I use nothing but Chromes on my P basses. I have 2 sets somewhere over 5 years old..can't remember when I put them on. They don't damage my frets, sound great and will not get changed unless they break.
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Can not changing strings often causes premature fret wear?
- Thread starter Killed_by_Death
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SirMjac28
Patiently Waiting For The Next British Invasion
I only change my strings when they break or when I try another brand of strings and I've never experienced a problem with flats or rounds.
SirMjac28
Patiently Waiting For The Next British Invasion
It's funny you say that because I think that's where I got that from? My first bass a 60's Greco Beatle Bass still has three original strings I never knew people changed strings as much as they did until I joined this forum.
I was influenced by that comment from McCartney as well, figuring, if Macca doesn't care what strings he's using, then who am I to get hung up on such minutiae?
Of course, Paul has a tech to sneak the occasional pair of Pyramid Gold Flats onto old faithful or what have you.
Note to self: must get personal bass tech...
Hopkins
Commercial User
Guitar players buy in to more nonsensical myths than just about any other group of people on this planet. Not changing strings may kill your tone, but not your frets.
The one where they asked what strings he uses & he said something like like "Long shiny ones."?
At least there's a plausible mechanism there - running shoes do eventually wear out, even if it takes more miles than they say.
I don't remember this particular myth when I learned to play guitar (late 80s). Back then I do remember that while bass players might never change strings, guitarists actually did have to change (the unwound strings get pretty gross). I think the age of the internet may have changed how and which myths are propagated, as well.
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Yeah, that quote is yet another case of Macca brushing off technical questions as if they were silly. I remember reading that in the first line up of Wings, the guitarists would mock Macca behind his back for saying things like "Now play the pretty chord" as opposed to asking for a b minor diminished or what have you -- but that, evidently, is his style. Even when discussing his Hofner, he will admit that he got the first one primarily because it was inexpensive, and likewise says that he stuck with the bass primarily for branding purposes -- he has compared the Hofner to Charlie Chaplin's cane on a couple of occasions.
In any event, I don't think we'll ever see a retired Macca on TB, kibitzing about pickups.
Yeah, the Hofner was cheap & symmetrical, so easily flipped over for a lefty.
Forgot the lefty flip! That is a not-insignificant detail, but one Macca himself tends to downplay, based on own his observations as I've read them.
Which is arguably yet another example of Macca avoiding technical answers to music questions. Perhaps he feels it diminishes his mystique to admit
his tricks; he certainly likes to present himself as less complex than he is, so perhaps he likes to maintain the illusion of naive genius. Or perhaps he
really doesn't give a toss about what brand strings.
SirMjac28
Patiently Waiting For The Next British Invasion
+1 the funniest thing is he didn't even want to be the bass player back then nobody did.
I think string manufacturers were brilliant in giving us so many choices I remember when you either had Rotosounds or Fender Strings now you can't throw a stick two feet without reading about the next best thing in strings.
I've posted elswhere around here that, IMO, it's not that Rick frets wear abnormally fast; it's just that there isn't much fret on there to start with (and yes, I've seen that video, too; he's right). I have a '73 4001 that had the snot played out of it before I got it, and for a Rick, the frets are fine - and it had rounds on it when I got it. They're not much different from the frets on my '01 4003, which I bought used but (near as I can tell) unplayed. Can't say the same for their guitars, though. The frets on an '87 Rick 330 I bought a couple years were just gone when I bought it. No way at all they could be re-done. But those frets, even compared to the ones on a Rick bass, were... miniscule. I've seen toy guitars with bigger frets. It has Fender-style frets on it now. And, yes, if you like listening to whingeing and whining, just try talking a luthier into putting a set of stainless frets on your instrument. I finally gave up, and let him put regular nickel-alloy frets on it. Not really a guitar player, anyway, and just refretting a Rick correctly is expensive enough...
