My search for the perfect strings...

[Foxworthy925]

!!!!!First Post!!!!! oh, and this is gonna be a rediculously long post, so I appreciate it if anyone actually reads the whole thing through...

I got my current one and only bass about a year ago, an Ibanez SRX700, which also happens to be my first bass. supposedly, it came with Elixers on it probably in either 45-105 or 45-100. this was my first bass and my first experience with this, so I ended up keeping those on for probably 7 months or so. basically, until they were just crap: dull sounding, the coating all worn and horrible, even more wrong than that, I was just still too naive to know. after messing around a bit on my friend's OLP music man nock off with Super Slinkies on it, I realized that I completely hated the feel of that setup all together. don't get me wrong, I love the feel/sound of Ernie Ball Music Man's that I've played in stores, but his setup just felt like crap in my hands. It completely soured my taste for ever wanting lighter strings.

so from there, I went to the local "Guitar Center" and talked to a guy there about it. He handed me a set of DR high beams, 45-105 of course, saying that they were great quality, better than slinkies, good sound, all that...I brought 'em home, ripped open the package and put 'em on my bass. compared to my old Elixers, they were like a breath of fresh air in an outhouse. they felt great, sounded great, all that goodness. maybe I liked them so much cuz I was still such a noob and not used to anything else. now that I think about the sound, they were actually a lot, and I mean A LOT brighter than my elixers, whether it be their age or quality. I was running those for a while, everything running smoothly, until I was slappin' and poppin'one day and I broke a string. wierd, first time that's happened. it just completely unraveled right at the bridge.

I went back to guitar center, hoping to get some more high beams, the same as before. well, they were out of the medium ones, and only had the light 40-100's. I still remembered my experiences with lighter strings and decided to stick with a guage that I knew was tried and true. I got a pair of ernie ball hybrid slinkies (45-105) with minimal expectations. I put those on and was pleasantly surprised. they sounded pretty nice, and felt pretty nice: they felt really smooth for slides and pretty flexible for bending. I liked them at first but have one major complaint: it seemed like they lost their "new" sound unbelievably fast and quickly got dull.

by now, I was experienced enough to know the kind of sound that I myself, was personally going for. If it makes sense, I wanted a smoother, more 3 dimensional sound. even a bit darker would be pretty nice. so, I wanted to try something completely new and out of the ordinary. I went for some flatwounds, Steve Harris signature flat wounds in fact (50-75-95-110). wow, what an experience. the sound I got was very nice actually. maybe not the most desirable for slapping, but close to what I was going for for fingerstyle. a few problems though. me, not wanting to mess with the truss rod at all, just slapped 'em on and tryed with standard e a d g. like this, it made the neck sit like a long bow (for hunting and war, you know, that kind), made the action unbarably high, and the string tension rediculously tight. I ended up detuning it like a five string, b e a d. It actually handled this surprisingly well. the large size of the strings really slowed me down though if I were just going for plain speed, like just firing out 16th notes at as fast as I could go. it also slowed down my fretting hand considerably.

I realized that those just weren't for me and I put the hybrid slinkies back on. it gave me the chance to try boiling my strings (the slinkies). I now have a jar of denatured alcohol so I don't have to do that, by the way. It was really disapointing. the used, boiled, strings that I put back on my bass did sound nice and like new, but they lost that sound almost immediatly. they became dull and crappy within the week. I kept these on for some time, all the while realizing how much I despise them. It became time to try something new so I decided to just be extreme and try the opposite of the heavy guage flat wounds: I got a set of light DR high beams (40-60-80-100). I tried these for a few reasons: with medium guage strings, I like the feeling of detuning a full step down to DGCF. the less tension lets my right hand play noticably faster, the slightly less string hight let my left hand play noticably more agile. well, I put on the light strings..........and was not happy. the sound is just way too unbearably bright for me. everytime I'd hit a note, it felt like I was just loooking straingt into the sun, being blinded by the sound. slapping and popping is like butter though. the tension is sooooo much lighter than I'm used to! it takes absolutely no effort at all to slap and pop. but once again, def not the sound I'm going for. it was like hitting a screw driver on a sheet of metal. plus, the d and g string were just way too thin. the e and a, I could live with, but the other two were reminiscent of guitar strings. If I actually liked the sound and guage of the strings, I'd have adjusted the truss rod to set up the action just right, but I decided not because I plan on changing soon. with out adjusting anything, the strings are way too close to the fret board. If I hit an open E with a generous amount of force, it'll buzz . unless I play amazingly soft, it'll buz on anything above about the 5th fret. I know I can fix this, but I don't want to because I think I'm going back to a medium guage.

