30 year RD Artist player ( also up for string recommendations)

ya, in november 1978 i was an 18 year old fresh out of high school working at The Music Stand in berkley, michigan. In came the RD and i had to have that tobacco sunburst. it replaced my red 1974 Musicmaster (which i still have and use as a fretless). i think even with my employee discount it came to $525 inc. the case... about 5 months rent back then.

to this day its still the only guitar i bought new of the dozen i have. it went thru the 80's touring the collage circuit, made a couple tours of europe even. it made 5 albums and is still going strong. in the 90's it moved with me to europe and while it didnt get used live much anymore ( i switched to guitar) it was my only bass for a long time here and it rules my studio like a monster. the original case looks like its been in WW2 and is starting to disintegrate, but aside from rock & roll dings and scrapes, the truss has never needed to be used and because i have always used D'Addario halfrounds the fret still are great. excluding breakage i think i've actually changed the strings no more than 5 times, including replacing the factory rounds that came with it when i bought it . its all original and just the friggin' trooper.

strings on it now are still from living detroit, which makes them at least 15 years old. i've discovered this forum and have been glued to it for days now! been edjekatin' my self about bass as i'm sort of a bug in amber. i think i will put a set of TI jazz bass on it to try something new... if they make them extra-long. flats actually are maybe better for the music i do. it has a very dense heavy body and ebony board as many of you know... what sort of strings would be good with such a block of hardwood and active electronics? i'm also curious if someone can recommend strings that have the same neighborhood of tension as the D's. will the TI's have approximate pull of them? it would be fun to hear from people that are using this bass... it seems to have enjoyed a revival of interest in the last years.

i've used the search here what i can, but i'd be curious what people think of the Artist who have a lot more experience with other basses/strings than i... i'm going to usa soon and want to buy some strings there because here in germany they cost about 5 months rent... glad i'm low mainanance in that dept.

i mainly go direct and /or use Guitar rig2 with it. sometimes i plug it into my Pro Jr. or usa SS early-70's voxx Cambridge. (both using a 12-inch jensen alnico re-ish) i would be keen to hear how anyone else records/plays with it. back in the day i used an ampeg VT-22 and JBL's and it proved a very good and unique sound. halfrounds with a roundwound E (palm muted for dynamics) and the amp ( designed for keyboards) 3/4 open it broke up amazing...and never ceased to inspire my playing enthusiasm. btw, the VT-22 was one of the loudest 100 watt amps ever. the headroom rated actually closer to 120 watts i've read. and now that i think of it, i went thru more speaker re-conings than i did strings . any RD players out there?

 

ya i'll post a picture of it in the next days... stay tuned, it may take a bit. and with the TI's i wrote them about it but not heard back...
j