Advice on extended-range instruments, such as your 6-string:

[MistaMarko]

I recently stumbled upon your play-along video to "Skitzo" and was really intrigued to see a player doing a lot of uncommon techniques. I play a 7-string bass and have been exploring many of these realms lately (the sweeping type stuff, chordal material, upper-range soloing) -- however, I often have difficulty getting the higher few strings to really speak.

Now, what type of strings do you use for your 6-string and what gauges normally? I currently have .025/.030/.035 stainless steels for the top 3 on my 7'er and they just seem a bit thin/weak and don't speak well live. I haven't tried too many sets of strings so I'm not sure what's really out there. Trialing and erroring a ton of strings sets can be unfriendly to the bank account so I figure I might could get a recommendation. I'm also unsure of how stainless steels and nickels vary for this when the strings are much smaller; I have yet to try nickels. I figure it could be an EQ issue as well?

Thanks, any advice would help!

[adamnitti]

hi mistamarko-

i use d'addario strings. the gauges are:

.032
.045
.065
.080
.100
.130

i also occasionally use a .035 instead of the .032 for the C string, but when i do i sometimes use it in conjunction with a .125 for the low B. nickel and stainless steel strings are definitely going to give you different sounds. stainless steel strings are known more for their bright, piano-string-like sound, whereas nickels are typically a little more controlled and not so 'alive' on the top end. i use nickels almost exclusively, but that is just what i prefer. as for eq, i really don't use any on my bass sound when recording; only smaller tweaks during the mixdown stage.