What strings did Cliff Burton use???

[metallibass95]

Does anybody out there know what strings Cliff Burton used? I used to use Ernie Ball nickels and got curious as to what strings he used. From all the strings I have tried at first I got close to his sound with a set of DR Sunbeams because of the low end growl and the smoothness on the highs. But then I heard rumors that Cliff used heavy Rotosound strings. So I got the heaviest set of Rotosound steel strings I could and the sound was almost exact to his. But not sure if he used steel, nickel, and i'm not even 100% sure what brand he actually did use. Does anybody out there know exactly what he used?

[Thunderscreech]

No.

[Steve!]

If the heavy rotosounds sound good then I would use them

[infamusblkdeath]

as far as i know he used the same strings you have.you do have the 66's right?

[metallibass95]

Originally Posted by infamusblkdeath

as far as i know he used the same strings you have.you do have the 66's right?

Yea its RS66LE, its the biggest round wound strings you can get from Rotosound. But the main thing is that I just heard heavy Rotosound strings, so I looked for the heaviest round wounds I could find and bought them, not knowing that Rotosound also made nickel strings, I thought Rotosound only did steel roundwounds, so all this time I thought Cliff Burton used steel strings but he may use nickel, I honestly don't know exactly what he uses.

[SpectorBass308]

bass strings

[infamusblkdeath]

Originally Posted by metallibass95

Yea its RS66LE, its the biggest round wound strings you can get from Rotosound. But the main thing is that I just heard heavy Rotosound strings, so I looked for the heaviest round wounds I could find and bought them, not knowing that Rotosound also made nickel strings, I thought Rotosound only did steel roundwounds, so all this time I thought Cliff Burton used steel strings but he may use nickel, I honestly don't know exactly what he uses.

i'm positive he used the ones you have.i'm pretty sure he didn't use the nickel ones or anything like that.i looked around on a few different sites and they didn't say anything,but i do remember looking a while back somewhere,and they said he used the 66LE's.

[metallibass95]

Originally Posted by infamusblkdeath

i'm positive he used the ones you have.i'm pretty sure he didn't use the nickel ones or anything like that.i looked around on a few different sites and they didn't say anything,but i do remember looking a while back somewhere,and they said he used the 66LE's.

sweet...thanks man.

[ZanaZulu807]

Rotosound Roundwound. The man himself says it here around 4:30:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0A2s_rxx8C8

[Honk'n_down-low]

Originally Posted by ZanaZulu807

Rotosound Roundwound. The man himself says it here around 4:30:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0A2s_rxx8C8

Hard to believe he has been gone for so long.

[SundanceChile]

Originally Posted by metallibass95

Awsome video man and thanks for the info. It got me wondering though, He did say Rotosound Roundwound but he didn't say steel or nickel. All this time I thought he used the same exact Rotosound steel strings I got. But check these pics out of Cliff's ric in this forum.

Today i saw Cliff Burtons ric! (pics)

From looking at those pics it clearly looks like those are nickel strings instead of steel strings, so I pretty much think Cliff Burton's exact strings have been narrowed down to the heaviest set of Rotosound roundwound nickel strings that Rotosound makes. Pretty wild.

Out of curiosity, what makes you believe that he was using nickel? That photo is pretty grainy IMO...

[sonic assassin]

whatever he used.. i feel sorry for them, because he beat the hell out of them.

[greenboy]

Like so many other similar threads, it could break some hearts if it was discovered he used different ones at different times ; }

[metallibass95]

Originally Posted by greenboy

Like so many other similar threads, it could break some hearts if it was discovered he used different ones at different times ; }

yea? but what if he didn't?

[SundanceChile]

Originally Posted by metallibass95

Because I have alot of experience switching back and fourth between nickel and steel strings and anybody with experience in both would know that steel strings are much much darker than nickel strings. It is actually very easy to tell in the pics that they are nickel. Nickel strings are like a bright chrome looking color where as steel strings are more of a dark grey color.

I've been playing bass for quite a few years now and would consider myself "experienced". To me, the picture is too grainy to be making such an assumption, but I could always be wrong. Of course, it doesn't help that I never pay much attention to strings aside from feel and silk wrappings. YMMV.

[ErebusBass]

What strings came on the bass?