Silks that have changed over the years

Given that many of us in this forum use silk colour and location to identify strings, especially vintage sets, I thought it might be useful to start the ball rolling on compiling a list of strings where the presence, location and colour of the silks is known to have changed, and to document those changes.

It may perhaps be considered redundant in light of several threads dedicated to string identification, but I thought it might be more useful to have this information distilled into a more readily accessible resource. This may prove helpful in resolving apparent inconsistencies involving what strings certain artists used, as well as personal recollections of characteristics of particular sets “back in the day”.

As an example….many early versions of strings, especially flatwounds, were silked at both ends. Subsequently, quite a few manufacturers ceased using silks at the ball/bridge end, or ceased using them entirely.

Examples: La Bella 760 Flatwounds, the original ones (a.k.a. the Jamerson set).

The first version of these from the 50 and 60’s was silked at both ends, and the silk was a mid Mediterranean blue. The currently available version (1954 Originals) is silked only at the tuner end, and it is a darker royal blue.

The very earliest Fender flatwounds had medium blue silks at both ends. This then changed to a teal blue-green possibly around the early to mid 60s, followed by a period with green silk at the ball end only (the 9050s), then mid green silks at both ends, corresponding to changes in manufacturers.

I seem to recall discussions regarding some GHS roundwounds that used to have silks but now do not.

Is anyone able to provide examples of other confirmed changes?

michael_t said:

What's been happening for the last several years is quite a few manufacturers started color-coding the ball ends for brand identity and recognition while doing away with silks.

D'Addario, Fender, LaBella, Dunlop, Rotosound all have their own color schemes for the ball ends.

Click to expand...

Ugh! Don’t get me started on that…it’s a pet peeve of mine. I absolutely HATE coloured ball-ends….just looks tacky (in my opinion of course), especially on a vintage (or vintage-inspired reproduction) bass….

But with reference to differing silks and the ensuing confusion….here’s an example related to a perennial discussion about a famous bassist (and a favourite of mine), Bernard Edwards, and his strings.

For reference, see:

https://www.talkbass.com/threads/bernard-edwards-and-his-strings.1495447/

The OP @KoalaBass states:

“His Musicman appears to have strings with black silks on the video (could be dark blue too), dunno what brand that would be, several people have stated that he didn’t change the factory strings and that GHS was Musicman’s supplier”

while @JTE recalls that:

“The first three StingRays I saw in '76 and '77 had flats, which in retrospect seem to have been GHS Precision Flats. When I bought mine ca. 1979 it had half-rounds, definitely NOT D'Addario HR-72s.”

Could they have been GHS Brite Flats? It would make sense, but assuming we can trust the colour balance in that video clip, it doesn’t really fit because those silks look black, and Brite Flats silks are blue.

We then have this thread:

https://www.talkbass.com/threads/anyone-ever-seen-these-strings.1401691/

where the OP (who, incidentally, joined TB to start ONLY that thread and then disappears shortly afterwards) posts a picture of a set of strings which @Jon Moody acknowledges were made by GHS in their capacity as an OEM for Music Man at their inception….but we don’t actually get a picture of the strings themselves.

Well, hopefully, here’s the missing piece of the puzzle…..





…..black silks…….



….and with current production GHS Brite Flat for comparison.

Same construction, same string gauges and winding length, and same silk winding method, with the exception of the colour and the addition of silk at the ball end in the earlier version. These are essentially the same strings.

So, assuming Bernard was being completely forthright in his famous quote, and he hadn’t changed the strings on his Stingray since he first acquired it….well, it’s a good chance it might have been these. Mystery solved?

Dean Markley Flatwounds. My personal favourites on a precision bass.

Initially grey silks, then champagne/shoreline gold at tuner end, then no silks……then discontinued