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D'Addario new for 2013 thread!

#201
It's a matter of preference. In terms of sound, the fatter the string, the brighter it will be.

Some people want a balanced tone across all strings. Some may want the E and A to have a little extra brightness. Some would rather have their D and G as the brighter ones. There's no right or wrong answer.
 
#202
Ok first of all, a belated shout out to Jason on getting a set of these out to me so quickly and at a great price. I'm a customer for life (though I don't change strings that often :) )

I've never been a big D'Addario fan in general but I was pleasantly surprised by these. Put them on my PBass which is essentially a NOS 2008 with a 2012 neck. I love the original old style Fender strings (with the grey silk) that came on this bass but they needed replacing. First put a set of Sunbeams, my usual go to string on it. Not bad but felt a little too loose. Swapped out for the new D'Addarios just before a gig where we tune down 1/2 step. Wow, was really surprised at how much I liked them. I never really thought about the even tension thing before but will say that I really like these strings on my PBass. Sound great, very balanced.

Now if I can just find some of those old fender strings...
 
#203
Came in today :hyper: not gonna put them on yet. But I'm excited to try them.
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#204
Just fitted the EXL170BT_XLB145 medium 42 lbs set to my Ibanez Mikro 5er, after having first moved the bridge about 7 mm further away from the neck.

Not only does it now play extremely well, with no excessive floppiness to the B and E strings, but it can also be set up with close enough to perfect intonation.

Couldn't be happier!

:hyper:
 
#205
Well I managed to restring two more of the 5 basses that get XL's. But instead of tweaking the truss rod right away like I did when I got the set on my P Lyte installed, I waited overnight to see if I could get away without tweaking it. No such luck. I'm going to have to do a complete setup on all of them. I'll tell you, setting up that P Lyte has been aggravating, and it's taken me a week to perfect it. But perfect it is, so I'm sure these hours I'm about to spend on these next two basses will be worth it...

Times like this I wish I still only owned one bass.
 
#206
After playing around with the 45-100 set of Boomers that came on my used Rbx170, the 45-105 set of Slinky's I took off my last identical bass then lost while moving and refound, and playing a neighbor's MIM Jazz with Fender 40-100 7150s I've come to some conclusions about how I feel about string tension and balance.

I like the tension and feel of the bigger 65 and 85 middle strings and the 45 certainly felt more to my liking than the 40 for the G. I would certainly like to try a 110 for the E, as even with the 45-105 set the 105 felt like I could've used a little more tension.

Too bad 99% of strings go from 45 straight to 50 for the G, as with the little tension info that is out there that appears to be a huge jump, higher even than I like the 65 and 85. The couple 47s and 48s I found were not strings I am sure I would like.

I am glad I did this because I was all about balancing the numbers before, even though we only have D's numbers, and I was all set to either order the 170BT set of make my own 45-60-80-110 set from Bassstringsonline.com.

Based on feel I think I'll try a simpler substitution first, going 45-65-85-110 to keep the tension up there a bit more than the 170BT is at but less than their extra beefy 160BT set.

Now I need to wait for my next handyman gig to come through, I wasted the last $30 I was going to put towards strings on beer and Valentine's stuff...
 
#209
Speaking of ERB's, I have a 120 B on my one and only 5-string. With the balanced 40-95 set, the 120 feels like spaghetti. But I never liked the sound of the recommended 130 B, so I guess I'll stick with the 120.
 
#213
I'm thinking of maybe switching back to the normal 170. Not sure why, but the 170BT just isn't doing it for me. The first culprit is probably the 107 E string. Maybe it's just what I'm used to, but the 170 set just feels more natural to me. Thinking of either switching back or trying the 220BT.
 
#215
If I wanted to achieve a "balanced set" for a 5 string 35" scale with a B string no larger than 130 what would the rest of the strings be?

Sorry if I'm repeating a question...I'd love to give these strings another chance but I'm not going to alter any of my basses (nut, etc)
 
#220
JimmyM said:
Speaking of ERB's, I have a 120 B on my one and only 5-string. With the balanced 40-95 set, the 120 feels like spaghetti. But I never liked the sound of the recommended 130 B, so I guess I'll stick with the 120.
Click to expand...

With B strings I've tended to prefer round-core over hex-core. But with D'Addario it won't hurt to try a tapered .135. It might be something I end up liking.

When I hear people complain about floppy B strings on TalkBass I think "Oh man that's probably a killer B string" and I'm more inclined to give those a shot as I think they send to sound better.

Looking forward to hearing how the Sunbeam B string sounds first though on my fretless, that string has gotten a good deal of hate for being floppy on TalkBass, so it can't be that bad.
 

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