Matches Made in Heaven?

[Muusers]

So is there really a, or maybe multiple, match made in heaven? Is there a bass that you HAVE to fit with only one type of string to really get the best out of it? Is that combination so killer that it overrules any other combination of that specific bass with another type of strings?

[SamanthaCay]

yes! different basses requier different strings. the longer a string is from the tunner to where it ends in the bridge the higher the tension. the greater the angle of the head stock and the greater the angle past the bridge means higher tension. is it fretted or fretless , is it solid or hollow. electronics make a big differance. you name it it probably makes a differance.

[bthiemann80]

I have a home made relic Pbass that straight up refuses to wear anything aside from flatwounds. The higher tension lends itself to a much better setup than with rounds. I can get the intonation and action so it plays like butter, but only with flatwounds, kinda strange but it works!

[DavePlaysBass]

I have a 61 Jazz that I have had since the 80's. It is a refin and the pickups are not original. The frets are nearly all the way down. The frets are so low that round wounds were eating into the rosewood a bit. So I decided to throw a set of TI flats on it for the hell of it (this was my first set of flats). And this to me was a match made in heaven. Incredibly warm punchy vintage tone and no need to ever refret or restring that bass.

[Liko]

That's the way I work; There is a set of strings that work for that guitar, that have my desired sound and feel and don't require me to sign over my firstborn son. When I find it, I don't buy anything else. Doesn't mean there can't be a better match, but I don't have money to experiment with 8 different instruments.

Current matches are:

Yammie TRB-1005 - D'Addario EXP170-5SL coated super-longs, 45-130. The bass came strung with their uncoated cousins; I loved the sound (the bass will go almost anywhere from dark and rubbery to in-your-face thumbstyle) and just wanted to go a little longer without having to special-order strings.

Fender Mexi Jazz: D'Addario XL 170. After making a boo-boo buying normal long-scales for the TRB, I ended up with a four-string set that I didn't "need", except my Fender's Fender 7250s were nearing the end. I threw the D'Adds on and have never looked back. Great punch and bite, backs off nicely, pretty much any sound you want a passive to come up with, and I have not yet had to replace them (this bass doesn't get as much time as the fiver though)

Yamaha BB-404: Dean Markley Blue Steels, 45-100. Love em. Age them well, and they give this bass a lot of growl. This set are two years old and counting, still great.

[trb6pJM2]

one word

[nbtone]

I find that D'Addario nickle wounds work good. With single coil pick-ups they work good with a tube amp. With humbuckers they work good with a solid state amp. I don't like active pick-ups.
Maybe there are some more expensive strings that are even better than D'Addario's cheapest ones, but I haven't been able to find them.

[metalmariachi]

TI flats on my jazz, GHS precision flats on my '51 reissue and GHS bright flats on my Hoppus.

Each is a perfect match for the bass they're on and give me exactly the sound and tone I want.

MM