String mystery: what are these?

cstar · #1 12-21-2011, 04:25 PM

Hi all! New member here. Glad to now be part of this forum!

I have a string mystery I hope someone out there can help me with. I recently bought an Ibanez Soundgear bass (gsr250m, sky blue- awesome bass, btw!) and I really like the strings it has on it. The only thing is, I have no idea what they are... searching for what these basses come stock with hasn't helped much (heard conflicting things), but I know all the basses like mine come stock with them. The strings have red silk at both ends (it's a nice metallic red), but they don't look quite like GHS boomers or Rotosounds (granted, I am a newb). Can anyone help me I.D. them from the info I have provided or these pics? Sorry for the cruddy pics, I need a new camera. The balls are fairly large on the ends of these, and have a kind of chrome/silver finish as opposed to bare brass. At the ball end, the winding is nice and tight right down to the end, whereas it is not to at the other end. At the tuner end, the winding gets "looser" under the silk (like, you can see one strand over the others in a loose spiral). Hope that made some sense. Anyway, any help would be appreciated.

Also, for what it's worth, the G string of this orig. set seems slightly thinner than the G string of the .045 -.100 D'Addario string set that's on my bass now. Thanks guys!

Johnny Alien · #2 12-21-2011, 04:50 PM

Roto's and Boomers only have red silk on one end. Those strings have it on both sides so I am thinking they are probably the older style Fender 5250. At one point I think those had red silk on both ends.

SLaPiNFuNK · #3 12-21-2011, 04:54 PM

Roto SwingBass 66 have silk at Both ends.. But they do not look like that...

Plus, they have Brass balls...

I just looked at an older set of fenders... The silk wrap portion doesnt look exactly like that, and they have brass balls (atleast the ones im looking at).

SLaPiNFuNK · #4 12-21-2011, 04:56 PM

Well, this is the picture I was looking for... But they are not it...

((naked strings / brass balls not silked)

cstar · #5 12-21-2011, 05:19 PM

Thanks SLaPiNFuNK. That is my dilemma!! These strings don't quite match anything yet. Like I said, these came stock on my Ibanez gsr250m (sky blue)... I would think that finding info on these would be easy, but no luck as of yet, no on even Ibanez's site...

SLaPiNFuNK · #6 12-21-2011, 05:21 PM

The stock strings which I believe are generic on most of their models... Never heard a particular brand name associated with them.

rbolanos · #7 12-21-2011, 08:01 PM

these look to be the same strings that all Yamaha basses come with. If they are, they are made by GHS.
hope that helps
cheers
rb

EvilVOG · #8 12-21-2011, 08:07 PM

Rotosound 66/ boomers have brass ends (or at least they used to)

king rew · #9 04-11-2012, 03:44 PM

4 month thread resurrection: I may know these strings! Just bought a set of Austin City Strings from a small music store since they were the only 105-45s they stocked.

Then I noticed on the package that the company is based in San Antonio. Then I read on the package that they were made in Korea. Really strange lineage there, but whatever. They indeed have red silk at both ends and a silver ball at the end. Can't find any info on the company, and they only sets I can find for sale are at Amazon. Good thing I don't really like them!