Gretsch Broadkaster

[Tripehound]

Hi folks

I recently bought one of these beauties (in orange of course) and the time has come to re-string her.

Any suggestions as to brand/type?

If it has any bearing, the pups have been changed to Thundertrons and I play through a Fender Bassman TV 15".

 

[SnappyFerret]

I have tried four different kinds of strings over four years, and am still trying to hone in on just the right strings to get the "best" sound out of the Broadkaster bass. I am basically looking for as versatile a tone as I can get, with sustain and some high overtones, but not being dominated by the high frequencies. I have tried D'Addario EXL 165 nickel wound light top/medium bottom (.045-.105), which gave nice sustain, but seem too bright, making the hollowness of the bass too prominent. Then I tried D'Addario chromes (ECB82), medium gauge (.050-.105). That reduced the brightness some, and retained most of the sustain, but still didn't sound like what I wanted. Then I tried Thomas Infeld jazz bass nickel wound flats (JF324, .043-.106). They still seemed a little too trebly, so after 9 months or so with the TIs I tried LaBella Deep Talkin' Bass flats (760FL, .043-.104). These are indeed deep, minimizing the overtones, but almost to the point of being very thuddy with very little sustain.
I would love to hear of some other strings different forum member have tried and how you felt about the results. Otherwise I may go back to D'Addario chromes. You might want to try those yourself.

 

[Gorn]

Tapewounds and hollowbodies generally work well.

 

[Pilgrim]

On my hollowbody Gretsch 5123B Electromatic with Thundertron pickups, I have kept the OEM rounds because I didn't really like flats on it. That's unusual for me, as I'm a flats player...but the flats got lost in the mix too easily. The output on the 5123B is lower than any other Gretsch I have played.

My Gretsch Thunderjet 6128B with the same Thundertron pickups needs Deep Talkin' Flats because the rounds sound WAY too bright and zingy, including excessive finger noise. Flats are going on it soon. It has much hotter output than the 5123B.

Flats for me always are Labella Deep Talkin Flats, light scale, .043-.104.

 

[donn]

I recently upgraded my G5123B to La Bella 0760M heavy gauge flatwounds, liking them OK so far but I think standard gauge would have been fine too. Depends on what you want to hear, of course. Roundwound would be anathema to me, and likely a lot of others in the hollow body crowd. But if you really wanted a bass with a semi acoustic guitar body so that your bass could sound conspicuously like it's in the guitar family, then that kind of twangy sound might be exactly what you want.

 

[GretschBassist]

I have Ernie Ball Regular Slinky (65-130 /wo the 65 though) on them and I love the sound as it emphasizes that mid-tone growl of the bass quite nicely. Never tried flats though as I was happy with what I got.

 

[GIBrat51]

I'm pretty sure I have 45-105 Hybrid Slinkys on my '94 Broadkaster. I tried a bunch of different strings on it, and nothing really worked. The Slinkys weren't bad, actually; pretty balanced, though I would prefer a more woody, vintage sound on this bass. Honestly, I just gave up trying; unforseen circumstances and other projects have kept me from working on it since. But, the Slinkys weren't too bad, as I remember.

Mine is a post-Baldwin, pre-Fender Gretsch, and has ceramic magnet Filtertrons in it. I'm pretty sure they're the problem; weak sounding, thin and trebly. I seriously doubt there are strings that would give the sound I want without pulling the neck off. My Rogue violin bass sounds better, and my old Japanese Epiphone makes the Gretsch sound like a toy. It's gotta be the pickups...:scowl: