How much do you find strings affect your tone

tiredman9 · #1 08-24-2005, 10:49 AM

How much would you guys say strings affect your tone?

p.s. Im talking similar strings like roundwounds of medium gauge versus other medium gauge roundwounds --and not---light guage roundwounds versus heavy gauge flatwounds

tiredman9 · #2 08-25-2005, 07:27 AM

anyone else? or could ya mention how you find the strings affect your tone thanks

Modern Growl · #3 08-25-2005, 07:53 AM

I think stings effect your tone somewhat. Especially if your going with something like nickel vs. steel vs. flatwound ect...

but even comparing nickel vs. nickel or steel vs. steel, depending on the theory/technique used to make the specific string, you will get either more low/mids/highs and other sort of hard to put into words, tonal variations.

that, combined with how certain strings react w/ diffrent tonewoods/pickup configs will also change tone.

strings are a piece of the puzzle in all of our quest's for tone.

Chunk-O-Funk · #4 08-25-2005, 05:59 PM

I think it is only a small part of ones sound. there is a difference in stainless steel to nickel but really not enough of a difference to change ones sound. it is mostly the bassist, his bass, and his amp.

Of course there are flatwounds, but that would be "the sound" if that is what you are going for.

I think it was Paul McCartney who answered this questioned best when someone asked:

What strings do you use?
His reply, I like the shiny ones!

Dream Works · #5 08-26-2005, 01:38 AM

There was a huge tonal change when I switch from using D'Addario nickels to DR Steel Fat Beams. Nickels tended to be a bit dull to me, but the Fat beams had an amazing growl and was bright, but not harsh. <3 DR

modflea · #6 08-26-2005, 03:24 PM

I just went from DR Low Riders that I've been using for a couple of years (not that one set

) to a set of TI PowerPower Alloys and it made a big difference in my tone. I spent a good part of the gig re-doing everything from gain to eq settings to compensate for the change. It was really unexpected.

i_got_a_mohawk · #7 08-26-2005, 04:27 PM

haha, i remember being told about that, touche !

(reply to the paul mccartny quote)

Ian Perge · #8 08-26-2005, 05:11 PM

All I can say is that when I first tried D'addario Prisms/ProSteels, I immediately thought "Now this is a large part of what I've been searching for!"

spc · #9 09-03-2005, 08:52 PM

I find strings to be a huge factor in tone, depending on the bass. I have a fretless (coated board) Lakland USA JO with a set of Bart 9j's (thinking of changing them with some single coils) that I've been fighting with ever since I had it converted to fretless. Pedulla did the fingerboard and he tells you to use nickel strings with the fb, and I have been for awhile. Trying different sets out, etc. I really liked my first set of TI Superalloys, didn't like the second set (had some wierd overtones or something), thought the powerbass strings were cool. Anyway it occurred to me that maybe it was the nickel strings I didn't like. I put a set of stainless steel rounds (purple wrap on both ends, Smith Burners maybe?) on from one of my other basses (a parts jazz, f/less ebony board). I put the nickel TI's on the parts jazz.
The JO is like a brand new bass! Really vocal, ton of mwah, I really couldn't believe my ears. All this time I thought it was the fingerboard coating or the pickups (I'm still changing the p/u's, humbuckers sound a tad muffled to me).
The bass sounds alot more like what I'm looking for now, so much so that I think I'll stop buying jazz basses for awhile in search of the tone. Well, for awhile anyways

.
The nickel strings on the parts jazz don't sound as good, but the sound isn't that different. It's like night and day on the Lakland though.
Peace!

tplyons · #10 09-03-2005, 11:01 PM

I'd say they're a bit part. When I'm not playing my strings, I don't sound like me, with most basses. I guess it really depends on the bass to whether or not the strings matter that much.

KeithBMI · #11 09-03-2005, 11:48 PM

I don't think they matter much to me. There is a difference between flats and rounds.

But I can't tell two rounds apart.

Sippy · #12 09-04-2005, 01:51 AM

Since I just recently switched to a totally different kind of string, I have a completely different tone. I LOVE the new tone. Just the strings changed it that much.

JimmyM · #13 09-04-2005, 04:03 AM

I can get basically the same sound out of any different type of roundwound, but it does affect the tone a little when they're new. Once they're dead, they all sound the same to me, so I just buy the cheapest ones of quality, which are always D'addario XL's.