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I need aggressive, balls-out growly sounding strings!

E

Electricblue

Feb 1, 2011
1,204
49
Norfolk
#1
Hey TB.

I'm bored of my Squier Jazz Bass sounding dead.

I've tried:
Stock strings
Boiled stock strings
Dr Neons

The Neons sounded good for a while, but after about 3 days, they just sounded as dull as any other normal string.

I'm looking for a very aggressive sound, full of brightness, mids and enough low end to rattle my balls.

I was thinking of DR High-beams but they are lacking a bit of bottom end from what I heard on youtube.

Preferably, I wouldn't like to spend more than £30 on a set for my four-banger.

Any help would be appreciated :)
 
#3
Hey,

I'm using R. Cocco's rounds (RC4F) now and I'm very pleased with the tone. I've used Rotosound swingbass, but they really eat up my frets and wear out a bit faster. The Cocco's are a bit smoother on the fingers and frets. You might consider using a lighter gauge (I don't know what you're using now?), since they tend to have a bit more low end than thicker gauges.
 
#6
2 votes up for the FatBeams! Even though I'm not too hot on DR (due to personal experience, and reading bad quality control reviews) they seem nice. How do they compare to the Neons? I think I read that Neons are coated Sunbeams?

EDIT: they don't say anything about being bright or aggressive. It just says smooth?
 
#8
Electricblue said:
2 votes up for the FatBeams! Even though I'm not too hot on DR (due to personal experience, and reading bad quality control reviews) they seem nice. How do they compare to the Neons? I think I read that Neons are coated Sunbeams?

EDIT: they don't say anything about being bright or aggressive. It just says smooth?
Click to expand...

FatBeams are stainless steel so they are much brighter and aggressive than Neons. Best sounding steel strings ever created :)
 
#13
replace the pups on your bass. Strings can only give small change to the sound. Not nearly as much as pups. Rotosound swing 66 will pretty much tbe he the top of pile for agreessive voice available, but if your using pups that arent agressive sounding the strings wont make up for that.
 
#14
You might try raising your pickup height. If your a passive bass, and you have 250k pots, changing to 500k pots will make it noticeably brighter. Also, a clean boost pedal with germanium transistors might be more effective in giving you that bright top with just a bit of edge.
 
#16
Rotosounds, all the way! Swing bass 66 standard gauge. The rotos seem to have this thick growl in the mids that some other strings lack. I recently tried a set of DR Hibeams (standard gauge) on my '77 Stingray and I couldn't believe the difference. All the meanness and toughness, was just gone! The output was much less, as well. It sounded to me like I was suddenly playing on light gauge strings, yuck! If you are looking for an aggressive tone, I don't think you can beat the rotos. Luthiers seem to hate them, as they eat up the frets pretty good, but well worth it, imho.
 
#17
Roto 66 are the best for that tone, but they die quickly. I recommend Dean Markley Blue Steels as a substitute, they sound almost as good, with a different midrange emphasis, but they last much longer. Labella Hard Rockin Steels are really growly and full of mids as well, and they sound good until they break.
 

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