DR Pure Blues - vs Fat Beams, Sunbeams, HiBeams

[mcnach]

Just a quick note...

I've been a fan of Fat Beams for years now. I love their flexibility and the strong low mids and round tone after they settle. Like all stainless steel strings I've tried, they're far too bright to start with... but after I play them for a while they settle into a tone that I really like. Nice bottom end, strong low mids, punchy, well defined.

I tried HiBeams too. They're not bad but their higher stiffness and high mids means I prefer Fat Beams.

Sunbeams are nickel, and they work very well too for me. They settle quicker than Fat Beams, but they become duller faster. It's a good sound too, mellower than Fat Beams, not quite as punchy etc, but they feel and sound good.

All those strings have one thing in common for me: I never like them when freshly installed. I mean, they work great. Fresh Fat Beams on my Stingray... they're mighty, but I do have to tame the treble.

Today I tried DR Pure Blues.
I put them on my Sandberg VM4 (P and MM pickups). I wasn't sure at first, they feel good, but they seemed to have a thinner bass and something on the midrange was a little higher than I'd like, making the P pickup a little too aggresive. I put them on last night and I was not sure about them. Today I went back and I just spent a couple of hours with them... and I'm pretty impressed. They do not have the annoying brightness that all those other strings have, although they're plenty bright if you want them to. The excessive aggressive mids are easy to tame (I prefer the Sandberg in passive mode, and it has a passive tone control with works nicely on these strings), and the initial perceived lack of bottom is very minor, all it means is I have to boost a tiniy bit the low end on my amp to get the sound I want... and what a sound. Very good definition, punchy as hell, been playing mostly funk and it sounded great both finger and slap...

I may have found my new favourite string. Let's see how they age. But I'm impressed with how they sound on day 1, which has never happened to me with roundwounds.

 

[tindrum]

I've only tried Pure Blues on one bass, my 1979 Aria SB600. They've been on it since last spring. Still sound great! Just a tad less high end due to age but still plenty of bass, definition and SUPER punchy. I have Dunlop Super Brights on all my other bases but they didn't sound right on my Aria. The Pure Blues are definitely working.

 

[Dean N]

I have 3 basses, and those 3 sets of strings on them. Sunbeams are perfect for my fretless. Pure Blues are on my Jazz with Bartolini pups and pre, and my active Ibanez 5 has the Fat Beams. Couldn't be happier with them!

 

[bassbully]

I Run hi- beams on my Lakland 55-01 and the pure blues on my 55-02 Lakland. I like them both but like the feel of the Pure blues and smoother tone they have. The hi beams are more aggressive to me and it's a nice change of pace between both basses and what band and gig I'm doing. The hi - beams are great for my nu country band and the pure blues are perfect for my blues band.
The pure blues mellow out with age but still stay pretty bright.

 

[EricMordus]

I have yet to find strings to replace Fat Beams. They are my go to

 

[Stan_da_man]

Pure Blues, to me, start off brighter than Sunbeams but fade much quicker. They also felt like they had a tiny bit more tension. I think Sunbeams age better than PBs.

 

[W_R]

I've been enjoying the DR PB's. They are on most of my basses now. I am tinkering with slight adjustments to string gauges at the moment.

 

[MynameisMe]

Pure blues are nickel like the Sunbeams vs steel like the High Beams and Fat Beans which provide way too much high end and finger squeak for me.
Nickel is much warmer and liking to my ears.
I like the pure blues also.

 

[Toptube]

DR has sound samples which I think are quite good at communicating the differences. Scroll down for the bass strings.

https://www.drstrings.com/sound-samples

 

[dcallred]

I normally use Fat Beams, but I decided to try the Pure Blues on my EBMM Sterling.

I really liked them and they lasted about 6 months. Then I lost volume on the D and G string. They just didn't have any volume when I did a fill. They died what felt like overnight. I put on a new set and everything is back to normal. When they died they went out quickly, like overnight. The Fat Beams went out gradually and I knew I needed to change them and could get a new set ready to go. With the Pure Blues I feel I need to keep a set on hand or change then earlier.

