Acoustic Bass Strings

[Tabatchnick]

Hello all,

My family is getting me an Ibanez AEB body acoustic\electric bass for my b-day. I am curious as to the strings. I love playing RotoSound flatwound strings. Since this is my first acoustic bass I was curious if I could string it with my fav RotoSounds.

Thanks in advance!

PS. Link to the bass if it helps:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

 

[prd004]

Rotosound flats have way too much tension for an acoustic bass, if you don't pull the bridge off, you will certainly lift the top/bridge area and do some damage to your bass.

I would go with low tension flats (like TI's) or nylon tapewounds

 

[SLaPiNFuNK]

You could do it. Just don't go for the 77LE heavy tension set. Go for the SM77 set 40-100

 

[Tabatchnick]

Thanks for the input all!

I will play it safe and go with the RotoSound RS88LD. They are nylon flatwound, ultra low tension.

 

[prd004]

I much prefer the LaBella Tapes over the Rotosound. The Roto's had a gigantic E string that would not fit in the nut slot on my AEB

 

[SLaPiNFuNK]

You will have to modify the nut to fit those keep that in mind.

 

[Cnote2]

I have the exact same bass & I was thinking about changing the strings this was right on time

 

[Gorn]

I have that bass and heavy strings make playable action difficult to set. Lighter is better.

TI flats or light chromes work well. Anything over a 105 won't fit in the estring bridge peg.

 

[hrodbert696]

I used to have a lovely Michael Kelly fretless acoustic, and sold it to a guy (bad decision...). A few weeks later he emails me accusing me of selling him a defective instrument and wanting me to pay for repairs. The nut was cracking and the bridge had broken. It was in perfect shape when I sold it to him, he had spent 20 minutes at my house trying it out. Looked at pics he sent, and clearly he had tried putting high-tension strings on it and destroyed the poor instrument when he tried to tune them up. Go with low tension!

 

[Gorn]

Agreed. Another thing worth mentioning, low tension strings don't feel like low tension once they're strung on the bass. I had 40-95 chromes on the ibby acoustic and they felt just as tight as 45-105 on an electric. The TI's I have on there now aren't at all like wet noodles, which is what they feel like to me on an electric.

 

[oysteivi]

I like tapewounds for playing unamplified on an acoustic. The clank just from fretting a metal string normally is unpleasant to me.

I didn't do any damage to my (p.o.s) Oscar Schmidt OB100 when I put Steve Harris signature RS77 strings on it, but the truss rod couldn't be tightened enough to fully straighten the neck. That's a 32" scale, however. On a 34", the higher tension might have busted something. I have D'Addario black nylon tapewounds on it now, but as the bass is still a p.o.s, it's mostly a display item in my living room.

 

[Gorn]

I used to have a lovely Michael Kelly fretless acoustic, and sold it to a guy (bad decision...). A few weeks later he emails me accusing me of selling him a defective instrument and wanting me to pay for repairs. The nut was cracking and the bridge had broken. It was in perfect shape when I sold it to him, he had spent 20 minutes at my house trying it out. Looked at pics he sent, and clearly he had tried putting high-tension strings on it and destroyed the poor instrument when he tried to tune them up. Go with low tension!

Did you tell him about this? How did it work out?

 

[HeavyJazz]

I've used a bunch of different ones before settling on Rotosound Photos/Bron 40-100. They don't have those odd overtones in the upper register most alternatives do. The only downside is the price.

 

[hrodbert696]

Did you tell him about this? How did it work out?

I had a thread about it on TB a while back. He was emailing me wanting me to pay for the repairs, and I refused, since a) he had taken ample time to examine the bass to his satisfaction and b) CL sales are as-is anyway. I only figured out that he must have put the wrong strings on it after I stopped returning his emails.

 

[braud357]

I have changed the strings on my Dean ABG twice - first replacement set was Dean Markley's - they sounded great ! When they needed replacing - I had some trouble finding them in stock. I decided to try a set of coated Elixir strings. I thought - no more bronze fingers ! Put them on and was EXTREMELY disappointed - very dull sounding ! They are still on there, but I will be replacing them very soon. And, remember what was said on a prior post - do not try to use standard bass strings on a ABG - something is bound to give !

 

[zon6c-f]

I replaced to stock bronze-rounds with LaBella short scale strings on my Fender ABG-1.

Sounds more like a bass than a bass-guitar..which it actually is, when strung with bronze rounds.

Still a P.O.S. instrument...Sounds better but intonation /set up/ repairs are not worth the investment. Would cost at least as much to repair as original cost of instrument.

 

[heynorm]

LaBella black nylon tapes on my Ibanez acoustic bass are like butta!