Cleartone Strings = Cleartone Junk

[Ricky Rioli]

how do we explain

Thread is 16 years old. Does the YouTube review explicitly claim to be using a set of strings made before the credit crunch?

 

[Swerve]

Given all the negative 'supposedly' first hand reviews, how do we explain this 8 string test review, where the Cleartones clearly sound conspicuously louder, richer, and punchier and therefore too...the best on pick and fingers, and no worse than the others on slap?

The Cleartones sounded fine, as did all the strings really. I preferred the Fenders and GHS Boomers the most.

 

[Swerve]

I checked Cleartones website. Nice to see they have since updated that god awful packaging.

From this

To this

 

[Volume Not Withstanding]

Sorry! I didn't realize the thread was this old, but maybe it bares revisiting. I'd never heard of these strings so I assumed them to be something more recent. That time frame would however explain and allow for these strings to...evolve and improve, which is maybe then the case.

I'm curious: My ears are often at odds with modern bass players, so I wonder...it your own 'personal experience' of Fender and GHS Boomers that causes you to favor them, or...are you hearing something in 'this video' that I'm missing? If so, can you describe it, because I'm trying to update my old ears.

If I was doing metal or grunge I could find service in the Fender that my passive tube amp could not on its own dial in, and if I was doing old school rock or maybe reggae, I imagine the GHS would settle in nicely (though I think the GHS Precision Flats to be a better choice).

Thanks!

 

[Swerve]

Sorry! I didn't realize the thread was this old, but maybe it bares revisiting. I'd never heard of these strings so I assumed them to be something more recent. That time frame would however explain and allow for these strings to...evolve and improve, which is maybe then the case.

I'm curious: My ears are often at odds with modern bass players, so I wonder...it your own 'personal experience' of Fender and GHS Boomers that causes you to favor them, or...are you hearing something in 'this video' that I'm missing? If so, can you describe it, because I'm trying to update my old ears.

If I was doing metal or grunge I could find service in the Fender that my passive tube amp could not on its own dial in, and if I was doing old school rock or maybe reggae, I imagine the GHS would settle in nicely (though I think the GHS Precision Flats to be a better choice).

Thanks!

I like that extra crunch from the Fenders that none of the other strings had. To me they sound like how people describe Roto's. If I play rounds (which I usually don't) I like the feel/tension/sound of 7250's and how they cut through. I don't have much experience with Boomers but they had a pleasing low mid / darker sound on that Jazz and I thought they had a good slap tone. But at the end of the day I'd rather play bright flats than nickel rounds on most basses.

 

[Volume Not Withstanding]

I went back and listened again. I have produced extensively, and more significantly (and damning) I'm a recovered audiophile. I hear in each some quality possessed...but missing in the others, either in degree or totality, which I am able to describe. Whether it is a good thing or not is up to the player (or producer).

The contemporary talk of growl, snarl, and bite evolved with rock, to replace terms of service terms that described musical rather than percussive extra-musical artifacts, things more euphonic like tone and sustain. Ironically, what people today extol about Jamerson's sound was obligated by the equipment of the day, but unwanted at the time.

The sound that pollutes 'my' ears would be unserviceable in a modern scenario of virtually any given genre of play. I understand that. That's why I have Fender strings. I'm trying to like them instead of throwing on flat-wounds from La Bella, GHS, or Goldtone. But I think I'm just dialing 'out' the newness. Old dogs and new tricks!