Steve Harris rotosounds

Theonestarchild · #1 07-25-2006, 12:23 PM

I'm about to buy some Steve Harris rotosounds. Anyone have any experience with Longevity, ease of break in, string tension, and tone (beyond steve harris)

steve21 · #2 07-26-2006, 04:23 PM

From what I've heard they're fairly tense.

Sorry to derail, but anyone know how the Geddy Lee stands against the tension of the Harris flats?

Thunder_Fingers · #3 07-27-2006, 05:28 AM

The Harris Flats are pretty tense and High Gauge Strings, though they probaly will work fin on a geddy with alot of truss rod turning, i wouldnt try it, i would rather go for thinner Rotosound Flats, wich are exactly the same strings, minus the light blue end wrapping.... The Harris flats made the 70's reissue p bass i had bend the neck pretty hard, had to turn a couple of 1/4 turns for it to straighten out....

Yeah, they are pretty high tension, its not the easiest strings to bend.... they loose the "new sound" pretty fast.. i think i have heard that harris change them every 3rd gig or something.

but they dont die, they just loose a littlebit of that "Clank", and when they o, they will stay that way forever....

But that said i realy liked them, once i get a 2nd bass again i will Take Rotosouns on it.

slugworth · #4 07-27-2006, 06:38 AM

Save yourself a few bucks and just get the regular RS77LE set, they're identical to the Steve Harris set, and you don't pay extra for Steve's mug on the front of the box.

Slug

SheeHAMM · #5 06-20-2011, 01:39 AM

The tension of SH signature strings is enough to give you horror.

I just received a mint-condition Fender SH P-bass with the original Rotosound strings attached. I tried tuning it to EADG.

Man, I was afraid that I might break either the neck or one of the machine heads.
The tension was tremendous. I could manage to play the bass, but I ended up loosening all of the strings a whole step down.

I can't give up the idea of putting flatwound strings on this lovely SH bass, so ordered a few sets of Rotosound Jazz with lighter gauge, which is .045-.100. (Thanks for the good info, slugworth!)

Electrophonic · #6 07-14-2011, 06:52 AM

Oh, I love these strings!

They take your bass to a whole new sound.

Yes, they are tense and heavy to work with in the beginning. But in my opinion they are great. The strings lasts "forever" if you take good care of them and clean them once in a while.

Steve Harris gets his strings changed from gig to gig.

Humblerumble · #7 07-14-2011, 06:57 AM

Like the others said very tense. Pulled my p bass neck and took a lot of adjusting. Didn't leave them on very long at all.

magic papa · #8 07-14-2011, 07:04 AM

I've been using them for a couple of years on a P-Bass. They aren't not that tense I think, at least not anymore than any other flatwounds. La Bellas are much more tense for example.
It depends what you are used to.

The tone is very distinct, nothing will come close, but it dies very quickly. A few hours of play will make them sound like any other flatwound, a few hourse more will make them sound like any other dead string.

I'm not too convinced about the quality either. I had many sets with bad strings, basically on a few occasions had to use 2 sets to complete one decent one. The "bad" strings were basically dead, no ring, no sustain, just muffed fart.

I have also tried the regular Rotosound heavy gauge set. They sound identical and I didn't have any issues with bad strings so far.

Hence +1 to getting just normal flatwounds, the sound will be the same and if the "signature" thing is to cost extra it's not worth it.

Hope this helps.
MP