I thought sunbeams were too flexible for my tastes also. Great tone, but I prefer higher tension hex core strings.
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Do DR Lo-Riders break in less "zingy"?
- Thread starter two fingers
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I thought sunbeams were too flexible for my tastes also. Great tone, but I prefer higher tension hex core strings.
- May 15, 2007
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- Owner RAD Repairs and RAD Engineering ,guitar, bass, and amp repair and limited custom instrument and amp building.
Try DR pure blues. A little less brittle from the get go.
The OP already indicated the Sunbeams felt too loose. The Pure Blues would be closer in feel to SBs, thanks to the round core, than the Lo-Riders.
Lol. I love the zing and wish I could keep it! I always used DaDarrio, and then switched to Ernie Balls when I went to stainless. Then I switched back to nickel, but I had to stay with Ernie Ball because of the unusual gauge that I like. I feel like the Ernie Balls die soooo fast though, and my Guitar Player says that Dadarrios stay bright so much longer. So, I just get them dirt cheap, buy in bulk, and change often.
I'll gladly trade you my dead strings for you zingy ones!
I'll gladly trade you my dead strings for you zingy ones!
Can't speak to Low Riders specifically, but the Hi Beams I tried recently lost their new string zing after a while, but retained a very musical top end without being too clanky. Same with the Pure Blues. I would suspect that the Nickel Low Riders would behave similarly.
The Pure Blues strings were a bit unusual as they sounded like they had about a week or two worth of finger funk on them straight out of the box, they also felt like that feeling of wear also affected their tension as well. Maybe it's just me, but I feel that the older and more broken in strings are the less pliable they become. The Pure Blues were never super zingy, but what zing there was wore off pretty quickly and they became nice and round sounding with a reasonable top end. I wasn't too enthused about them at first, but the longer I played them the more I liked them. They seemed a good warm intermediate between a round core and a hex core.
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IME DR strings stay zingier way longer than either Ernie Balls or D'Addario.
Stainless Steel lo-riders are just the greatest. But I like a lot of zing. They do lose a little and then stay pretty zingy for a long time. Don't know about nickels anymore. Low B is great.
- May 15, 2007
- 344
- 465
- Disclosures
- Owner RAD Repairs and RAD Engineering ,guitar, bass, and amp repair and limited custom instrument and amp building.
The OP indicated that he actually hadn't tried sunbeams or pure blues.
- May 15, 2007
- 344
- 465
- Disclosures
- Owner RAD Repairs and RAD Engineering ,guitar, bass, and amp repair and limited custom instrument and amp building.
They'll make you a set. Highbeams are brightest, stainless lowriders are slightly stiffer.
The only reason why the OP hasn't tried the SBs is he already knew they would be too loose for his playing style. Based on that the Pure Blues would be the same story.
Me, too. A set of Sunbeams lasted like....4 hours?? on my bass before I took them off.
Okay, so next silly question, which I'm sure has been beat senseless somewhere, how is the fret wear with them? Anyone notice anything markedly different than other stainless sets?
I love the stainless sound, especially Blue Steels, but I was a bit concerned about wear... Ernie ball Stainless eat fingers galore, and no amount of hardcore seasoning seemed to overcome that.
DR's outer wraps consist of more, tighter windings than typical strings. This results in the smooth feel and in turn results in a string that is more forgiving toward frets.
Hmmm. I like. Sorry for the highjack @two fingers !
I play nothing other than SS lo-riders and I haven't noticed any fret wear on my bass. I have a practice bass that's the same as my rehearsal and gig bass because I was paranoid about fret wear on my "nice new bass" with SS strings. Both have the same strings. Kind of silly to me now. It's just not an issue that I've encountered.....at least with DR lo-riders. Maybe 10 years from now I'll check again.
Not at all. I have pretty much gotten my answer anyway (which was "be patient") so ya'll go nuts!
DRs in general seem to be better about fret wear than most SS strings. I love Rotosounds SSs but they chew your frets to pieces. Ernie Ball SSs seem to be a close runner up to those, tone wise and effect wise. DRs seemed to be much more gentle on the fretwires, but retain the trademark SS zing and keep that zing for longer than most.
play them for a week. I miss my DR strings after putting D'addario nickels on all my basses.
