So my cab is still at the guitarist of my old, hopefully soon to be current again, band's house. Extenuating circumstances such as me getting into a vaguely serious wreck sunday have hindered my ability to pick it up, so I've been playing DI'd into my interface out through two Yamaha studio monitors, both w/a 7" & 5" cone, and a pair of Beyerdynamic 770 Pro headphones. I've been living like that for a while now, so I've gotten used to how dull and lifeless my low A sounds through it, but It's also been just as dull through the cab, so... That anecdote aside, The review:
Just as a prerequisite establishment I got this bass (Warwick Corvette $$ 6er) early May last year, a good two years after the serial-identified manufacture date. I'll assume the store that was in possession of my bass never bothered to change strings. Why would they? Blah blah blah-story continues ad-nauseum-blah blah blah. I finally decided it was time to get new strings and I figured why not cough up the cash for some Circle K's.
I went with the .166 drop tuned set because it had a .112 'E,' and I've always liked rather heavy tension so I can avoid that embarrassing clinkity-clack when I accidentally start to feel the music and play too hard. That said, they are respectively heavier. Not to the point of "Oh my God! What have I done?! This is un-bearable!" But it's noticeable and my calluses are beginning to groan at their new weights.
I've always played nickel strings, and never really understood that whole "Steel is so bright sounding" hullabaloo.
STEEL SOUNDS SO BRIGHT!
Granted these are nickel-steel blended somehow, but quite a leap from 2-year old dead strings. We'll see how they cool down after a week or so. I definitely am a fan though. They're still thick and bassy, but have enough of that shimmery biting timbre to them that they'll be significantly more prominent and discernible in any complex mix.
Balanced Tuning:
I liken this to the analogy of having poor vision your whole life, and when you finally get glasses, you understand what you have been incapable of seeing/understanding. I was wondering what it would feel like having equal tension on all strings, playing up and down the strings/scales trying to feel a difference, but I couldn't. Dear God! There is absolutely a difference! Every string feels so similar the only difference is in the gauge. It definitely makes quick string changes a lot more natural feeling. It becomes apparent how awkward and tricky it is to almost instantaneously have to alternate the force with which you pluck different strings. Hard-medium-soft-hard-soft-hard-medium. Granted there aren't many songs with such insane string jumps, but on the occasion it happens balanced tension helps a great deal.
.166"
I open the envelope: WHAT HAVE I DONE! I just paid a guy to go to the golden gate bridge and cut off support cables! Skip's paroozeling about his local Mr. E's and when no one's looking he steals all their .150"+ strings, shoving them into his trench coat pockets to go home and sell to unsuspecting bassists.
All jest aside, I was legitimately rethinking my decision when I opened the package and saw the monster, heavy as the other 5 strings combined. The wraps on it were so thick that There is a shrink-wrapped rubber tubing around the nut-end to keep it from unraveling. The only downside to this was I couldn't tuck the edge into the tuning peg, but it's a small price to pay compared to all the pros. I did see first off that I would have to widen my nut. First time doing It, I'll probably be paying for ANOTHER set-up in a few weeks, but what I have for now works fine. Skip and others have warned that the taper on Circle K's is short. If you have almost any one piece bridge that should be no problem. Warwicks, however, have a two piece bridge, and it just barely works out so that the taper ends at exactly the distance i need for correct intonation. Its worth it though. This is the tightest A I've ever played on. My others have been so loose that I've taken to the technique of playing right next to, and sometimes bruising my fingers on the bridge. Re-learning to play all the strings with my thumb resting on the bridge pickup (or somewhere on the body the get comfortable for the .166") is not an easy task, but I've taken it on. And I will master it! It's great to be able to play the lower notes farther from the bridge, letting the string open up more and give that lovely bassy 'mwah' sound as opposed to a somewhat hollow 'derp-de-du-deh-derp-derp' sound that has almost no low end to it. Dynamics have become possible without fear of skanky fret noise, and There's definitely no problem with my string accidentally hitting the pickup poles. A side observation: these strings are so flexible! Just to compare I took the .130 from my old strings and pulled it with moderate force into a circle. Did the same with the .166. it was almost half the diameter of the .130, when I was somewhat expecting it to have an arc where it bent over the bridge.
All in all, definitely a fan of Circle K's, and after a few weeks, depending on how i feel I'll order a spare set of either the same gauge or something lighter. I definitely wont need to go heavier.
That's all I have for now. If there's anything I missed just ask.
Daggum... If only I could write this much about my Senior English research paper topic
James
