strings with the tightest feel 105-45?

**IvanMike** · #1 05-08-2010, 03:19 PM

hey there. as some of you know i love a tight feeling string but also like enough presence and brightness and a tight defined sound.

what strings have you found to give the tightest "Feel" in a standard 105-45 set?

FWIW, i play mostly fingerstyle but have been working on my victor-esque chops in my old age. I like tight but not impossible to play. Also in one band i have to tune to Eb (ugh), and i prefer them to last for a while. not too much to ask right?

Craig_S · #2 05-08-2010, 03:59 PM

The tightest I've played are D'Addario XL. In the gauge you listed, it would be the XL165 set.

**lowendfriend** · #3 05-08-2010, 05:01 PM

If you are considering flats, Roto 77's are pretty tense.

**IvanMike** · #4 05-08-2010, 08:18 PM

no flats for my main axe but for another maybe.

**IvanMike** · #5 05-08-2010, 08:48 PM

FWIW i'd settle for not the tightest feel but a really tight sound. There are times when a loose sounding string ends up feeling floppy by virtue of good old psychology -

Nedmundo · #6 05-08-2010, 08:59 PM

Try DR Lo-Riders in stainless steel. Seems like exactly what you're looking for. Tight feel, tight tone.

smeet · #7 05-09-2010, 04:04 PM

Or try DR's new DDT's, amazing strings. I can play all the way up the B string with nice clear tone, strong fundamentals everywhere on the neck, and... Nice tight feel.

As a bonus, you can tune them down and they still won't get floppy. I play them in standard tuning and they are awesome.

sockdeluxe_mike · #8 05-09-2010, 04:17 PM

Have you considered the Fender bass strings? Some of them have a really lovely 'punchy' feeling string - the 150 Nickels at 45-105 are pretty tensile, and I can imagine 250's and 350's are as well!

HMZ · #9 05-10-2010, 03:12 AM

The tightest strings I have used are SIT Rock Brights. They come in nickel and steel. The steel are the ones you want. I know you can get them at juststrings.com.

http://www.juststrings.com/sit-rbs45105l.html

wideyes · #10 05-10-2010, 12:14 PM

I am also very interested in this. Keep the recommendations coming!

**IvanMike** · #11 05-12-2010, 05:24 PM

maybe what i want is a tight feeling 100-40 set...i haven't used light strings in a decade but the word seems to be all the funky cats use them for the double thumping etc. The lo riders and the DDT seem to be good things to try. FWIW, i seem to like steel better on my old tobias, but of course they go dead faster. I'd even look into the elliptical windings as i always dug the feel, although i think alembic strings were the only ones that got a good roundwound sound for me - the other compression/ground strings just didnt zing. they were great for my modulus, which needed to be tamed, but not sure on this bass, it's a darker toby than most due to the walnut...

MysticMichael · #12 05-12-2010, 10:14 PM

I've had the same set of steel Lo-Riders on my fretted 4, and the same set of Fat Beams on my fretless 4, for a good long time now - well more than a year - highly unusual for me. Both of 'em are well broken in by now, but neither one is close to going dead. DR steels are, IME, unusually long-lasting strings to say the least...

By the way, I played light-gauge rounds (.040-.100) for a number of years, before switching to medium lights (.045-.065-.080-.105) for these two sets. I hadn't been satisfied with the relatively weak signal produced by the thin D and G strings. The greater mass of the heavier D and G works much better for me...

MM

**IvanMike** · #13 05-12-2010, 11:09 PM

interesting. I've been using hi-beams and they sound great out of the box but seem to go dead faster than i'd like.