs for a while, I will be back for the Slinkys.

[CLOWNDEACAN]

Funny you should do this comparison... i just recently switched my (year old) elixirs to slinkys

The strings being a year old aside, i always found elixirs thin and clanky... if i understand your eq analogy correctly, theres basically stuff missing in the middle of its tone. they last a looong time tho... a year was pushing it but for months old strings they still had some sort of character

havnt had the slinkys on for long... once they got worn in a bit i love them... got a nice bite to them but theyre not overly bright (which i like)

[miss g]

I have slinkys on my sterling right now. I almost ordered some elixirs 2 nights ago but I was afraid I wouldn't be happy with them and for 20 dollars more I wasn't going to take that chance so I ordered hybrid slinkys . Glad I did

[Crabby]

I love Slinkys on both my SR4 and SR5 as they just seem to work with these bases. (no surprise). I have to say though, once they die, they really die and the tone is flat and lifeless.

I thing that stainless strings die a lot more gracefully as they still can have a very nice tone once they age.