Rotosound FM66 Funk Master strings

[nirvanajunkie]

I saw these strings on Musicians friend and i like funk style bass so i was wondering if i could get a second opinion on them to see if they are good. The reviews are high on them.

[jsamans]

I tried a set and ended up taking them off. I am used to playing .045-.105 so they seemed REALLY light (they are, iirc, .030-.-90). You will have to do a complete set up and probably re-intonate your bass, because they have a lot less tension. I couldn't even get the action super low, because they are so light, they "travel" or "rubber band" a lot.

They are great for slap, most definitely. But to me anyway, they turned the bass into a one trick pony. All of this combined with the fact that they are well-known for eating frets was enough to take them off.

[LifeIsBass]

I tried a set of these awhile back. Didn't really care for them. As mentioned before, they're very low tension, they require you to readjust your bass, and turn the bass into a one trick pony. They're also VERY bright. The thing that really got me though was that due to them being such a light guage it was really tough to get a "full" sound out of them. There just was no bottom to speak of. Very thin sound.

On the upside, they really make slap style seem easy. I've never been able to double and triple pop as fast as I could with these strings. The "pops" actually sounded great, but the "slaps" just didn't have any "oomph".

[kevin_lindsay]

Yeah - the other thing is that they go "dead" very quickly. I recall Geddy Lee mentioning that when he used them (he used the Funkmaster strings when he first got his Wal bass (owned by Peter Collins - the producer of that album) - the one he used in the studio on the Power Windows album - had those strings on it. Geddy stated that a new set of strings wouldn't last the length of a gig, and he had to change basses before the end of a set to another bass with fresh strings as the original set owuld be dead by then!!). I had them on my first Jaydee I had John Diggens make me, but changed to more "normal" strings within a couple of weeks due to the problems stated above.

To hear how the Funkmasters sound, you need to hear a clip of Mark King from the Level 42 shows:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMzXtizKcXY

Level 42 Documentary (part 1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEj7_...elated&search=
Level 42 Documentary (part 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDef8dw8K1k&NR=1

Mark King Documentary
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbHa2_o5flM&NR=1
Mark King Documentary Part2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvSLC-q6vS4&NR=1
Mark King Documentary Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZUbB4pE11E&NR=1

[Koki]

well yeah, they are great slap strings as you can hear. Treble & buzz - for slap great, for fingerstyle maybe not. Also Stanley Clarke uses them so.. you decide

[babaseen]

Finally found these...they are great for slap and fingerstyle!

YMMV