I like the feel of the Pure Blues and I liked the sound of them right up to how fast they went out. I thought there was something wrong with my bass at first. Seriously it was one gig they are fine, next gig they were dead. I generally play out twice a week. But I did put the next set on of Pure Blues. Let's see how these work out. I will probably go back to the Fat Beams if these go out the same way.

 

[mcnach]

I normally use Fat Beams, but I decided to try the Pure Blues on my EBMM Sterling.

I really liked them and they lasted about 6 months. Then I lost volume on the D and G string. They just didn't have any volume when I did a fill. They died what felt like overnight. I put on a new set and everything is back to normal. When they died they went out quickly, like overnight. The Fat Beams went out gradually and I knew I needed to change them and could get a new set ready to go. With the Pure Blues I feel I need to keep a set on hand or change then earlier.

I like the feel of the Pure Blues and I liked the sound of them right up to how fast they went out. I thought there was something wrong with my bass at first. Seriously it was one gig they are fine, next gig they were dead. I generally play out twice a week. But I did put the next set on of Pure Blues. Let's see how these work out. I will probably go back to the Fat Beams if these go out the same way.

Interesting, thank you!

I'll see how mine behave. So far I'm really liking how the work on the Sandberg VM4 (P/MM configuration), but they're still pretty new.

 

[W_R]

So far no trouble here with them, but I do wish they had a .115 size and a .135.

I've been mixing and matching gauges and determined that I'd like them better in balanced tension sets. To me, the E and G are both a size too small vs the A and D in most of the sets, and the B is about two sizes too small. I'm referring to the difference in string-to-string tone consistency, and that gap really stands out if you use an Xtender for Drop D/similar.

I believe that if the sets were more balanced, there'd be much wider interest in PB's, per both the balance and the "quantum nickel" combined. If some other-brand typical tuning/gauges are approximately equal here, it looks like getting these to ~36 lbs tension is my idea of perfection, one-size-up ~40 lbs is ok/decent enough to use (just a touch tight/bright, compared to ~36 lbs), and getting under 29 lbs (Drop tuning on the low string) is unsatisfying. These tension-related thoughts are obviously similar for other brands/types too, but my focus here is on the PB's—I really like them for the basses/tunings that I can get the sets right for.

 

[mcnach]

So far no trouble here with them, but I do wish they had a .115 size and a .135.

I've been mixing and matching gauges and determined that I'd like them better in balanced tension sets. To me, the E and G are both a size too small vs the A and D in most of the sets, and the B is about two sizes too small. I'm referring to the difference in string-to-string tone consistency, and that gap really stands out if you use an Xtender for Drop D/similar.

I believe that if the sets were more balanced, there'd be much wider interest in PB's, per both the balance and the "quantum nickel" combined. If some other-brand typical tuning/gauges are approximately equal here, it looks like getting these to ~36 lbs tension is my idea of perfection, one-size-up ~40 lbs is ok/decent enough to use (just a touch tight/bright, compared to ~36 lbs), and getting under 29 lbs (Drop tuning on the low string) is unsatisfying. These tension-related thoughts are obviously similar for other brands/types too, but my focus here is on the PB's—I really like them for the basses/tunings that I can get the sets right for.

out of curiosity, what gauges did you find that felt better balanced together?

 

[Toptube]

I think the 5 string set with the .130 B string feels more balanced than most string sets on the market, while maintaining classic gauges. I think DR is very good about this, in general.

(stainless low riders are another fave of mine and also feel very balanced). And the pure blues .130 B itself, is one of the best B strings I have ever used.

I think the only string set with classic gauges which feels more balanced, is Fodera. But I think the .130 pure blues B is actually better than Fodera's. Due to punchier tone.

There are probably some balanced sets out there with non typical gauges, which are actually more balanced. But I don't really like the feel of the atypical gauges. And the clarity isn't always there, with some of those fatter guages.

 

[W_R]

The stock sets are 40 60 80 100, or 45 65 85 105, or 50 70 90 110. There's a Wooten signature set with 40 55 75 95.

