Strings changed, tone changed, anyone else get frustrated after changing?

[ihateusernames]

I've spent about 25-35 hours dialing in a couple of favorite tones for differing styles of music and techniques and ended up quite satisfied with the results.

Then tonight I changed strings to break them in a bit before practice this weekend. Flippin nightmare. All the work setting up sounds on lightly worn SS lo-riders was wasted. Put on a new set of nickel lo-riders and I'll need to start over. It's amazing what our ears accept as strings wear. There is certainly more life in the new strings.

An observation after switching: the nickel seems to have a better bottom than I remember from the ss when new, and more 'growl'. It's actually a bit of a distortion sound more than a smooth growl, hard to explain really.

I like these strings better than Hi-Beams, although I've decided on Fatbeams being my preferred DR string after running through these four sets.

[sheepdog]

switched to hi beams and my tone went to crap. very frustrating. thankfully I put lo riders on my other bass and quickly realized the error and a proper (lo) way out.

anyone interested in a barely used 5 string set of hi beams?

[ihateusernames]

After the initial hour of playing and sitting overnight the nickel lo-riders have come into their own and sounded phenomenal during 9 hours of practice this weekend. What I've learned is they work best for pick style, the Fatbeams work best for fingerstyle (with my bass, processing, amp, cab, technique, and desired tone).

[kyral210]

Worn strings kill your tone. You will find the same thing with different makes of strings. Here is my experience so far:

1. Rotosound should be avoided at all cost.
2. Earnie ball are OK for 5 minutes and then just die
3. D'addario rock pretty hard and keep a good tone through till their worn out days where they need to be replaced.

I am about to fit out my bass with GHS Boomers, so lets see what happens.

[nfgrufio]

How do you feel about DRs?