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GHS Pressurewounds

#61
Altitude said:
I have a Valenti J 5-string that has an ash body and maple board, Sadowsky preamp. It's one of the most comfortable basses I've played, but boy is it bright. With steel strings it's unacceptably clicky. With nickel rounds, it's still growly enough to do the rock Geddy thing, but I play in a horn funk group. Either way, I find myself rolling off the tone control more than I want to, because that tends to pull out some of the mids that I'd prefer to keep in.

I just ordered a set of Pressurewounds to see how they tame back the high end. Based on what I read in these threads, they could be just the thing to keep this particular instrument in the roundwound ballpark but to make it a little more laid-back sounding. I'll report in.
Click to expand...

I'm looking forward to read your thoughts on them, Will.
 
#62
After about a month of waiting I got the Pressurewounds in today. Just put them on my 6 string Martin Keith acoustic bass. While I was putting them on I was becoming disappointed. Acoustically I heard a brighter string than I had expected. Got the strings on and plugged in the bass. Ah, now I get it. They don't seem to sound so bright plugged in, and I'm sure in a week or two they'll mellow a bit more. They really are a balance of flat and round. Very cool. I don't have my own speaker back from the tour I just did, so I can't hear them as I'd like, but they seem to be really cool strings. My only criticism thus far is the high C string is too thin. I wish they offered maybe a .30. The .28 is too thin for my liking.
 
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#64
Just put a fresh set of GHS Pressurewound ML7200 on my American Precision. Thought I'd try them out in place of my Labella LTF4A strings.
Boy Oh Boy! They are a whole new ball game for me. Squeeky, zingy, noisy strings. I had to dial out a lot of mids at 2Khz to make them sound good. I'm assuming that they'll calm down over the next little while.
I do like playing them though as they have a nice feel to them. This coming from a "dyed in the wool" flatwounder.
 
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#65
quickfix said:
Boy Oh Boy! They are a whole new ball game for me. Squeeky, zingy, noisy strings. I had to dial out a lot of mids at 2Khz to make them sound good. I'm assuming that they'll calm down over the next little while.
Click to expand...

As a former flatwound enthusiast myself, I can relate to this. The first time I tried the PWs after playing the La Bella 760FL, they felt and sounded like any ordinary rounds. Now that I've gotten away from the flatter side of life for a while, however, I'm starting to appreciate the finer qualities of the PWs even more.
 
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#67
quickfix said:
Just put a fresh set of GHS Pressurewound ML7200 on my American Precision. Thought I'd try them out in place of my Labella LTF4A strings.
Boy Oh Boy! They are a whole new ball game for me. Squeeky, zingy, noisy strings. I had to dial out a lot of mids at 2Khz to make them sound good. I'm assuming that they'll calm down over the next little while.
I do like playing them though as they have a nice feel to them. This coming from a "dyed in the wool" flatwounder.
Click to expand...

quickfix, yes, they do mellow some as they age. I would guess within a week of steady playing the zing will back off some.
 
#68
emjazz said:
It seems I got a bad G string (hold the jokes) in my set. Drag. It's super dead on the upper frets. My bass is only a few months old, and I haven't had any other string (and I've tried a few sets) that has been a problem.
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This is interesting; you don't usually get a string that's dead in only one area of the fretboard (in your case, the upper frets) but sound fine everywhere else. The string would be dead all over; is there any chance you somehow twisted it, or did something else while installing it? What about those same "upper frets" on other strings?
 
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#70
Altitude said:
My thought also. Although, I have bought strings that arrived dead a couple times in the past. A day or so soaking in denatured alcohol would clear it right up.
Click to expand...

As have I; it's rare but it can happen. But a string that's dead on the upper frets only? That's interesting.
 
#71
My apologies for taking a bit to respond. I think the string was adjusting as it is on a traditional acoustic bridge. Things have settled and it seems fine now. It's also my being used to brighter strings with more sustain. Either way, I believe the string is ok. Still breaking them in so I'm still not sure, but they are definitely really nice strings.
 
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#72
I hadn't played my P for a while so I took it to band practice last week, and as soon as I plugged it in my first thought was "man this bass sounds great!". Still love the PWs! :)

I'm sure I'm repeating myself here, but I've never been much for flats. Most recently I had a set of GHS Precision Flats on my P bass for... I dunno, six to eight months? ... before I reached my breaking point, which was a new record for me. As far as flats go they really sounded great, but that's just not my tone. I was looking for a more vintage vibe on my P bass for my one band that plays a lot of Rolling Stones, Beatles, Neil Young, Pink Floyd, Allman Bros, etc... but I just can't do flats.

Switching to Pressurewounds was really a best-of-both-worlds type scenario for me. These strings got my tone back into the roundwound realm, generally speaking, but retained that vintage vibe without all the zing. There are days when I miss that extra brightness of a true round wound, especially when I'm going for a more extreme overdriven tone where you really want that crunchy bite (rarely needed for me these days), but once the band gets rolling that thought is quickly forgotten. With pick or fingers, the Pressurewounds sit right where I want them.
 
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#80
Due to a lot of folk testimony,i bought a 44-102 set for my fretless Rick. As it turns out,what i was looking for was more of a URB type sound,and found the pw’s tone a bit too metallic.
I put them on a fretted Laredo 4004,and they sound fabulous, a great combination of flatwound thump and a bit of rw edge.
And they have a really great feel,both in terms of the smooth surface,and the tension balance.
 
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