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4 Years For Chromes?

Michael Jewels

Michael Jewels

Supporting Member
Nov 29, 2000
11,453
9,890
Queens, N.Y.(Near JFK Airport)
#1
Hello, all.

Today, I was all set to put a set of Ernie Ball Slinkys on my Jack Casady bass, which currently has a set of D'Addario Chromes on it, but as I took it out of the case to give the Chromes a farewell practice, I was truly surprised; I finally liked the sound and the feel.

These strings have been on my Jackbass 4 years as of the December just passed.

I always "kind of" liked their tone, but I never completely fell in love with them until today.

Has this happened to anyone else? Have you had a set of strings on a bass, any strings, for years before you warmed up to them?

And now that I finally like these strings, I have to take my Jackbass in for repair; the 3 way switch is acting up, so I'll have it set up too.

I know I can leave the Chromes on, but I'm very tempted to put Tomastik Infield strings on it. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

So has anyone else taken years to warm up to a set of strings?

Mike
 
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#2
Not exactly the answer you're looking for, however, I have a set of Chromes that I bought in '03 (40-55-75-95) that have been on a few different basses over the years. Currently they are on my Guild B-301 and sound great, still.
 
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#4
I am totally surrender with a year ECB81 myself.
The E just sound dull with zero clarity, both A and D string sound round and fat but the G string still has lot metallic bright that never tame down ......

2 of my Pbass has Ti flat and nice string to string tonal balance even more than 4 years,,,,
 
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#5
I have had great luck with Chromes for decades and I keep gravitating back to them after straying to try other brands. Flats can be like pizza; everybody likes something else, some taste better the next day and in the end it is all pizza. I primarily use the ECB84 set. I have had a few sets, that after several years, seemed to get too dead, but then pulled out that old set from the drawer for another bass and had them sound good again.
Full disclosure, I do have a couple of basses with different Labella flats that sound good enough that I am not changing them. With the difference of the basses I do not notice the difference of strings when I am playing until I look at the silks.
 
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#6
I had the same issue with Chromes. When I bought a P bass, I had the shop put on flats and do a proper setup, and there was a certain global pandemic issue at that time, which is why they had no LaBella strings available, so Chromes were not my first choice. I did not particularly like them, but since this P bass has the truss rod screw on the heel of the neck and I loathed having to remove the neck screws, so I let them on for the time being.
I cannot pinpoint the exact moment, but at some point, which was more than a year in, I started really liking them.
 
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#10
whiskyjim said:
Wow I can’t leave on strings I only “kind of like” for four days much less for years, so I’m impressed on that front! Then again, you probably don’t have a ridiculous number of zip lock bags of barely used strings in a drawer…
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I can't leave strings on very long. I play daily and gig regularly. If you don't do that, strings can last quite a while. Strings that start sounding dull have to go. If you don't change them I guess you wouldn't know they are lacking? And, you really don't notice until the change. What's the ol saying? You can get used to anything. To each their own.
 
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#11
When I got my first bass back in 2009, I had it set up with the Chromes ECB84 (40-100). They stayed on there for 4 yrs and by that time the E had gone all thuddy with no definition while the G stayed annoyingly bright. That was the last time I used the Chromes.

I now have Fender 9050L on that same bass and they're 27 mths old. So far, so good. We'll see how they are when they're 4 yrs old...
 
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#15
My chromes have been on my Jazz bass for about 4 or 5 years with hundreds of gigs and they sound awesome. I did clean them with rubbing alcohol a few weeks ago after I noticed the amount of grime on them and it ended up bringing a lot of the brightness back, but they still sound nice and broken in. These strings aren't leaving until one breaks, and that will be a sad day
 
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#18
Five or Six said:
I can't leave strings on very long. I play daily and gig regularly. If you don't do that, strings can last quite a while. Strings that start sounding dull have to go. If you don't change them I guess you wouldn't know they are lacking? And, you really don't notice until the change. What's the ol saying? You can get used to anything. To each their own.
Click to expand...
None of that really applies to flats.
 
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#20
Jeff Scott said:
Not exactly the answer you're looking for, however, I have a set of Chromes that I bought in '03 (40-55-75-95) that have been on a few different basses over the years. Currently they are on my Guild B-301 and sound great, still.
Click to expand...
Yes, Jeff, I’ve read that a lot here at TB.
Players leave almost any brand of flats on their basses for a long time, and make similar statements that X brand strings got better with time.

I just wasn’t expecting this.

And let me clear up one thing: I have a number of basses, and play them all in rotation.

I hadn’t played my Jackbass in about 8 months ( sorry Jackbass lovers) so they had plenty of time to mellow/break in, whatever.

But yesterday, when I was all ready to change the strings, the strings changed my mind.

Not only did they sound better, they felt better.

Anyone who has used Chromes knows they have that stiffness to them when they’re brand new.

But, I am tempted to put TIs on my bass.

I had them on my Breedlove acoustic since right after I bought it, but changed to Ernie Ball Slinkys when I needed the volume control repaired.

The Slinkys sound good, but nowhere near as warm as the infields. :cool:

We’ll time will tell, but right now, I am happy.

Mike ;)
 

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