The mix and match of 45 60 80 110 is about perfect in Eb. Could go 105 is you aren't using an extender for Drop C#.

For E standard, I think the 60 and 80 are a match to each other, and I think 40 and 100 are also match... I like the feel of the 40 and 100 a lot. I am working on a single string order to get a 55 and 75 with the 40 and 100, so they will all match each other.

For my B standard 5-string. I have the 40 60 80 100 and 125 on there now. I plan to put 55, 75 and a 130 on.

50 70 90 120 is well balanced in D standard, and the 120 allows for a nice Drop C. 110 in that set is OK if you don't detune the low string, but the D is just slightly different than the other strings at 110. I'd be interested in trying a size thinner set though... I'm looking at some DDT's in 45 60or65 85 115, and I'm checking into the single-string route for that. I can see what happens, keep the extra strings around for future, etc.

To approximate string gauges I don't have, I tried adjusting tunings to match tension. Move a single string's tuning up or down a 1/2 step to approximate the feel and timbre of the next gauge. It's no cost, kind of fun, and if you play around with it you can get some scales/lines sorted out well enough to hear and feel what the potential is to get a consistent feel/timbre across the strings. I adjusted the action on the basses as needed, roughly. It's not a perfect method, since a .005 gauge difference at the 40-45 end is a huge jump compared to the 125-130 end, but you can use one of the on-line string gauge/tension tools to see what's happening. I thought that once I did the swapping and the tuning trick, that what I found was convincing enough to work this further via single-string adjustments. Looking back at the tension charts (not for PB, but using other strings to approximate), looks like the PB's are happiest (to my ears and hands) at about 36 lbs (maybe it's +/- a few lbs, but the point was to match strings across the bass). My guess is that when folks try strings, they might be missing out on some good impressions if they haven't checked things like this (tension/gauge/tuning, action on the bass). That said, lots of folks are apparently happy with stock strings/sets, etc, which is great too.

 

[mikeswals]

I've used all the mentioned string in the OP.
Fatbeams and Highbeams are the same materials in both, just wound at a different speed. To me it barely adds a hair of crispness on the to end, but thats it.

Sunbeams have the similar sort of 'scoop' sound that the FB and HB's have. The Pureblues are a different nickel material had a more prominent midrange sticking out compared to the Sunbeams. Once both settled in the Sunbeams had a fatter low end than the PB's.

 

[mikeswals]

For my B standard 5-string. I have the 40 60 80 100 and 125 on there now.

This is what I do also. I got tired of searching the net for single B's to make up my sets, so I'd finally had my local DR dealer order me a case of 40-125 sets, as DR will make up the custom gauge sets you want.

 

[W_R]

I am just a little surprised about one thing, with all the custom things that DR does, they have some gaps in string gauges that I hope they will someday fill. .135 (and maybe .140) .115 Perhaps .043 and a .047

 

[mikeswals]

To me .042 would great

 

[W_R]

Just a short update to this, I received some PB single strings in a custom order and tried more combos. I think that the 36-lb-ish tension estimate is about right for feel and sound. For my J in EADG, I now think the ideal set is .040 .055 .075 .100 — basically the Victor Wooten set with a .100 instead of his .095. Feels right, not too tight, and the sound is balanced to me with good low end and just a hint of what I'd call "nickel clank" (i.e. not quite what you get with stainless steel).

Up a gauge (.045, .060, .080, .105) was just a bit too tight in feel and brought in a high-mid tone that I didn't like—which back-to-back stood out to me as simply not as good as 40/55/75/100. I have a de-tuner on this bass, and tried the .105 (40/55/75/105) to see if it was a good compromise between E and D on the low string, but I thought it took things out of balance when tuned to E and didn't really improve anything for me when detuned to D. Here's why: I expect a little slack when using the detuner, as a natural part of it I suppose, and .100 was fine that way. If the bass stayed primarily in Drop D then I'd optimize with a thicker string, and I'd spend time with the .105 and .110 to decide between them.