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Brightest Nickel Rounds

#201
Huh well they need to correct their website cause thats why I thought that ...but their still killer ..

About Circle K Strings

Circle K Strings are a nickel/steel hybrid that are fully harmonically present. Not quite as bright as steels and not as 'scooped' as nickels, with a tonality that shifts less and lasts longer.
 
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#204
jnumme said:
Understand . So can you tell me any pros and cons . thinking of buying some sets to throw on my basses .
Click to expand...
Well as I mentioned: Alloy 52 tends to be brighter than Nickel Plated strings. and it is more magnetic and therefore usually creates more output from your bass.

A lot of people describe them as somewhere between nickel plated and stainless steel, in tone. Which makes sense, because that's basically what they are, materially speaking.

However, as we all know, strings vary widely in tone, even within the same types of materials. GHS progressives have a "cold" sound to them. I'm sure another Alloy 52 string would be described as warmer than progressives. etc.

Like stainless steel strings, they basically do not have as much potential issues with corrosion or rust, as Nickel Plated strings.

The big thing about Circle K/Kalium is that in addtion to offering an extraordinarily wide range of guages and winding lengths: You can essentially get a "balanced" set, for any needs you might have. Having a balanced set of strings is wonderful for setting up your bass and for how it feels to play.

They also tend to be pretty flexible and their heavier guages have less outerwraps Vs. some other brands. Which helps keep them speaking clearly.
 
#206
Well, I doubt I have any credibility left whatsoever as I keep promising to update this thread and then get buried in work and disappear for months at a time. It appears I'm stringing you all along, eh? :meh:

I did, however, finally get the Blue Steels off the bass and moved on to the next round(wound). As has been the pattern, I chose the next set based upon what was in front of the stack. The next set ended up being Hartke nickel rounds as suggested by Duke21 ages ago.

I used Hartkes a long time ago because they were nickel and they were cheap, but I never really thought about them much and it's been years since I used them. These are the strings that came in three-packs at Sam Ash. Well, it turns out they're still cheap and they still come in three packs at Sam Ash, so I got some a few weeks ago and I put them on the bass earlier this afternoon.

My first impression - and this is with the strings fresh out of the pack with no break-in - is that they have a strong midrange/low mid character and the bass frequencies are not quite as tight as some other sets I've tried. Something that surprised me a bit is that the tension is really nice. They feel flexible and fairly smooth and they're very easy on my left hand. Cool.

I don't know if there's a connection between the low-ish tension and the loose bass, but there's not so much bass definition with these; it seems a little ambiguous or flabby somehow. They're just not punchy. They also don't seem to have any more brightness than any new set of strings, so I'll have to see how they break in before I can really assess their tonal balance. I suspect these, with their low mids and polite bass, will probably end up being good for someone looking for more of an old-school R&B kind of sound with maybe just a bit more brightness. Not really my goal here, but not a bad thing at all in the right context.

So far, they're off to a good start. The overall feel is really nice for such a bargain string. I have a rehearsal with a hard rock band this evening, so I'll see how they fare in a band setting and let you know.

As always, thanks for sticking with me!
 
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#207
Played a two-hour rehearsal with the Hartkes. The strong mids were pretty nice. The mushy bass, however, forced me to turn the bass down a bit at the amp to clean things up and get the clarity I was looking for. There was brightness in the treble range, but the strings are brand new so I don't know yet how that'll hold up as they break in.

I was able to get a good, useable sound without much fuss, and the mids gave the sound some good clarity, but it would be nice of the lows were tighter and the overall sound a bit brighter. Still, they sound quite good - especially for the price point - and the feel is very comfortable.
 
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#208
Just a personal observation...

I was using DR Sunbeams on my fretless Jazz for years, and decided to try Pedulla tapered nickels on it, since I liked how they sounded on my Pentabuzz. They weren't great on the Jazz, so I dug out a set of Ernie Ball Slinkys (45-105), and the Jazz sounded better.

Fine...
Then I found this thread. I read all of it, and thought I would go on a "string-rolling jag". In about two weeks I tried:
• Pedullas (45-65-85-105 tapered)
• Ernie Ball Hybrid Slinkys (45-65-85-105)
• D'Addario XLs (45-65-85-105)
• D'Addario XLs balanced tension (45-60-80-107)
• DR Sunbeam custom balanced set (45-60-80-105)
(All nickels on my fretless Jazz)

• The Pedullas had a wonderful resonance on the G-string, but the other 3 strings just didn't sing out the same; I concluded that this was the effect of the tapered end interacting with the Fender vintage-style bridge.
• The Ernie Balls we just a touch "thuddy" for me; not quite as "alive" as I would like.
• The D'Addario XLs were great; clear, full, articulate - but the stiffness was a lot higher than the other sets; that's the hex-core. These feel more like steel strings, to my fingers. (I'll probably use these on my fretted Jazz.)
• The D'Addario XL balanced tension strings were great, too, but the .107 E-string was too heavy - to the fingers and the ears. I knew then that I wanted a .105 E-string.
• The Sunbeam custom set was wonderful; smooth, deep, slippery, lively, lots of clarity... well-suited to the fretless, but the D- and A-strings just felt too small and lacking a bit of punch.

