GHS Balanced Nickels on P bass

[Grinderman]

After a lengthy trial of LaBella DTF 760M '54/Originals vs 55-105 GHS P Flats on my two P basses, I'm planning keep the P flats on one and put rounds back on the other.

For rounds I've used regular 45-105 Dunlop nickel rounds, not the Super Brights, for a few years, but now I think it's time to try something else so I'm going to try 44-106 GHS Balanced Nickels. I'm quite curious to find out how they are for me.



BTW, what the heck happened: La Bella RX nickel VS GHS Balenced Nickels

There were some very rude and frankly thuggish to point of mentally not right things posted from that LBS account.

 

[Grinderman]

There were some very rude and frankly thuggish to point of mentally not right things posted from that LBS account.

Perhaps very gruff and lacking in wisdom or reasonable perspective is a better way to put it.

 

[trothwell]

I think the GHS Balanced Nickels sound quite good on a Precision bass. In my opinion, even though they are fully "roundwound" strings, sonically the fill the gap in between "typical roundwounds" and "typical flatwounds" better than other mid-point constructions, like half-round or pressurewound.

Here's a bit of playing these strings on a Fender Precision:

 

[silky smoove]

Don’t sleep on the lighter BNs as well. 102 on the E if memory serves. I keep those on a Jazz at all times. They’re absolutely killer strings.

 

[iiipopes]

The GHS BPN's, when you give them time to really settle in, develop some of that woody, organic tone reminiscent of golden era Fender flats. I didn't say the same or similar tone, but for this one aspect that era's strings were known for.

 

[osv]

I’ve used them and liked them. Nice sound and feel.

 

[FatStringer52]

when you give them time to really settle in, develop some of that woody, organic tone

I would agree 100%. I put them on one of mine and, for about the first two weeks I threatened to yank them off every time I picked up that bass (okay, slight over exaggeration!) But they were a lot brighter and crisper than what I was accustomed to. But after the first two weeks (I average @ 2.5 hours of playtime per day) they settled in quite nicely. The tone became deep and defined. They quickly made their way into my preferred string set list. I had two sets, one medium and one light. I put the mediums on the P about two months ago. I just put the lights on a J two days ago and am starting anew with the break-in period.

 

[Grinderman]

I just put the 44-106 BNs on and set them up on one of my main P basses this evening. Another P bass I have, a Nash PB-63, already had a fresh set of 45-105 Dunlop's standard--not Super Bright--rounds on it so I pulled that out to compare.

Based what I've been able to gather about the BNs they're very true to all that I've read and I've found how they sound compared to the Dunlop strings is true to what I should have expected.

The BNs are definitely more balanced, deeper and more refined sounding. I'm looking forward to hearing how they'll sound after they've settled and broken in. A more woody, organic tone would be great.

At this point my two main P basses, not including the Nash, have GHS strings now; 55-105 P flats on one P and BNs on the other. My Jazz still has 55-105 Fender 9050M flats which I still like for that.

 

[Riff Ranger]

Perhaps very gruff and lacking in wisdom or reasonable perspective is a better way to put it.

Jon from GHS seems like Andy from Mesa on here: happy to contribute helpfully within his area of expertise, regardless of whether you’re buying his strings or not. I haven’t seen much communication here from the other brand involved, but what I have read has all sounded like that. That doesn’t mean they don’t know what they’re talking about or that they don’t make good stuff, but I’ve observed enough of what I’ll call unhelpful communication from them to turn me off. That Jon’s still on here and the other account isn’t says plenty.

 

[HaphAsSard]

I see nothing wrong in those posts by the La Bella representative.

 

[Grinderman]

Jon from GHS seems like Andy from Mesa on here: happy to contribute helpfully within his area of expertise, regardless of whether you’re buying his strings or not. I haven’t seen much communication here from the other brand involved, but what I have read has all sounded like that. That doesn’t mean they don’t know what they’re talking about or that they don’t make good stuff, but I’ve observed enough of what I’ll call unhelpful communication from them to turn me off. That Jon’s still on here and the other account isn’t says plenty.

A while back there was another thread with questions about a change in the colors of the ball ends on a certain set of flats and the same account/profile representing the brand in question responded there in an especially gruff and unhelpful way in that case too; so much so, it was a bit hard to believe.

Not what I consider a particularly smart way to communicate with or among customers or potential customers. They certainly haven't read Dale Carnegie.

 

[Grinderman]

These BN strings are great. I'd easily put these on my Jazz bass too.

BN's on my '58 type P with Klein '58 pickups, into my SVT sounds fantastic.

 

[Grinderman]

To make way for the BN's, I moved my set of 55-105 GHS P flats over to my other/this P and they sound great paired together.

I'm very happy now with both P basses with their respective sets of GHS strings.