+1.
These are mean strings. Depending on how you perspire (and it's contents) they can die quite quick (not for me).
They will chew your frets up and spit them out IME.
A great compromise is the roto 66 nickels. Nowhere near as gritty as the steels, but with a lot growlier mids and a slicker, but still harsh feel.
Yea I can second that, after being a D'Addario user for years, I chucked a set of 66 Nickels on both my basses yesterday. They didn't seem to have as much presence as the D'Addarios at first but once my ears adjusted (four years of using one brand of strings is a long time), I could hear a more subtle bite coming through. They feel smooth too which is nice, but I'll have to run them through a bunch of gigs and reheasals to see how they stand up to real punishment.
I've heard they go dead quickly, but then again, out of the packet both sets were a bit less snappy and bright than the equivalent D'Addario set (same guage, scale, material, and basic design), so my intuition tells me that their ageing process will be more subtle (I try to keep my strings on for a year, if not longer). But yea, they sound good, very even and they like being plucked hard (they sound sweet on my Warwick Thumb).
One design feature that is neat is the partial taper. Most tapers are so long that the tapered part of the string sits on the bridge saddle, which I hate because it means that you have to readjust the affected saddles, and also makes the string more prone to breaking (that's based only on my experience but seems to conform with reason; thinner strings are weaker structurally). But the partial tapers are short enough for that to not be a problem, and long enough to help with, for example, older Warwick bridges that don't have enlarged ball-end holes (lol).
Plus, Billy Sheehan, Geddy Lee, Chris Squire, and Steve Harris all use Rotosounds (as did John Entwhistle, R.I.P.), so they can't be too shabby I guess
like on a factory Fender H1 or Roadworn. I like to slap, but thats not my #1. Please help!
