Strings for Dark Star Lakland Hollowbody

[chunkstyle]

i'm trying not to ignore my Hollowbody but lately it doesn't make it out much. i've got a G&L that i absolutely love.

i'm trying to rekindle the romance so the first order of business is some new strings.

so far, i've had:

Lakland flats: hated them. the E string sounded nothing like the other strings. the other strings sounded OK.. nothing special. these quickly gave way to...

TI Super Alloys: I like these a lot. nice warm sound with a touch of bite that brought out the woodiness of the bass coupled with a touch of friendly snarl. i can't remember why i switched them out...

TI Flats: oh yea... now I remember. i thought these strings sounded great, but i couldn't deal with the low tension. one particular gig had me feeling like i chump as i couldn't dig in hard enough. raising the action a little more might have helped, but after that one particular gig i dumped them for...

Ken Smith Compressors: now these are great strings. the Dark Star pickups love these strings. they seemed to be nice and stout without being ridiculous in their tension. i got a great late 60's early 70's Phil Lesh tone which made me want to try out...

Ken Smith Slick Rounds: so far, these are my favorite strings for this bass. they do the Phil tone great. a touch of amp overdrive makes them snarl and growl. they have lots of bottom and nice defining mids with no extra noise.


so, i'm not adverse to going back to any of these strings besides the Laklands. and i'm also interested in trying out DR Hellborgs (i've got these on my G&L), GHS pressure wound, and Labella nylon tape wounds. i do not like Chromes, and i don't think high tension Steve Harris flats would be good for the hollowbody.

anybody have any other suggestions? like i said, i'm looking to try something different that will make me fall in love with this bass again. there's nothing really wrong with the bass. it just needs a new hair do...

[sunbeast]

I love the TI flats on my Darkstar'd Jazz enough that I'm learning to deal with the lack of tension. Its a tough compromise, but when those things wear in they just sound like nothing else (especially with Darkstars)...I wanna try some of those Ken Smiths though- I've never tried any of their strings! Just bought a set of the GHS Precision Flats to see how they compare, though I think its the unique inner silk wrap on the TIs that make them sound like absolutely nothing else.

Karl

[chunkstyle]

it kills me that i couldn't get on with the low tension TI Flats, because the tone... the Tone! but i've adapted to the DR Hellborgs which are lighter than my usual. the main thing was jacking up the action. so the TI Flats are definitely not out of the question.

the Ken Smith Compressors and Slick Rounds really do bridge the gap between rounds and flats in a good way, with the Compressors being more round and the Slicks being more towards the flat end. something about the them that the Dark Stars picked up on and said, "good bass goes here!" i heard from another TBer that the GHS pressure wounds are practically the same thing as the Ken Smith Compressors.

i'm a string junkie, i admit it. i love trying new things. i do know that i'm really not that interested in old school thump. as i understand it, the DR Flats fall in this category. i play rock and roll so i need a little more umph from my flats. at the same time, i think the Dark Stars like a little more substance than your typical steel round wound puts out.

but maybe not. that's why i'm asking you guys...

[Hitpicker]

If you're looking for a string that really brings out the upright sound in a hollowbody,
I recently tried Rotosound Tapewound Flats on one of my hollowbodies;
the sound and feel was so great (for my tastes) that I immediately ordered up two more sets for other basses.
Got 'em from Big City Strings.