Last night when I got home, I found this lying on my bed!!!
So I thought I'ld give a solid review to give back to all you lovely folk here at TB.
First off, you can find the audio comparison of the old to new strings here.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1712890/Nake...ngs_review.mp3
Potentially the main difference from my review and Christw's review is that his uses quite light strings. Mine are relatively typical guages. Also, its nice to get another sample made with different gear.
To get a feel for the naked strings purely you need to skip to halfway through, as the first half goes through the PU selector with the old strings on, for comparison purposes. Gear used:
Stingray HH
Audiobox interface
Garageband with very very light compression
This audio file could also be of interest for people interested in the stingray HH, because it gives a good feel for the different pickup selections, in fingerstyle and pick form.
Alright lets get on to the unboxing/review!
Introduction
Naked strings is a start up company that manufacturers guitar and bass strings and directly sells them to consumers with minimal packaging and promotion costs. Their website is at
http://www.nakedstrings.com/. This company was first brought to my attention from this TB post
Naked Strings: First Impressions (Custom set .30 .45 .60 .85) and this post is also relevant
Naked strings.
The first advantage of this company to a traditional string company is that they are much cheaper, especially here in New Zealand. A set of bass strings will range between 30 and 60$ here, while with this company, including conversion and shipping, I got three for about $35. Even if they're crap, thats still a great bargain.
Another bonus is that you are able to directly choose custom guages of strings. This wasn't so much of an advantage for me, as I haven't experimented too much with string guages, so I stuck to copying Ernie Hybrids. However if nothing that you have tried is quite right, perhaps you will find what you are looking for with naked strings.
One suggested disadvantage is that the strings come in one size fits all in terms of length, and because of this for 4 string basses they are very thick at the tuning post/nut. Some have complained that this will cause poor or unstable intonation/tone. I don't believe that this is a big issue personally, and consider any cost in tone or tuning to be negligible. However I may post back here after playing live a few times.
Unboxing 
One disadvantage for me is that it took from Jan 4th to yesterday, Jan 24th, to get to me. However, this cannot be blamed on the company.
As you can see, the strings really are naked. The package comes with only an invoice, and neatly bundled strings. The plastic labels on the strings are round and can be used again after removing strings from each bundle. I found the easiest way to remove one string from a bundle is to push the red end through the bundle until it is completely free, then to pull the ball through the plastic label.
All in all, very neat and tidy, and completely acceptable for what the company is aiming at.
Restringing 
I initially underestimated the length of the binding on these things, you do have to chop quite a lot off! After getting into the rhythm though, they came on quite easily. I actually think they look quite nifty with the red on the maple headstock. As you can see the string is very thick over the nut and to the tuning peg, so if this is an issue for you, keep this in mind. However, I wouldn't let this stop you from trying these strings out.
Recording 
The recording (as stated above) can be found at
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1712890/Nake...ngs_review.mp3
These strings probably need a bit of time to settle in. They sound quite metallic when picked, although they are an improvement on the dead strings. With fingerstyle however they do add a smooth definition and attack, and really sound quite good. I'm quite hesitant to give a recommendation based on sound, as tone is very subjective, so give the mp3 a listen and decide for yourself. However, they definitely hold their own with other strings I have tried.
Final Rundown
For all the TLDRs out there heres the gist of this:
Cheap.
Easy.
Quite long for standard length basses, however this is not an issue for me.
Check out the sound sample.
Sounds between acceptable and great depending on your playing style and taste.
Worth a try!
