I've got a question for the Talkbass hive mind. Here's the background - I've been playing flats for the last 10 years; Labella Deep Talkin' FS flats and Ernie Ball Cobalt flats. Great sound, good feel.
I wanted to get back to roundwounds for some extra bite in my Jazz bass sound, so I bought Dunlop Nickel-wound strings which were on sale at Guitar Center. They turned my fingers black after playing them for 3 hours at rehearsal last night. My fingers turned black as well when I installed the strings on my Jazz bass 2 days ago, playing for 10 minutes.
I was near Guitar Center today and stopped in. I mentioned this to one of the techs. He conferred with the store manager about this and told me that a few years ago, one of their salespeople reacted the same way to playing nickel bass strings where his fingers also turned black. He then went on to say "it was very dangerous; you are allergic to Nickel, so you should stop immediately and get some stainless steel strings instead." I don't feel any adverse effects in my hands. Is this really as bad as he made it to be? Or just a way to get me to buy stainless steel?
I wanted to get back to roundwounds for some extra bite in my Jazz bass sound, so I bought Dunlop Nickel-wound strings which were on sale at Guitar Center. They turned my fingers black after playing them for 3 hours at rehearsal last night. My fingers turned black as well when I installed the strings on my Jazz bass 2 days ago, playing for 10 minutes.
I was near Guitar Center today and stopped in. I mentioned this to one of the techs. He conferred with the store manager about this and told me that a few years ago, one of their salespeople reacted the same way to playing nickel bass strings where his fingers also turned black. He then went on to say "it was very dangerous; you are allergic to Nickel, so you should stop immediately and get some stainless steel strings instead." I don't feel any adverse effects in my hands. Is this really as bad as he made it to be? Or just a way to get me to buy stainless steel?
