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Chris Wood string help.

#22
I think you may be surprised (if you havent tried them before) how dead sounding the coated DRs are, they sound nothing like Highbeams (to me), and are quite dead. Which is the reason I dont like them, but this would be an advantage for you!

I saw the article in bassplayer where he said he used them too.
 
#23
PrivateHigh said:
Chris Wood says he uses black beauties, because he doesnt have to replace them as often, and he uses roundwounds exclusively for live gigs. If you google him, you can find pics where you can see the coating has worn off in big spots. Even in the youtube video you linked, you can see that the coating has worn off close to the bridge. Tape wound wont wear off like that. Another interesting thins is, it looks like he sets the pick ups flat and very low down to the body.
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That's exactly what he told us in a workshop at Camp MMW 2008: He really doesn't care much about string brands, but uses the BB's simply because he hates changing strings and they last longer. He said he uses rounds live specifically because they play a lot of big rooms, and the bass sound projects better than with flats. (I actually thought this was kinda odd, in that the latter point would seem to suggest that you'd want to not only use rounds, but fresh ones, no? But hey, I'm not about to second-guess this guy about his string choices!)

As far as the O.P. is concerned, though, it sounds like string brand is not a particularly important component of Chris' tone -- at least, he apparently doesn't think so. But if you want to try the BB's to copy his tone, maybe you'd be better off looking for some old, heavily-used ones instead of new ones.
 
#24
subscribed. I love this guy's tone (both BG and DB). Some of his recordings sound like flats but don't forget he favors old tube amps (B-15 and SVT) which affects the tone alot. I've got a B-15N and it makes every bass I plug into it sound warm, round and punchy regardless of string type.
 
#27
J. Crawford said:
Id love to get an all Ampeg rig one day.. I wish I could find someone to do a straight trade with me! :D
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Chris is playing an all GK rig these days.

I played on the Black Beauties a lot back when they first came out (mid '90's I believe). They sound nothing like the Hi Beams, and died rather quickly for what I was trying to achieve.

I think the key to Chris' P tone is accentuating the mid punch of the P bass. A dead set of rounds will have that in abundance. I'd stick with the chromes you've been using. Try putting a set of BB's on your second bass, give them time to "break-in" (die), and then decide on what you want long term.
 

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