I went to a different one of my friend's band practices, they were missing a bassist that day, and jammed with them on an amazing carvin bass at their house. the strings on that seemed huge compared to the light strings I had tried. It was really nice though. It surprised me at how fast I could play. though the string height was a little high on that bass, it felt really nice.

anyways, I'm now searching for my perfect set of strings. I think I want to go back to a medium guage, but my mind's not completely made up. I like detuning a lot, so that seems logical. I don't want a horribly bright sound, but I would still like something that handles funk and slap bass nicely. I hope someone knows what I'm looking for...

[Foxworthy925]

after searching around a bit, I think I'm going to try some nickel strings instead of ss. hmmm, probably medium (45-105). If I go with this approach, what strings should I try?

[Foxworthy925]

come on, someone has to have tried and can recomend a nice set of nickel strings. something that has a lot of warmth, isn't too unbearably bright, but still can clearly cut through the rest of the band's noise.

[groundshaker]

Been playing for 20 yrs and the elixirs are the best I've come across. They may not be quite as bright as others (that lose their tone in 3 weeks) but the heavy gauge has a great ballsy tone and last wayyy longer than other strings provided ya keep em clean. Hope this helps, good luck on the eternal quest for that perfect sound~

[Foxworthy925]

hmmm, thanks for the reply. yeah, I might go back and try elixers again, but the only thing holding me back is the $40ish price range.

any others?

[Flatwound]

OK, I'll give this a shot:

"Basic" nickels:
-Ernie Ball Slinkys. You've tried these and didn't like the life.
-D'Addario XL's. Excellent medium-low priced strings. Similar in tone to Slinky's, may or may not last longer than Slinkys depending on your body chemistry.
-GHS Boomers. For some people they die quickly, others have good experience with them.
-Fender 7250's. Come stock on a lot of Fender basses, usually not too expensive. Some people love them.
-SIT Power Wound. Pretty inexpensive, I don't have much experience with them.
-Dean Markley NickelSteel. Medium priced, I don't have much experience with them.

From this list, my usual recommendations are Slinkys and XL's. They've done well for me.

Less Basic Nickels:
-DR Sunbeams. Nickel version of Hi-Beams. Very bright.
-DR Nickel Lo-Riders. Nickel version of Lo-Riders.
-Rotosound RS66LDN. Nickel version of Rotosound RS66. I like them, pretty bright, gutsy Rotosound tone.
-LaBella Slappers - fairly expensive for a nickel wound.

There are also nickels from Fodera, MTD, Ken Smith, Pedulla, and more. It's hard for me to recommend anything from this group as I haven't tried very many of them.

I personally don't like coated strings like Elixirs, DR Extra Life, Black Diamond, et. al. None of them sound enough like uncoated strings for me.

Strings tend to be a pretty personal decision, and it's unfortunately going to take a while (and some money) to find what's right for you. I've listed a ton of strings here, and that's just nickel roundwounds. There's also stainless roundwounds, flatwounds, half-rounds, tapewounds, compressed strings, Alloy 52 strings, and more. At prices from under $10 to over $70. I can pretty much do what I need to do with D'Addario XL's. And they'll last me from 4-6 weeks or so. But hey, that's just me.

[XansNiceSweater]

I LOVE the DRs, actually. All of them.

But try Dean Markley Blue Steels. I used those for a long time before converting to DRs.

[Foxworthy925]

thanks for the replies.

what are alloy 52 strings?

[sunbeast]

I love the DR coated strings (I've used the Black Beauties for quite a while now). The string design is the same as the Hi-Beams, but they add a coating before wrapping them so they aren't dulled by sweat + dirt, etc... but I like them for the difference in sound- the coating tones down the high end quite a bit, but they still sound like roundwounds, I like them best after they've worn in for a month or so. They have a really full low-midrange focus with just the right amount of zing on the top, and they last a really long time! I've had the same set on one of my main basses for about 5 months now and they still sound great to me (though I don't do any slapping/popping, so I don't need that really bright edge of new roundwounds). They do cost a lot, but given how long they last, it's not so bad- I think a 4 string set runs around $35-40 (I don't remember exactly, as I use the 5 string sets mostly).

Karl

[CraigG]

I have tried several brands and types in search of a string that allowed me to express what I was hearing in my head. I finally settled on Fodera Victor Wooten Signatures. The feel and tone suits me perfectly and the string life has been quite good.