So, after going though all these sets, the all-in-all winner for me and my fretless Jazz are (can you guess?) the DR Sunbeams (45-65-85-105) that I had been using all along.

Was this trip really necessary? Nope - it was an expenditure of time and money that could have been bypassed all-together. I did learn, though, the tactile difference between round-core and hex-core strings, and that I prefer a .105 E-string.

But, from now on, I say, "If it works, don't fix it!" :thumbsup:

Oh, and in reference to the thread title, I found that the Sunbeams are the brightest of the bunch (though I know that others find them not to be so).

Carry on... :bassist:
 
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#209
Thanks for that write-up! I was out of town and off the net or I would have responded sooner. I also love Sunbeams on fretless and I like their tone in general on fretted basses but I have never found them to be very bright, which is what I want for this particular bass.

Getting back the Hartkes, I used them for another rehearsal today, this time with a borrowed Ampeg B2-R and 6/10 cab. It turns out they're pretty bright strings. I'm liking them a little more than I expected to. The mids were a bit scooped, but that may have just been the rig.
 
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#210
Getting back to the mids, the strong mids that were present with the Peavy Mk IV head and 4/10 Ashdown cab that I'm used to in that space were gone and the mushy bass was a bit tighter, although still not super tight.

I've played through Ampeg 8/10s forever, but I don't know the 6/10 or the B2-R all that well. I'm not sure how much the change is due to the unfamiliar rig and how much is due to the strings settling in.

It's been my experience that the "towel bar" 8/10s have a lower tuning and more scooped tone than the old flat-backs (which I prefer). If the 6/10s are tuned as low as or lower than the later 8/10s, it could explain the sudden missing mids.

I have a gig tomorrow night at a club with an old Fender 8/10 that I've used before so I guess I'll know more then.
 
#211
Well, the wind quickly fell out of my sails when I arrived at the club last night to find the house backline had changed: a very, very battered old 2x15 and an ancient Peavy PA head was the bass rig. Any tone you want as long as what you want is mud! They also moved the bass rig into the corner for extra tubbiness. Yay! Pretty hard to discern anything from that situation. It was like playing under water. Bummer.

I'm playing another gig tomorrow, this time in a smaller room with a Mesa/Boogie single 15. I'll bring my own head and that should give me a clearer picture of what these strings are doing.
 
#212
Well, this turned out to be the week of changing rigs. The Mesa 15 magically turned into a recent Acoustic 15 since the last time I played there - a pretty big step down IMO - but it got the job done and sounded okay.

Now that the initial zing has been burnished off the strings and I've gigged it through a respectable rig, my impression is closer to the original:
Slightly flabby lows, strong low/mid and mid and now a smooth, but present treble. In other words, not bad, not spectacular. They definitely get high marks in the feel category; excellent tension and flexibility and a nice, smooth feel. More mid-rangey (is that a word?) than bright, but nice strings overall.

Do they really do what I'm looking for here? No, not really, but I would certainly use them again if I were looking for an old-school type of sound on a passive Fender P or J without any hesitation. ...especially considering the price!
 
#213
I just read through this and would like to say thank you to everyone for such a wonderful read. I will be watching to see what else comes of this.

I too have been looking for some bright nickels (or some less bright ss), but I would prefer mine to be extra light (for low tension) and well balanced. I recently broke in some rotosound 55 stainless steel pressure wounds (45-105) that I love the sound of, but I'm not loving the tension. So next I'm going to try one of three:

Rotosound 55 (40-60-80-100)
D'Addario Nickels balanced tension (40-55-70-95)
D'Addario Pro steels 40--55--70/75--95/100

Any advice or string suggestions would be greatly appreciated. My main goal is to find a happy medium between fairly bright (after break in) and very low and balanced tension.

keep up with the experiment Lo-E. I'm loving it.
 
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#214
OOD said:
Any advice or string suggestions would be greatly appreciated. My main goal is to find a happy medium between fairly bright (after break in) and very low and balanced tension.

keep up with the experiment Lo-E. I'm loving it.
Click to expand...

You pretty much nailed the description of Dunlop Super Brights. No excuse not to at least try them now:
Time to switch to Dunlop Super Brights!!! | TalkBass.com
 
#220
Just discovered this thread. I've put a few of the suggested sting sets in my "wish list" on BSO. After many years of just using Rotosound SS strings, some recent bass purchases have made me think I should look around for something more compatible with at least one of my basses. The bass in particular is a Fender Nate Mendel Precision. When I bought it, I was loving the tone of the stock strings, which are Fender 7250 NPS. I put on Rotosound SS strings but wasn't getting the same pleasure out of them that I get out of them on my Jazz basses. So, I went back to the Fender NPS strings, and they sound good, but don't have the longevity that I want (they really don't last much longer than a week for me), so I will be trying some of these sets in the coming weeks.
 

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