Do Chromes lose their sound over time?

[logdrum]

All strings' sounds change over time. It's a matter of metal fatigue.

A string vibrating back-and-forth is akin to bending a paperclip back and forth until it breaks. Of course, bending a paperclip 90 degrees in each direction repeatedly will fatigue it to failure much faster than a string vibrating. Paperclip metal is way less elastic than bass string metal. The string metal is specifically designed to vibrate and is only deforming a few degrees either way. But it's still gonna fatigue over time, and that fatigue physically changes the metal with microscopic cracks and molecular changes. As the metal changes, so does the tone.

Some types of strings and metal fatigue less, and other fatigue more. Every metal type and winding type and core diameter will vary how much it fatigues over how much time.

On some strings the tonal change that comes with the metal fatigue is considered a feature, like 20 year old flats on a P bass. Flats and tapes also let less moisture and corrosives reach the core, and it'll fatigue less over time.

On other strings, they fatigue until they're dead or break, like nickel Rounds after being slapped and popped for a few months. Rounds also let more corrosives through to the core, so that'll also quicken the deterioration of tone.

It's just the nature of the physical characteristics of metal. So yes, the tone of your chrome strings will change over time.

All that said, every player is gonna like their strings at different stages of fatigue. Some ears only like the tone of brand new strings. Some like the sound of broken in strings. Some like the sound of flats or chromes or tapes after some number of years. The qualitative part is up to each player. The quantitative part is, all strings change tone over time due to metal fatigue.

Where did you get this idea? Materials science by any chance? Any peer reviewed papers that have some data?

 

[FullumMusic]

Metal fatigue may be involved if you string breaks, but I sincerely doubt that it's what's making your strings sound dead. Metal fatigue doesn't add damping, and damping is what takes away the liveliness of strings. Round wounds tend to have shorter lives, because there's lots of space for gunk to get in and add damping. Boiling/soaking your strings in certain solvents is know to "reset the clock" to some extent on strings - it's dissolving some (probably not all) of the gunk between windings, removing some of the damping. If metal fatigue was the cause of strings going dead, boiling/soaking them in solvent would not make them sound fresher. But....it does.

It's both. That's why boiling your strings only makes them sound fresh for a very short period of time, vs how long it took for the strings to break in when they were new. You're getting rid of the crud, and also there is some tempering of the metal going on at high heat. Mild tempering between occurs in ferrous metals at boiling temps and will slightly reduce its hardness and internal stress. So boiling will rejuvenate the metal as well as remove the crud. But it doesn't completely fix all the fatigue.

I'm welcome to a materials expert or metallurgist or string manufacturer showing me i'm wrong though. Readily admit to not being a metallurgist.

 

[FullumMusic]

Where did you get this idea? Materials science by any chance? Any peer reviewed papers that have some data?

There's articles all over the internet by reputable sources and scholastic journals. Just a few quick links:
Why Do Guitar Strings Break?

Invalid Link Removed

https://www.savartjournal.org/articles/23/article.pdf

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Tempering (metallurgy) - Wikipedia

That said i'm not a metallurgist nor a string manufacturer nor materials expert and welcome their input if they're lurking on TB for some reason.

 

[micguy]

It's both. That's why boiling your strings only makes them sound fresh for a very short period of time, vs how long it took for the strings to break in when they were new. You're getting rid of the crud, and also there is some tempering of the metal going on at high heat. Mild tempering between occurs in ferrous metals at boiling temps and will slightly reduce its hardness and internal stress. So boiling will rejuvenate the metal as well as remove the crud. But it doesn't completely fix all the fatigue.

I'm welcome to a materials expert or metallurgist or string manufacturer showing me i'm wrong though. Readily admit to not being a metallurgist.

Soaking strings in a solvent - without heat works as well, if not better than boiling. Also, boiling is not even close to hot enough to temper steel.

 

[ElMon]

More notes from the field:

As someone who has committed to playing high-end five string basses with flat wounds, I actually use Labella strings on my current main player, an alder/rw P5.

I think those strings, with my set up, which includes a mute, sounds the most period correct for me when I’m trying to nail that pre-CBS tone.

For me, The chromes I use on my Sadowsky bases are the perfect balance of what I like about round wound strings, and what I like about flat wound strings. Again, for me. For my gigs. I do add more treble than most people do when I want to get a slap tone.

