Old strings vs. New

[mcblahflooper94]

I know this is a very blunt question, but does anyone prefer old strings to new? I was talking to a friend the other day & I told her that I'm probably going to get some new strings for Christmas, and then she asked why. I told her just because you're supposed to replace them now and then. She told me that I didn't know if I preferred old to new, and I never really thought about it like that! Does anyone prefer old to new?

[JohnMCA72]

I prefer new. A set lasts me about 4-6 weeks. Once they start getting floppy, I find it hard to predict where they're going to be when I aim a finger & my playing feels sloppy! I like heavy gauge/high tension, too.

[vin*tone]

I take it you're talking about roundwounds?

I prefer older strings. Slappers love new ones.

[TBAR Shane]

I've been going back and forth on this lately. A few months back I bought some new strings, to replace a year old set. After a few days, I removed the new strings, and put the old ones back on. I played with the old ones for another 2 months. However, just today I put the newer set back on. Although, they don't sound brand new anymore, they're in a sweet spot. I'm still unsure over whether I prefer them to the old set though.

[Pilgrim]

I prefer old strings, whether rounds or flats. New strings have a zing that I don"t like.

[mcblahflooper94]

Interesting! See, I don't know what I like more.

[mmbongo]

New strings for me! As soon as they sound like rubber bands they go in the trash.

[mcblahflooper94]

So, I just found a new E in my drawer. It sounds so much more full of life! Slapping on it makes it sound beautiful. Except now, my E string is new and the other three are at least 9 months old, haha.

[soulman969]

New strings don't stay new very long when you're playing them everyday. All strings tend to go through a break in or settling in period. Since I usually play rounds or now Pressure Wounds the sharpeness or twang tends to come out of them after a few hours of playing and they have a nice mellow sound. As long as they stay that way I'll keep them on and change them only when the begin to go dead or the tension fails then I'll play the new set constantly until they get broken in.

[darkstorm]

New to still newly broken in sounding. Dull sounding strings dont appeal to me at all.

[Pilgrim]

My oldest strings have been on the bass for about 40 years. The rest are 11 years old or less. They don't sound right to me until they've been on the bass for a few months.

[mcblahflooper94]

What I think I'm going to do is try and keep old flatwound strings on my first bass (Ibanez Mikro) and have a really good friend turn it into a fretless, and then try to keep relatively new strings on my ESP LTD F1-155 DX. Because I love how much louder you can get with new roundwounds, and then have my first bass as more of a... Fretless bass. Does that make sense?

[dave64o]

I'm not crazy about the zing of new strings. Once I like how a set sounds on a given bass I like to keep them on there until I have a good reason to take them off. Losing the zing has never been one of my reasons.

[Darylw425]

I like the sound of almost new strings for clarity and articulation.

That's why I found a way to make that tone last...

[bassbully]

Old for me. Since I play only flats age just improves them.

[Duckwater]

I like new and old strings, both flats and rounds. They all have a place musically.

[chaosMK]

You guys can have my old strings.

[icecycle66]

I like old strings.
I hate the clangy sound of new strings.

[KrisWarrington]

Depends on the strings themselves and the player, some strings get better with time and some strings get worse in time.

[jabsys]

New for me because old strings sound like crap with a pick, if I played purely fingerstyle I wouldn't be so bothered about the strings being old.