G&L CLF L1000 Strings (Stock or change it up?)

[halcyo]

Had my new L1000 for about a year now, and I wanna put some fresh new strings on her. I feel they've mellowed a bit too much, since the instrument is already quite beefy in tone, and I'm looking to regain some brightness and punch that I felt was more on tap when I first took delivery of the bass. Anyone know what strings come on these? There was a thread about strings on G&L L1000's before, but the last posts were from 2010, so they had to be referring to older models, not the reissue.

I'm thinking to just get a new set of whatever G&L puts on these at the factory, but I can't find which D'Addarios they use specifically (strings are very confusing to me- way too many options and jargon that doesn't mean anything to me as a player who doesn't try lots of different strings haha). Sweetwater listings say "D'Addario .45-.105" and that's all lol.

I'm not against other suggestions though. I like a nice bright, punch, sound with plenty of that growl, but also a nice big bass tone. The L1000 does a lot of the work already, but I don't want mellow strings or flats on this instrument. I can always turn the treble DOWN if I need darker tone. Since the L1000 is a little "beefy" or "tubby" on the low end, I wonder if I want smaller gauge strings?

Mostly I just want a great, all around, somewhat bright and punchy tone, for a general kick butt bass sound for live and recording. Don't care about price! What y'all think?!

 

[Jon Moody]

Unless they've got colored ball ends on them, they've been using GHS Bassics (44-63-80-100) for about a year on the American models. The imports are still D'Addario XLs.

Any nickel-plated string will sound great on the L1000. The MFD pickups are pretty great and pick up a ton of nuance.

 

[michael_t]

I can't find which D'Addarios they use specifically (strings are very confusing to me- way too many options and jargon that doesn't mean anything to me as a player who doesn't try lots of different strings haha). Sweetwater listings say "D'Addario .45-.105" and that's all lol.

Mostly I just want a great, all around, somewhat bright and punchy tone, for a general kick butt bass sound for live and recording. Don't care about price! What y'all think?!

Unless they've got colored ball ends on them, they've been using GHS Bassics (44-63-80-100) for about a year on the American models. The imports are still D'Addario XLs.

"D'Addario 45-105" means the XL Nickels EXL165 set. And they would have color-coded ball ends, brass-red-black-green (E-G).

That said, I would take the GHS Bassics over the D'A Nickels for the "somewhat bright and punchy" tone without being too zingy or harsh.

 

[halcyo]

Awesome info from you guys! So the consensus so far is try out the GHS Bassics?

 

[Rogulus]

My 2020 american SB-1 had daddario 45-100 XLs on them, the CLF L1K we had in the shop I work at had the same as well.

Spec/build sheet should list original strings.

 

[michael_t]

So the consensus so far is try out the GHS Bassics?

The consensus between you and me is you should at least give them a try. If they're good enough for G&L to put on their American models, they can't be all that bad.

 

[tindrum]

One other benefit to using Bassics is they're about $1-2 cheaper than most strings. According to GHS it's not because they are a "bargain" string but they cost a little less to produce.