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Best string for rock player who likes to dig in

B

basschrs

Sep 8, 2008
96
0
Philadelphia, PA
#1
I play mostly modern alt rock fingerstyle with my Musicman 5 string 'Ray, and I am using the stock Ernie Ball strings that came with it. However, lately I have been noticing that I tend to really dig in on many of my bands songs live to get a more aggressive tone that I like, which creates a "popping" noise on open strings (mostly the B, E and A string) or a "pop-rattle" on some fretted notes, which is a sound I don't like.

Now, I suppose I could play with a lighter touch, but I do enjoy the sound of digging in. Is there any string that would give me a growly punchy tone out of the box, but be more friendly to my playing style? Also, I run the stock gauges 45 - 130 slinkies that came with the bass, would the lighter 40 - 125 gauge slinkies help with this problem?

Thanks in advance :D
 
#3
I play very similar when I do both metal for an aggressive tone and stoner blues for a percussive sound to establish more presence.

I've been using D'Addario XL Nickel Wounds. Love the sound. Highly recommend giving them a try.

Oh and I use medium lights, even when downtuned to C. Surprisingly works very well.
 
#11
funkybassinator said:
no, lighter gauges would make the problem worse. Try steel DR lo-riders. they're stiffer, bright, and very good sounding. if that doesn't resolve the problem, you might want to set it up with some higher action, just to alleviate the fret buzz.
Click to expand...

+1 on all of this.

only thing I might add is I had a similar situation with digging in too deep - the steel lo-riders have more tension, less flop which reduced unintentional clank, especially on the B string.

45-125 or 45-130 would be my recommendation.

I went so far as to buy the individual 120, 125 and 130 strings from juststrings to compare what worked best for B. 120 was too light and lacked the low end I wanted. 125 is right on for finger style, 130 real nice for picking. I didn't get to use the 120 too much as it broke at the winder when putting it on the 2nd time. compensating for the 120's thinner low end muddied up the E and A strings too much.

.130 was darker than 125 (less highs) but the growl was still there. the upper mids are a little bigger with the 125. the 130 has fatter lows. Both sound great, just in different ways.


I use these strings on a ESP Surveyor 5 and ESP B405SM. These strings are also a decent substitute for Rotosound RS665 on a Thunderbird, but not as "piano" like. Way smoother than Rotos.


again, these were the DR Lo-Riders steel, ordered from juststrings.com.
 
#15
OP here, thanks for all the good info guys! I'm goona head over and try out the lo riders later this week, as this afternoon I tried everything, raising the action, loosening the neck tension, and lowering the pickups, nothing really worked. Finally I turned my bass up and the treble way down and got rid of most of it, so I'm thinking it might be just the nature of the strings responding to my digging in.
 
#16
basschrs said:
OP here, thanks for all the good info guys! I'm goona head over and try out the lo riders later this week, as this afternoon I tried everything, raising the action, loosening the neck tension, and lowering the pickups, nothing really worked. Finally I turned my bass up and the treble way down and got rid of most of it, so I'm thinking it might be just the nature of the strings responding to my digging in.
Click to expand...
of course it is. all strings will rattle if played hard enough. very wise. even wiser would be saving your money and sticking to whatever you use. unless of course you want to experiment around, but i think you'll find the same results no matter what you use.
 
#20
I re-read your first post... you'll get a pronounced sort of fret buzz if you angle the pick in a way that it pulls the string out (away) from the bass. Sorta like popping the string, but with a pick.

It was more noticeable as I got higher up toward the 12th fret.

I had to adjust my picking technique to reduce/eliminate it. I had to force myself to not move the pick with my thumb/fingers and use only my arm and wrist, and rotate my wrist a little so that the pick never pulled the string out, or pushed it in toward the bass.
 

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