While looking on eBay at some Glarry Basses (briefly entertaining the idea of getting g an office bass), I noticed several listing for really cheap strings from Glarry and almost and the like. Like $3-8 cheap. It got me wondering if anyone’s every tried these ultra budget strings and thoughts on them? I’m sure they’re the same as the stock strings on these cheap basses, and I wouldn’t be expecting them to perform as well as name brand strings, but for having a few sets lying around to thrash on, it’s tempting. Any equivalent cheap-o flats?!
Flatwound strings are more difficult to make, which is why they are generally more expensive. I would be very reluctant to buy cheap flats if it existed. I have no experience with Glarry bass strings, but when it comes to cheap roundwounds, the Warwick Red Labels are more than ok for the price, in my opinion.
Price vs. value... The only problem with "cheap throw-aways" is they often end up costing you more in the long run.
I get that. All of my Basses have flats or halfs, but thinking of trying rounds for this project where I’m deliberately hunting a trashy/bad (we’ll say atypical) tone.
I’m pretty sure I have a set of strings in my workshop that I removed from a Glarry P-bass the day I got it. If you send me a PM with your address I would be happy to send them to you. Just let me know.
One of the best guitarists I've ever played with used to use the cheapest strings he could find, and he sounded great. That was guitar though, and he changed strings every couple of weeks.
I remember seeing a brand of cheap strings a while ago. The brand was "Alice". I thought it was probably a reference to Alibaba or something. I didn't buy a set because there were complaints about some of those brands not using the right alloys and not being magnetic enough to pick up the signal. I'm no metallurgist (I don't even know which bass is the best for metal!) so the whole recipe for combining ingredients into alloys to make magnetic strings is sort of a mystery. I do know that some metals aren't conductors and they won't work. Don't buy aluminum strings unless you plan to install them on your Ampeg with the mystery pickup.
Harley Benton strings, can't recommend them enough. Since I started using them I can't rationalize spending $25-30 for strings anymore, they sound and last just as long as the more average costing sets. Downside is that they only come in 40 and 45 sets for 4 strings and only in 45 for 5 strings. Try them if you can get them in the US.
Are they the ones with orange silk? Like the ones in this pic? (previously posted by @RattleSnack) {}
Yep, orange silk wrap is for the .45 sets, and the blue silk wrap is for the .40 sets. Five string set doesn't have silk wrap at all if I remember well. Whether the one in the pic is HB, I can't really say, plenty of manufacturers use colored silk wrap.
Something very unique about the ones in the pic is how the silk is staggered neatly to fit the Fender-style in-line headstock - something you don't see with most other manufacturers. Do they also have silk at the ball end?
Not sure on the silk at the ball end, I'll tell you in a few hours when I get back home from work and check. I'm pretty sure they redesigned the strings once or twice over the last year or two so that might cause some confusion. I've read on talkbass that five string sets have red wrap but sets I had never had any. The only other info I can give you is that the five string sets are stated not to match 5 in a row headstocks, and overall the individual string length is long enough that you still need to cut the excess with pliers but not silly long like on some more pricey manufacturers. Doesn't affect anything at all, and I can confirm that wrap is long enough to pass the nut on the 35" basses. I can also confirm that using the 5 string set for BEAD (or in my case, CFA#D#) still has the strings have enough length to be wound on the tuning pegs with enough wraps around the post. I've initially been suspicious about actual manufacture quality of the strings and I expected them to break, but it's now been almost a year since I've started using them and I never had a string break. I use all 3 sets available for different basses and different tunings (40 for standard, 45 for one full step down and aforementioned fiver set for half-step uptuning from BEAD).
I have tried cheapo strings on several occasions. In my experience they all sounded ok but they all faded to a dull tone very quickly. I happily trade longevity for higher cost.
It's not that much of a mystery. Most any carbon steel works fine, nickel works fine. Other metals, though they're electrical conductors, are not ferromagnetic, so they won't work.
I understand the basics of magnetic versus nonmagnetic metals, but there is undoubtedly much more that goes into the ratio of which magnetic metals should be combined to produce the best strings. If there is so much attention to detail where pickups are concerned, string manufacturers must face the same challenges. Trial and error.
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