Bronze Coated strings on an acoustic

[coolvirgin69]

Just wondered what y'all think. I have bronze strings on my acoustic, and I must say it's a unique sound. Sounds like if you made a string out of wood. Then again, I am using a acoustic.
What are y'all's'es experiences with them?

 

[bholder]

I don't like roundwound bronze on acoustic so much, too much noise and brittle squeaky highs. But I absolute love the GHS Pressure Wound Bronze! All the tone, none of the noise - they're great on acoustic fretless!

 

[GIBrat51]

They're the usual strings for acoustic basses and guitars - and they're not bronze coated. They're either "phosphor-bronze", or "80/20 bronze" (different tones). I have D'addario Phosphor-Bronze strings on my mandolin (EJ74 Bluegrass); they sound good, and phosphor-bronze strings are pretty much the rule for mandolins. I don't have them on my banjo - most banjo strings are steel - but the next time I change strings, I have a set of GHS phosphor-bronze strings I'd like to try. And, yeah, bholder is right; they are pretty noisy strings to play. They're not too bad on a mandolin, 'cause they're so thin, but on a bass? They would drive me bonkers... However; if your bass is a straight acoustic one, you might want to stick with that kind of string. Electric bass strings will give you a different tone - which may or may not be "better" - but you'll probably lose some volume. If it's an electro-acoustic? Then you can experiment all you want. A lot of people seem to like tape wound strings on theirs...

 

[ThudThudThud]

I loved tapewounds on my ABG.

 

[bholder]

I gotta have tapes on one, but most of my ABGs now sport the GHS strings.

 

[coolvirgin69]

They're the usual strings for acoustic basses and guitars - and they're not bronze coated. They're either "phosphor-bronze", or "80/20 bronze" (different tones). I have D'addario Phosphor-Bronze strings on my mandolin (EJ74 Bluegrass); they sound good, and phosphor-bronze strings are pretty much the rule for mandolins. I don't have them on my banjo - most banjo strings are steel - but the next time I change strings, I have a set of GHS phosphor-bronze strings I'd like to try. And, yeah, bholder is right; they are pretty noisy strings to play. They're not too bad on a mandolin, 'cause they're so thin, but on a bass? They would drive me bonkers... However; if your bass is a straight acoustic one, you might want to stick with that kind of string. Electric bass strings will give you a different tone - which may or may not be "better" - but you'll probably lose some volume. If it's an electro-acoustic? Then you can experiment all you want. A lot of people seem to like tape wound strings on theirs...

Well you learn some new every day. My strings are awesome on my acoustic. It really supports the acoustic sound without it messing anything up. The ones I have are the D'addario phospher-bronze...what exactly does that mean? I am ignorant to the specifications and details of these strings, I just know I absolutely love them.

 

[GIBrat51]

I think what you have, then, are D'Addario's 45-100 gauge EXPPBB170 strings. They are coated, but with some kind of plastic-y stuff. They also seem to be very popular as factory-installed strings. They're also available uncoated, as EXPBB170s. If you like the ones you have now? Great. D'Addario strings are usually pretty easy to get hold of; in fact, sometimes it seems like they're the only strings you can get - for anything; especially around here...
Several other companies make those strings, if you decide you want to try something else. Most are uncoated, though. And, if you want to try the 80/20 "Bell Bronze" strings, Elixir and Ernie Ball makes them. The Elixirs are Nanowebs - their coated string series. 45-100 gauge seems to be the universal standard for all of them, too.
If you want, you can always Google "phosphor-bronze strings"; you'll probably find out more than you really want to know about them. Same for the 80/20 strings. Anyway... enjoy your bass!

 

[coolvirgin69]

I think what you have, then, are D'Addario's 45-100 gauge EXPPBB170 strings. They are coated, but with some kind of plastic-y stuff. They also seem to be very popular as factory-installed strings. They're also available uncoated, as EXPBB170s. If you like the ones you have now? Great. D'Addario strings are usually pretty easy to get hold of; in fact, sometimes it seems like they're the only strings you can get - for anything; especially around here...
Several other companies make those strings, if you decide you want to try something else. Most are uncoated, though. And, if you want to try the 80/20 "Bell Bronze" strings, Elixir and Ernie Ball makes them. The Elixirs are Nanowebs - their coated string series. 45-100 gauge seems to be the universal standard for all of them, too.
If you want, you can always Google "phosphor-bronze strings"; you'll probably find out more than you really want to know about them. Same for the 80/20 strings. Anyway... enjoy your bass!

I have phosphor bronze strings. I replaced the ones the bass already had because they had an unsatisfactory plastic-y sound. When I took them off, I could scrape plastic off of them...weird. I hated them. I don't think these D'addario are plastic coated as far as I'm concerned, but I never really looked. Will update. And yeah, they were the only bass strings I had available in the shop I went to, and boy am I glad.

 

[Aidil]

My ABG came with D'Addario EXP Coated Phosphor Bronze strings and it's currently strung with Elixir Acoustic Bass 80/20 Bronze with Nanoweb Coating. I don't mind the coating. In fact, I like it. I can slide my fingers smoothly on the strings with less squeaky noise.

 

[loveandbass]

I don’t like them. I wanna try nylon trubass 88s on my ABG

Anyone do that yet?

 

[GIBrat51]

Tape wounds in general, seem to be pretty popular on ABGs. I have a set of the Roto 88's on a violin bass; I like them a lot on that one. The Roto's are generally considered the "Darkest" sounding of the Tape wounds, though; so, be sure you want to go there... And, in case you're wondering; the La Bella White Nylon Tapes are supposed to be the brightest. All the others? Somewhere in between...

 

[MD]

LaBella 760N tapes and a naked board works for me.