Would This Work?

[Thaos627]

would acoustic strings on an electric bass still work? i was wanting to use the dean markley alchemy strings on my bass since gold is softer and would provide a warmer tone, but no clue if u could even hear it.

[elgecko]

Unless you have piezo pickups, probably not.

[VincentSalizeri]

The description on the site said they have stainless steel cores, so it would most likely make sound. I'm not entirely sure how it would sound, since the pickups would only be sensing the vibration of the steel part; however, the gold would still have an effect on how the string oscillates. I say try it and post some samples.

[Thaos627]

Originally Posted by elgecko

Unless you have piezo pickups, probably not.

i know how to build piezo pickups... there was a site long ago on how to build cigar box basses and they had the pickups on there as well

Originally Posted by VincentSalizeri

The description on the site said they have stainless steel cores, so it would most likely make sound. I'm not entirely sure how it would sound, since the pickups would only be sensing the vibration of the steel part; however, the gold would still have an effect on how the string oscillates. I say try it and post some samples.

i'll get some and post sound files of both with piezo and with electric pickups.

[Tandrew]

They may work but just be very low volume which depending on your type of bass may produce a lot of buzz if you have to crank your volume I see this as a possible issue w/single coils etc.


The story: Back when I was more of a youngster and noob than I currently am I purchased acoustic Elixir strings from a small local music shop that sadly only carried acoustic bass strings at the time. I asked him if they would work for my electric and he assured me they would. I slapped them on and was ready to jam but the issue I had was that my volume was significantly lower than usual I had to crank my amp to compete with just guitar and drums. I was using an active bass at the time.