super dead E-string - urgent

[WillySanchez]

i bought ernie ball bass strings, the ones in the pink package. i use them all the time. i replaced them to record and they all sounded super bright...but the E string sounds really dead, like its about 8 months old. is it possible for these strings to just be dead or is there something i could possibly be doing wrong while putting them on, or even something wrong with the bass that could cause that to happen? im trying to finish my tracks on our record...the quicker i get some answers, the better. thanks!!!
-jonas

[WillySanchez]

someone please answer my question. is it possible to put a roundwound string on a bass improperly with it resulting in a dead sound??

[SteveC]

Yes. It's also possible you got a bad string. It happens.

I put a set of DR's on my 5 and I could not get the D an G string to intonate. I have used DR's for years on this bass and I usually never have to change anything. After hours of frustration, I took them off and slapped on a D and G from some stock strings and viola' - they tuned up fine. I got another set of DR's and everything was fine.

[73jbass]

I ran into that problem with EB strings years ago. I'm sure there will be occasional bad string,but it happend a lot more frequently with EB's. Switched to DR's and never a bad string after using them for about 6 years now.

[Bloodfist]

Take it off and boil it in hot water. I promise you this will bring your strings back to life for a short time. I used to do it if I was broke as hell, and had an important gig where I wanted that new string sound. Old trick, but effective.

[dlloyd]

Originally Posted by WillySanchez

someone please answer my question. is it possible to put a roundwound string on a bass improperly with it resulting in a dead sound??

Yes, it's very easy to do.

A lot of people install the strings incorrectly. They twist the string around the tuner post by hand a few times before using the machinehead itself. This results in the string core getting twisted, losing sustain and sometimes causing odd harmonics.

Did you do that?

[mothmonsterman]

the core is broken replace the string.

[dlloyd]

Originally Posted by mothmonsterman

the core is broken replace the string.

When the core breaks, the whole string breaks.

[62bass]

Originally Posted by dlloyd

Yes, it's very easy to do.

A lot of people install the strings incorrectly. They twist the string around the tuner post by hand a few times before using the machinehead itself. This results in the string core getting twisted, losing sustain and sometimes causing odd harmonics.

Did you do that?

I had one string do that because I carelessly twisted it during instalation. It could also be a bad string. In either case it requires replacement.

[NegatroN]

I don't really believe that you can kill an intact string just by wrong installing so my guess is that it was flawed from the beginning.