Those basses don’t have mutes on them, and I use them for more modern styles. Including urban gospel, R&B, soul. Whatever. It’s not as crisp and snappy as that classic sound everybody wants/expects.

But it’s actually more percussive and fits in the mix better. In my opinion/works for me

 

[Jeff Scott]

Chromes rock!

Did you mean to say chrome rocks?

 

[GIBrat51]

View attachment 3621007

The only D'Addario Chromes I've ever used, was a set - of indeterminate age - that I salvaged from a Kramer Forum III that I bought in...2013, IIRC, as a project bass. Although the Chromes were kinda nasty looking, they played OK. So, I cleaned them up, and stuck then in a Ziploc bag, in my box of strings. They stayed there, until I bought this '15 G&L ASAT bass in December of 2019. The rounds it wore, went into the trash can as soon as the initial function check was done. For some reason, I decided to put the Chromes on the thing. They tuned up and intonated OK, so... there they stayed. I have no idea exactly how old they were, but... they were definitely well broken in. And they were brighter than any of the flats I had on any of my other basses, too - even the 39-96 La Bella 760FX's on one of my Dano DC59 Pros. I'd say, about as bright as the long discontinued Rickenbacker Light Nickel Rounds on my 4003. I don't much care for bright flats, but... they were on the ASAT, and I managed to dial most of the brightness out, so... all in all? They worked pretty well...
They stayed on the bass until early 2023, when they started to die - wouldn't hold tune, and wouldn't intonate, either.
Because of the allergy problem I have with new D'Addario strings, I didn't replace them with a new set. I replaced them with a well broken-in set of Fender 9050Ls, instead. Which, to be honest, I would have put on the bass to begin with - if I'd had a set of them at the time. So...
How old were those Chromes? I have no idea, really. I do know that they sounded fine - and pretty bright, too - until they just... died...

 

[Prodigus Filius]

Did you mean to say chrome rocks?
View attachment 5387035

He he

 

[Prodigus Filius]

Great to see Chromes getting some love

 

[Prodigus Filius]

Eventually, they all come around to Labella...... JK, but IMHO Labellas are simply far more refined sounding than Chromes, and truly do get better and better with age.

Eventually, they all come around to Labella...... JK, but IMHO Labellas are simply far more refined sounding than Chromes, and truly do get better and better with age.

Ya reckon all roads lead to La Bella he he. Not so sure bout that.
I'm using a Chrome 050 as D. And I have to say, it's the best damn D of any string I have tried.

 

[project_c]

Great to see Chromes getting some love

They seem to be very divisive, some people swear by them, others really don’t like them at all. Having played them for a couple of months now, I get why people may not like them, they have way more harmonic complexity than any other flats I’ve played, (maybe even more than some rounds?). That can be a little weird at first, and I’m finding that I use EQ differently with these strings, I can cut some mids and boost lows and still have a very punchy and focussed tone. They feel and sound great on the short scale PJ I put them on.

 

[Ricky Rioli]

I've not much experience of Chromes yet, but perhaps enough to answer the OP usefully.

I too like the second phase of the Chromes life, that starts after about a month. My 45-65-85-105 set is now 9 months old and still seems to be solidly in that phase - nothing mellowed out or thuddy, still vibrant and responsive.

From advice, I had been braced for them to be on the turn around now, starting with the E, so perhaps in a month or two I'll be thinking, hang on.....

 

[project_c]

I've not much experience of Chromes yet, but perhaps enough to answer the OP usefully.

I too like the second phase of the Chromes life, that starts after about a month. My 45-65-85-105 set is now 9 months old and still seems to be solidly in that phase - nothing mellowed out or thuddy, still vibrant and responsive.

From advice, I had been braced for them to be on the turn around now, starting with the E, so perhaps in a month or two I'll be thinking, hang on.....

It seems to be a similar thing to DAddario tapewounds, they start out as quite bright and ‘textured’, and after a week or so they settle in but they never really lose their snap or go fully dead (although the tape can get damaged in transit in gig bags which does kill them). I have a set of tapes on a Tony Franklin fretted which have been on there for maybe 8 years and their sound hasn’t changed at all since settling in.

 

[Mastermold]

These Chromes are 8 years old and going strong.