DR Black Beauties vs Dragon Skin

[Horgh]

Thread bump! It's been almost two months since I put the Dragon Skin 40-120 on my Ray5 and they are finally feeling and sounding excellent. I tried the Silver Stars first and didn't care for them. I'm more of a SS guy, I think. That, combined with the K3 coating feeling strange at first, has relegated the Silver Stars to my gig bag in the closet bass.

The Dragon Skins, at first, felt odd. These are my first coated rounds in 15 years of playing and I wasn't prepared for the way they felt when new. Now that they've broken in the feel and sound incredible. It's not that they had the new string zing; I don't mind that tone. I think the coating had to wear a little in order for these to be great strings.

For my next purchase I'm looking at DR Fat Beams, because I've never tried them. But I think I'll buy the Dragon Skins again in the future.

Side note- the 40-120 set (keep in mind these are round core, too) really took some adjustment. When I try the Fat Beams I may do the 45-125 or even 45-130; not sure yet. I wouldn't hate a little more solid of a B-string, and the G feels a little weak.

Yeah, to me the Dragon Skins definitely feel different when new. Brand new they are a bit "tacky", closer to the Black Beauties, at least for the plucking hand. It almost feels like I have to get some finger oils on them for them to become smoother to pluck. On the fretting side I don't notice the tackiness as much, but they definitely become more pliable with a little bit of play and lose some of the initial zinginess.

 

[CM63]

Black beauty love here. Recently I broke a string and needed something quick. So, I took a 5year old set from a long-neglected beater bass; I mean this thing has sat in the corner gathering dust and cigarette smoke that whole time. I am amazed at how well these strings sound (with just a bit of Windex to clean off the muck) after all that time.
The black coating isn't just for show!

 

[ConfordM]

I've just got some black beauties for the first time. They sound great and look great, but I really notice that tacky feeling and I've notice if I'm sliding while fretting with my left hand quite hard I get a really painful burning feeling. Is this something other people have noticed and does it happen less when they're a bit worn in?

 

[Kelloggsy]

Hey guys, I tried the BB from a purchased bass that came with it. It felt warm and nice, rubbery.
Then I changed it to the Dragon Skin but it felt completely different, way brighter.
Can someone elaborate on this? They suppose to be the same.

 

[michael_t]

Hey guys, I tried the BB from a purchased bass that came with it. It felt warm and nice, rubbery.
Then I changed it to the Dragon Skin but it felt completely different, way brighter.
Can someone elaborate on this? They suppose to be the same.

You're comparing a brand new set of strings to an old set that came with the bass. Of course the new ones would be brighter.

 

[Kelloggsy]

Any more comments on those who've tried both BB and DS and felt different?

 

[Brandon Shea]

Any more comments on those who've tried both BB and DS and felt different?

I just put my first set of BBs on my Sire, and I'll be trying DS whenever I think it's time for a new set. I'm really curious to see how long these actually last; I can't remember the last time I used coated strings, so this is a pretty fun experiment.

 

[GTHintz]

I just put my first set of BBs on my Sire, and I'll be trying DS whenever I think it's time for a new set. I'm really curious to see how long these actually last; I can't remember the last time I used coated strings, so this is a pretty fun experiment.

I'm about 6 months into a set and they are going great. I have some small amounts of coating worn away over my pickups and the first 5 frets but the tone is still nice. I reckon they will get me through another few months at least.

 

[Kelloggsy]

I just put my first set of BBs on my Sire, and I'll be trying DS whenever I think it's time for a new set. I'm really curious to see how long these actually last; I can't remember the last time I used coated strings, so this is a pretty fun experiment.

how did u like the BB

 

[Brandon Shea]

how did u like the BB

So far so good! They still sound about the same as they did when I put them on, which is more than I can usually say for uncoated strings after a few weeks. The coating is a little weird, but not in a bad way or anything... just different. I'm hopeful that the Dragon Skins will sound pretty similar.

 

[Brandon Shea]

Update: enough of the black coating had chipped away around some of the frets and around where I usually pluck, so I replaced the Black Beauties and put Dragon Skins on my Sire P8. I've actually been using Dragon Skins on my recently acquired Sire V7 as well, and after hearing how bright they sounded on that bass, I've been excited to compare the basses side by side with the same type of strings.

I'd need another set of Black Beauties to fully test, but to my ear, Dragon Skins sound considerably brighter when comparing both fresh out of the pack. If the box didn't say Dragon Skins were coated, I probably wouldn't have noticed; Black Beauties definitely had a different feel, but not in a way that required any adjustment. I'll probably stick with Dragon Skins myself since I didn't love the way the Black Beauties looked after they had been used for a while. With that said, I'd still recommend Black Beauties to anyone with a bass sporting black hardware. It's a great look on the right instrument, and I think we all know that most non-bassists nearby will notice the blacked out aesthetic way before they'll pick up on the tonal differences between different strings.

Amusingly, DR discontinued the original Dragon Skins and replaced them with Dragon Skin+ line which seems a lot more comprehensive (and also twice as expensive). I don't love the price increase, but if they still sound this good and last me several months at a time, I'm sure I'll keep buying them.