Greetings all,
In this thread I will post my take on the various Stainless Steel Strings I have tried and I will update this post as soon as I have tried out a new set. To make it as fair as possible I will use the same gauge if possible (obviously) and I will play on the strings until I find them dead. For mor info on SS-strings, please see the discussions in this thread that I started.
I will rank all sets of strings as following, with a score of 1-5:
Packaging, Tension (when getting set up) and Stringing, Feel (gritty or smooth), Sound, Longevity.
And I will comment each individual point from the best of my ability.
(Nb! I play fast, hard and most of the times with a pick. I will use all sets on the same bass, a Jackson JS2 Spectra hooked up to an Orange Crush 25)
#1 RotoSound SM66 Swing Bass 40-60-80-100
Packaging: Foil packaging for a long lasting shelf life. The strings were not individually packed. 5/5
Tension: I would say Medium. No need to adjust the truss rod and no scary banging snappy noises from the bass. The strings had red silk which is nice, but slippery and a bit frustrating. 3/5.
Feel: They felt smoother than I expected, really nice to play on! 5/5
Sound: Straight out of the box the sound in these strings are magical. Growly, gritty and snappy aggressive with some thick mids and I have never heard a tone like this from my bass before. Unfortunately that did not last very long... There was also this strange rattle that I have never heard before in strings, not on this bass and not on any other bass with other strings. This did not transfer to the amplifier it was only noticeable when playing without an amp. 2/5
Longevity: About 5 weeks for me. Which is absurd. The E and A strings started to fade after two weeks and I had to tune them ever so often, even whilst playing. This just worsened and after 5 weeks they sounded dull and lifeless. 2/5
Score: 17/25
Comment: These ones are cheap, only app. € 22 on Amazon, so if you want to try them out you should, and if your wallet allows you to change strings once a month these could be the strings for you. For me - no. I could afford it, but I don't want to. These strings made me not want to go back to RotoSounds again, and I've heard a lot of people saying the same, even the musician (bass player) at my local store says that Rotos die way to fast, and he does not sell them in his shop... But I honestly do recommend everyone to try these out at least once just to hear that sound when they are new - and also for the fact that RotoSound Swing Bass 66 are the legendary rock bass strings born from a collaboration with John "Thunderfingers" Entwistle in 1966 who wanted a more aggressive, gritty and brighter tone with more sustain that the flat wound strings would produce, hence the name. If anyone ever was scratching their head about the odd name.
#2 Mark Strings Energy Series 40-60-80-100
(Keep your pants on, the review will come when these strings are dead in my ears
)
In this thread I will post my take on the various Stainless Steel Strings I have tried and I will update this post as soon as I have tried out a new set. To make it as fair as possible I will use the same gauge if possible (obviously) and I will play on the strings until I find them dead. For mor info on SS-strings, please see the discussions in this thread that I started.
I will rank all sets of strings as following, with a score of 1-5:
Packaging, Tension (when getting set up) and Stringing, Feel (gritty or smooth), Sound, Longevity.
And I will comment each individual point from the best of my ability.
(Nb! I play fast, hard and most of the times with a pick. I will use all sets on the same bass, a Jackson JS2 Spectra hooked up to an Orange Crush 25)
#1 RotoSound SM66 Swing Bass 40-60-80-100
Packaging: Foil packaging for a long lasting shelf life. The strings were not individually packed. 5/5
Tension: I would say Medium. No need to adjust the truss rod and no scary banging snappy noises from the bass. The strings had red silk which is nice, but slippery and a bit frustrating. 3/5.
Feel: They felt smoother than I expected, really nice to play on! 5/5
Sound: Straight out of the box the sound in these strings are magical. Growly, gritty and snappy aggressive with some thick mids and I have never heard a tone like this from my bass before. Unfortunately that did not last very long... There was also this strange rattle that I have never heard before in strings, not on this bass and not on any other bass with other strings. This did not transfer to the amplifier it was only noticeable when playing without an amp. 2/5
Longevity: About 5 weeks for me. Which is absurd. The E and A strings started to fade after two weeks and I had to tune them ever so often, even whilst playing. This just worsened and after 5 weeks they sounded dull and lifeless. 2/5
Score: 17/25
Comment: These ones are cheap, only app. € 22 on Amazon, so if you want to try them out you should, and if your wallet allows you to change strings once a month these could be the strings for you. For me - no. I could afford it, but I don't want to. These strings made me not want to go back to RotoSounds again, and I've heard a lot of people saying the same, even the musician (bass player) at my local store says that Rotos die way to fast, and he does not sell them in his shop... But I honestly do recommend everyone to try these out at least once just to hear that sound when they are new - and also for the fact that RotoSound Swing Bass 66 are the legendary rock bass strings born from a collaboration with John "Thunderfingers" Entwistle in 1966 who wanted a more aggressive, gritty and brighter tone with more sustain that the flat wound strings would produce, hence the name. If anyone ever was scratching their head about the odd name.
#2 Mark Strings Energy Series 40-60-80-100
(Keep your pants on, the review will come when these strings are dead in my ears
)
