| This topic is subjective to one's opinion, so I'll give you mine but only use this as a guideline based off my experiences on this subject as well as what others will post also.
With strings it seems to be a trade off. Light strings are easier to play and you can on most basses set your action lower. this tends to accommodate faster playing, yet gives you a thinner tone in my opinion.
With heavier strings you will notice a beefier sound with more clang with roundwounds. These strings are not known for maintaining intonation as well as lighter strings. They also feel stiffer and tend to cramp your left hand some until you get used to them.
Myself I always comeback to medium guage 105-45. I find to be the best compromise between the two.
As for string types and brand name, there are too many to possibly try out. With every string type there are compromises as well. Stainless steel seem to give the brightest sound, but they feel kind of raspy and increase fret wear on your bass. Nickle strings give a similar sound and are easier on fret wear, but they don't seem to last long. I had some nickles seem to go dead within 30 minutes of playing. Some people like half rounds which is a compromises between flats and round wounds. These give you a mellower round wound sound without the string noise. Then there are flat wounds. these sound more like a bass with minimum sustain. Some bassists prefer these for a mellow punchy sound. Steve Harris uses them as does Cliff Williams of AC/DC.
As for what I prefer? For my Precision bass I use Elixir strings in a medium guage. These are a little darker than traditional round wounds and they seem to last forever.
For my Jazz bass I tried many brands and types, but I always seem to come back to Rotosound stainless steels in the medium gage.
As always, experiment with different guages and find what seems best for you and your playing style rather than some else's.
__________________
Ampeg club member #569 Official Fender Precision Bass Club #253
Ampeg Preamps, Ampeg SVT 810's, Crest Audio CD3000 power amp, Behringer compressor, Fender Rack Tuner, Fender Precision & Jazz basses
Last edited by fourstringburn : 01-03-2010 at 08:53 PM.
| 
