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Killing round wounds faster

Find a bassist friend in your area and ask for their old strings when they put on new ones? It's a half-facetious answer half-serious one. You can skip breaking in the new strings by getting used ones, not new ones. And i know A LOT of bassists consider their Round-wounds dead after the initial brightness wears off, but long before they're actually dead-dead. They'll be taking off stings that are already halfway to where you want them.

Only thing would be making sure their strings are cut the right length for your bass with the same tuning peg layout.
lol. I was actually imagining a secondary market like there is for race tires.

When I was younger I liked the clang clang and changed my sets often.

Now I am a noodle only and don’t want unbroken in strings.
 
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Makes sense to me - I boiled string for years in the "early days".

Now I just used flats ;)

Which strings are you using?

GHS Boomers will mellow fairly quickly.
Later I came to like Rotosound nickels.
DR nickel low rider. Will have the ghs round core set up to speed by the weekend.

Thinking I should just let my 2yr old handle them before stringing up.
 
GHS to me are always darker, warmer compared to other strings of similar construction or type. For example, I get a solo C string on their super steel line to pair with DR Hi-Beams because their Hi C are twangy. Even though I like the bright high beams the Hi-C is too bright and too supple. I have a 36 scale 6-string in this case. Boomers and Balanced Nickels might be the ticket for you.

You may also like Pressurewounds and that's what I use in my 35 scale fretless. GHS PressureWounds sound broken in out of the package and stay that way. They still feel like rounds

Personally, I see no benefit in hastening the strings' death. That's what tone controls are for and foam may even help temporarily
 
Kim Deal would play with dead rounds.
For people saying go flats makes no sense. Very different sound if you ask me, dead rounds sound like well dead rounds...!

You can either eat some buffalo wings with super hot sauce, but the strings will smell, good I guess? Or throw em in the mud.

I also agree with the Boomers dying quick, got those Flea boomers when I first started playing those things die quick. I also felt some of my cheaper D'addario's die quick but honestly think that is confirmation bias.
 
lol. I was actually imagining a secondary market like there is for race tires.

When I was younger I liked the clang clang and changed my sets often.

Now I am a noodle only and don’t want unbroken in strings.
Funny that you mention race tires.

I know a lot of people think their strings only sound right when they're brand new and after a few weeks they say the strings don't sound like themselves anymore.

But i think Rounds have a their natural sound + New String Sound on top of that, and they don't sound like themselves until the New String Sound wears away. I often make the analogy of new strings to New Motorcycle Tires. You have to ride for about 50-100 miles to get the new-tire coatings rubbed off, and then they perform right. Then you get 500 to 2K miles of actual tire performance, or certain number of hot/cold cycles, before they then degrade again. Bass strings have that same life-cycle to me:
Tire + New Tire Coating ------------------> Proper Tire Performance --> Dead or reduced Tire performance
Actual String Sound + New String Sound --> Actual String Sound ------> Dead or Dying String Sound

I also compare New String Sound to New Car Smell.

---

Edit:
Just thought of an experiment. Part of what deadens strings is the metal fatigue of repeated bending over time. The vibrations of you playing the strings is similar to bending a paper clip back and forth repeatedly until it breaks, just on a much smaller level, with much more pliable metal, on a much longer timespan. But part of that process with the paper clip is heat. I wonder if sticking new strings in an oven for a while at a certain temperature would deaden them? Or maybe a few hot/cold cycles?

Would be a fun but expensive experiment. Would probably need a bunch of strings, and different temperatures, and different lengths of time, and different numbers of hot/cold cycles. Plus some control group strings. Would be expensive to do the test properly, but may be doable with 3 or 4 sets of decent but inexpensive strings. Leave one fresh. Put one set in at a low temp for a while. Put one in at a higher temp for the same amount of time. Cool. Test their tone.

Then with the 4th set, try doing several hot/cool cycles at an in-between temp. See how those sound.
 
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How do I take the sheen off a set of nickel round wounds without hours of playing?

I’m coming from 20yr old strings but I’m looking to make my new set sound about 3-4 boils old, if that makes sense.

Any pro tricks for those who don’t like the clang clang but prefers the feel of nickel rounds?
Sounds like you'd be happier with flats.
 
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round core boomers laced up. held my breath with the silks but they pass the nut by enough. seeing reds took me back.

will go at them tomorrow. new pedals in so lots of noodling to be had.

very little clang clang acoustically was a pleasing surprise and a quick headphone tune up noodling felt great on the touch.
 
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Happy Friday, all -

Digging these strings. Familiar memories of GHS boomers. Definitely sounds broken in after only an hour or so of playing.

I stuck with my usual wipe my face oil to lube my fingers before playing trick.

Thanks everyone for the tips! TB is so so dangerous for GAS but I keep coming back bc it answers my needs every time!
 
Here are the stats of the Round Core Bass Boomers from the GHS bass string tension guide.

GHS Round Core Bass Boomers

Winding Length 37.25”

(C)
RC-DYB30/C3/.030/33.20lbf

(G)
RC-DYB40/G2/.040/36.20lbf
RC-DYB45/G2/.045/42.60lbf
RC-DYB50/G2/.050/54.30lbf

(D)
RC-DYB55/D2/.055/33.20lbf
RC-DYB60/D2/.060/37.90lbf/npoas
RC-DYB65/D2/.065/46.00lbf
RC-DYB70/D2/.070/52.80lbf

(A)
RC-DYB75/A1/.075/36.40lbf
RC-DYB80/A1/.080/43.20lbf
RC-DYB85/A1/.085/49.30lbf

(E)
RC-DYB95/E1/.095/35.02lbf
RC-DYB100/E1/.100/38.20lbf
RC-DYB105/E1/.105/40.80lbf
RC-DYB115/E1/.115/45.30lbf/npoas

(B)
RC-DYB126/B0/.126/32.00lbf
RC-DYB130/B0/.130/35.50lbf


*lbf = tension in pounds force
*npoas = ‘not part of a set’
My bad. RC-DYB115 is actually part of the heavy RC-H3045 set