You're good to go. One good coat for slightly dead, leave it on a couple hours.
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Eucerin Skin Cream Kills Strings DEAD!!!
- Thread starter JimmyM
- Start date
I just put a set of Dunlop flats on my PJ Mustang and was surprised by the brightness. I gave this a shot and was even more surprised by how much they changed! I like it so far. It did what the tone knob wasn’t able to do, take out some clank and zing without making it totally woofy.
And you can control it by the amount of coats you do and how long you leave it on, too! And if you go too far, wipe it down with alcohol and a clean cloth.
I probably should’ve read everything first! I figured one coat would’ve been subtle, but I didn’t realize time made a difference. I left it on for probably 16 hours. I’m gonna keep wiping it since there’s some residue on the outside and see if I like it once I’ve played for a while, I’m glad it can be reversed a bit. It’s definitely better now than brand new though.
A good point...Eucerin does make your skin nice and soft, which is a double edged sword for your calluses
So I figured it out... here in CO, things like to dry out. A lot. So what I thought was a luxuriously thick hand cream was a cream that had dried from its original, somewhat more watery state. Added a few drops of water, mixed/shook well, applied to strings so that stuff had a better time of getting in the windings.... and it WORKED! Nicely dead strings, all fundamental, still sound round, gonna be lots more fun to play.
After a few more wipe downs and some playing to open up the strings some more, that one lengthy treatment seems to be perfect! The sound is exactly where I want it. I have very dry/clean hands, so I don’t break in strings very quickly at all and this was an awesome fix.
The strings do seem a little bit stickier from the treatment though. They’ve slicked up as I’ve played them and they’re good now, but not quite as fast as the Labellas felt. Any recommendations? I can just leave them as is and deal with it but if anyone has a fix that won’t mess up the awesome sound I have now, I’ll try it.
The strings do seem a little bit stickier from the treatment though. They’ve slicked up as I’ve played them and they’re good now, but not quite as fast as the Labellas felt. Any recommendations? I can just leave them as is and deal with it but if anyone has a fix that won’t mess up the awesome sound I have now, I’ll try it.
I'd say just keep wiping them down with a clean cloth as you go along, and eventually the Eucerin should stop leeching out.
I've got dry hands as well and anytime after wiping strings down with alcohol the strings do feel super dry... not quite as slick as I want them even though the alcohol will take the tackiness of manufacturing residue away. I started using a little bit of vaseline on my fingers and play for a bit and wipe down with a dry cloth afterwards. The petroleum oil seem to almost recreate the oiliness of sweaty hands. Not a lot of change in tone...if anything warms em up a bit further but hasn't killed my sustain.
Has anyone ever tried this on double bass strings? I’ve got a set of Spirocore lights and while the bottom 2 strings are broken in from playing, the top 2 have never been installed. So I’d like for the top 2 to “catch up” to the bottom 2 so I could use the full set.
No, and I never will! But I imagine you'd get a similar thing going on. Then again, if Spirocores are anything like the Superflexibles I once replaced a D after 5 years while leaving the rest on, then it won't take long to catch up.
I ended up trying the petroleum jelly treatment on a new set of DR Pure Blues nickel rounds. Not as widely recommended as the Eucerin, but I had heard enough TBers vouch for it over various threads. (My son had baby eczema, and I swear we had a jar of Eucerin Cream laying around here, but I couldn’t find it. And I wasn’t about to go out and buy a new jar to experiment with!)
While I’ll say the petroleum jelly doesn’t make them sound like 6 or 12 month old rounds, it definitely takes some bite off. They are altered enough to where I notice the difference, and i enjoy playing them now.
While I’ll say the petroleum jelly doesn’t make them sound like 6 or 12 month old rounds, it definitely takes some bite off. They are altered enough to where I notice the difference, and i enjoy playing them now.
Just wondering if JimmyM or anyone else here knows whether LaBella Flatwound strings are in the same camp as TI Jazz Flats in that they do not seem to be effected by Eucerine or Vaseline? I have done two coats so far of really rubbing in the hand cream, leaving it over night, and they certainly don't seem dead to me 
Interesting. I can’t remember if I used it on the basses I have and had LaBellas. I think I did on one of my violin basses, and to the best of my knowledge it worked. Are you getting the entire speaking length and putting it all around the strings rather than spreading it over the top?Just wondering if JimmyM or anyone else here knows whether LaBella Flatwound strings are in the same camp as TI Jazz Flats in that they do not seem to be effected by Eucerine or Vaseline? I have done two coats so far of really rubbing in the hand cream, leaving it over night, and they certainly don't seem dead to me
Well maybe someone who is more familiar with them can speak to it. My recall isn’t great on my experiences with LaBellas.
