DR Silver Stars are ghastly!!

[KaraQ]

.... May be with some strings that were coated too heavily or older basses with primarily passive electronics, which mine was, aside form the Bartolini line buffer... but the grounding and everything is the same on all of them and it sounds great with a set of regular gauge Ernie Ball's on them... I just couldn't get past the lack of bass in them, as well... when I bought regular gauge, or whatever was closest to that... plus they were cheap! lol... When you think about it, though, if they are entirely coated, it's just like magnet wire, and they will make no contact with the bridge or your fingers... the string ball will likely ground on the bridge, but if nothing else does and you have any RF floating around, say from a dimmer, computer monitor, TV or flourescent lights, which is pretty much all of them now, then you will pick up some buzz... and my rig is full range, with a tweeter, so it was like a chainsaw cutting through a snare drum! lol

I have coated strings (all but one are DRs) on all my basses (except the one that has flats), both passive & active, with four different bridge types. And I've used the DRs on other basses I no longer have (SBMM, Ibanez). Never had any grounding issues, or lack of bass, or any other problems due to strings.

Bad set? Possibly, I guess.

 

[sunbeast]

I'm aware of similar complaints with tapewounds, though I've never had the issue myself, and I don't recall ever hearing about it with coated strings, but it's possible that the coating is isolating the strings from ground and causing your issues. Usually the strings still get grounded because the ball end is touching both the bridge and the string core and therefore grounding it. However, there are threads on this very forum where people have had similar issues with tapewounds. I believe at least one person solved it by scraping the nylon off where it crossed the saddle to ground it. Seems like a bad idea with tapes, but since you've already tried sanding them, a little scraping the coating off at the saddle can't hurt to see if that gets them grounded properly. Best of luck.

The issue with tapewounds and grounding is that the grounding is there to ground you, not the strings. The human body is a big meat antenna and much of that noise you hear coming from an instrument is coming from you (any noise that happens on a bass with standard nickel/steel strings that goes away when you touch something grounded like the strings/bridge/control plate/metal knobs, etc is noise that you were directing into the signal path with your body up next to the instrument). This kind of noise usually returns to manageable levels with adequate grounded shielding (so the noise never makes it as far as the pickups/control cavity). Of course EMI issues are totally dependent on your environment, but your body is often the most direct conduit for most of them.

 

[sunbeast]

I used the original Black Beauties for years on a few basses and never had ground issues like I've experienced with tapewounds. I know DR has changed their recipe for coated strings though, and I believe there were a few different versions for awhile dependent on the color used. I know the Black Beauties sounded nothing like your description- they just sounded like worn-in steel rounds and had a consistent growl that I really dug at the time. I think the originals were steel rounds with coating while the newer coated strings are nickel (or maybe dependent on the color?).

Perhaps they just had a bad batch. I know in the past when I only used DRs I got great customer service when there were issues, contacting the company directly (used strings as consumables are rarely returnable to a store, for hopefully obvious reasons). Give DR an email or call and ask about whether string grounding is an issue and describe your problem to them and let them have the opportunity to possibly make it right for you.

 

[Sean Sweeney]

Yes, I would say I likely got some with the new formula... because I use regular Guage, and these were just hollow, funky, all growl and no meat... I have standard non coated now and they sound awesome... and it also mentioned something on the package about new coating and other stuff... I'm just a little PO'd that I got taken by the store, and by the maker. Going to write the maker directly, bc the store is managed by a guy that is a former bank manager with zero musical background and zero acquired knowledge in the 15+ years of running the place... just the other day I had a thick headed moment and saw two recording interfaces and asked him what was the difference between the two and he said, I quote, "that one is $50 more" and just to be a poopie I asked him why... lol... deer in headlights... I like supporting local businesses, and I do tech work for them, buy it's hard when the dude doesn't even realize or care if you're doing him a favor... but just last year I was making an experimental instrument and went up to buy a cheap used pickup, and the dude hands me a used (original) 50s p-bass pickup... for $4... so I bought another and got $350 for that on Ebay... lol

I used the original Black Beauties for years on a few basses and never had ground issues like I've experienced with tapewounds. I know DR has changed their recipe for coated strings though, and I believe there were a few different versions for awhile dependent on the color used. I know the Black Beauties sounded nothing like your description- they just sounded like worn-in steel rounds and had a consistent growl that I really dug at the time. I think the originals were steel rounds with coating while the newer coated strings are nickel (or maybe dependent on the color?).

Perhaps they just had a bad batch. I know in the past when I only used DRs I got great customer service when there were issues, contacting the company directly (used strings as consumables are rarely returnable to a store, for hopefully obvious reasons). Give DR an email or call and ask about whether string grounding is an issue and describe your problem to them and let them have the opportunity to possibly make it right for you.

 

[Geri O]

Why would DR send him free strings? They weren't faulty, they didn't break, he just didn't like them. DR owes him nothing.

I agree. I tried a couple of different types of DR strings, just regular round wound strings. Among the worst-soundng strings I ever played. They didn't last 10 minutes on my bass.

But I don't believe DR owes me anything for not liking them.

 

[Sean Sweeney]

I agree. I tried a couple of different types of DR strings, just regular round wound strings. Among the worst-soundng strings I ever played. They didn't last 10 minutes on my bass.

But I don't believe DR owes me anything for not liking them.

Yea, in this instance I'm at odds with that... on the one hand they're colored coated strings... they're "cute" and that reads, not necessarily high quality... but the packaging says very little about the silver colored part... it's just called "silver strings" or something... which to me doesn't automatically mean that they're colored silver, in fact, I"ve never come across such a thing until now! It's like I bought PROP strings... and they didn't say PROP on them! lol... and they cost as much as REAL ones... So... I can see an argument for replacing them... and I'm sure they'll say if you check the back or read the fine print you'll see that these are manufactured for looks and yadda yadda and there's a lawyer already on the case for them... still...

 

[rockinrayduke]

Jesus, that was hard to read.

 

[Killing Floor]

Who is Mike?

 

[Killing Floor]

did Mike actually sound better longer

WHO IS MIKE?

 

[Sean Sweeney]

Jesus, that was hard to read.

:
LOL... I know! I apologize. I was on a long drive to a gig and dictated that, but that wasn't at ALL what I was speaking... these android phones have a glitch in their speech to text mode and they search out the syntax, the possible and common words used in "X" context and then picks the right one, to them... and sometimes it screws up and writes ALL the possibilities down... lol... I couldn't even edit the damned thing! Maybe it was a digital echo?! But a lot of people have had that glitch show up on their phones... not sure what to do about it, as it still does it... just not as bad as it was doing it then...

 

[MonetBass]

I was gonna ask "can I buy a paragraph or two?"

 

[trothwell]

Fascinating post... I'm not sure I've even heard of DR Silver Stars, but it sounds like they are coated strings? I never thought coated strings sounded like a good idea. Have never tried any of them.

I do like tapewound strings in some scenarios, but that's a different kind of "coating".

 

[Sean Sweeney]

Fascinating post... I'm not sure I've even heard of DR Silver Stars, but it sounds like they are coated strings? I never thought coated strings sounded like a good idea. Have never tried any of them.

I do like tapewound strings in some scenarios, but that's a different kind of "coating".

They are coated with two things... a color (these are silver, kind of redundant, but I guess in truch MORE silver than one would expect...or maybe LESS than a new set of strings, but will stay so longer!) and a coating that protects the strings from corroding and keeps the "new(ish)" sound longer. So they're coated with STUFF and with CUTE... I didn't know about the CUTE part... I thought DR Silver Strings were just strings... silver seemed like a given! lol