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NBD - finally got an ABG

  • Thread starter Thread starter Deleted member 165050
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#24
Killing Floor said:
I think a lot of ABGs ship with Bronze because they are louder. They sound and feel terrible.
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I agree. I'm testing a bass I made that is acoustic/piezo electric with stainless steel flats vs tape-wounds and the ss flats are winning so far. They offer more output and deeper/richer tone than the nylon coated strings. I only played those bronze strings once on an acoustic years ago and they turned me off to playing it.
 
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#25
Anyone who wants the loudness of phosphor bronze but not the zing should check out the Thomastik Acoustic Bass strings. These are phosphor bronze wound on a nylon core. They have no metallic zing whatsoever. Very full, warm and loud tone. Completely unique sounding strings and very different to any other phosphor bronze strings I've tried.

The Thomastiks are very low tension though and they "roll" under your fingers like classical guitar strings. Which means that they probably won't be for everyone but if you can handle the feel and the tension they are BY FAR the best sounding acoustic bass strings I've ever tried. In fact, they're the ONLY acoustic bass strings I've ever liked. Strings like D'Addario phosphor bronze sound groteque to me, just zing&clank and no real TONE.

YMMV of course.:)
 
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#26
Deleted member 271037 said:
Anyone who wants the loudness of phosphor bronze but not the zing should check out the Thomastik Acoustic Bass strings. These are phosphor bronze wound on a nylon core. They have no metallic zing whatsoever. Very full, warm and loud tone. Completely unique sounding strings and very different to any other phosphor bronze strings I've tried.

The Thomastiks are very low tension though and they "roll" under your fingers like classical guitar strings. Which means that they probably won't be for everyone but if you can handle the feel and the tension they are BY FAR the best sounding acoustic bass strings I've ever tried. In fact, they're the ONLY acoustic bass strings I've ever liked. Strings like D'Addario phosphor bronze sound groteque to me, just zing&clank and no real TONE.

YMMV of course.:)
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That's high praise - are these the "white" (translucent white-ish) coated strings?
 
#27
JIO said:
That's high praise - are these the "white" (translucent white-ish) coated strings?
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No, they're not coated and they look more or less like other phosphor bronze strings. Maybe just a tad less reddish tinge than say D'Addarios, perhaps slightly more yellow/golden if I remember correctly.

The Thomastiks look thinner than most phosphor bronze strings though but that's because they ARE thinner. Like I said, the low tension and the "rolling" under the fingers won't be for everyone. I've seen people describe them as playing a giant classical guitar and I totally understand what they mean. These strings may take some time getting used to. But the TONE is in a different league to any other acoustic bass strings I've tried.

Still, some people like the metallic zing of D'Addarios and you won't get any of that here. The Thomastiks really are in a category of their own. Like them or not, there's nothing even remotely similar to them out there. At least not to my knowledge.
 
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#28
B-Mac said:
One of the reasons I got into Dean was because I saw Acoustic Strawbs in Allentown, PA a few years back and they were playing what I thought were these gorgeous acoustic instruments. Dave Lambert and Chas Cronk were playing Dean Acoustic 6 & 12 string Guitars and Acoustic Bass Guitars. Dave Cousins was playing an Acoustic Guitar made by Gretsch. Since you're from England you might be familiar with them?
View attachment 4124090
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Great band! Grave New World and Bursting at the Seams are amazing albums for anyone looking for a bit of classic British folk-prog. Two of the best albums of the 70s IMO and very underrated.
 
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#30
Deleted member 271037 said:
Anyone who wants the loudness of phosphor bronze but not the zing should check out the Thomastik Acoustic Bass strings. These are phosphor bronze wound on a nylon core. They have no metallic zing whatsoever. Very full, warm and loud tone. Completely unique sounding strings and very different to any other phosphor bronze strings I've tried.

The Thomastiks are very low tension though and they "roll" under your fingers like classical guitar strings. Which means that they probably won't be for everyone but if you can handle the feel and the tension they are BY FAR the best sounding acoustic bass strings I've ever tried. In fact, they're the ONLY acoustic bass strings I've ever liked. Strings like D'Addario phosphor bronze sound groteque to me, just zing&clank and no real TONE.

YMMV of course.:)
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I tried the TI Acousticore strings as well and though they did indeed sound wonderful they proved to be unplayable for me. I'm a big fan of low tension strings but I could not adjust my playing enough to get used to the string "rolling". Glad I tried them but were by far the most disappointing string purchase I've ever made
 
#31
In my experience:

Bronze-wound ABG strings feel rough and sound "clacky."
Flatwounds sound tubby.
Tapewounds sound good, but less so on fretted basses than on fretless.
For fretted ABGs I have gone to Savaraz classical bass guitar strings (steel or silver wound on a gut or nylon core): plenty loud, way bassier than the other string types, and they even make the Dean Playmate passive onboard electronics sound good.
 
#32
Dec1975 said:
I'm more interested in that bowl-back mandolin. I have one that appears to be identical- marked Chicago Musical Instrument Corp. on the inside, made in Chicago. Does yours have a label in it?
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No label but it's actually not a bowl-back, although it looks like it might have started life as one. It seems to have been retrospectively converted to flatback, maybe after a break... I've owned it for about 40 years and was given it by a girlfriend who found it in a junk shop in its current state. These days it's strung with nylon strings (all in the same octave charango style) as it won't stand up to steel string tension any more.
 
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#35
CONGRATS! FYI They work amazing well with LaBella DTB tapesm close to an upright (fretless AGB), not exactly, but close enough. You'll be surprised how useful and versatile these are.
 
#37
ficelles said:
Nothing spectacular about my NBD except this is my first ever ABG (even though I've been playing bass since the late middle ages)... so today my lovely local store Soundpad actually hand-delivered a used Dean fretless acoustic to me. I'm impressed! Build quality very good and everything works, nice understated looks but with the bridge and headstock being just a little out of the ordinary, bonus of finding it has XLR out as well as jack which I wasn't expecting.

So now I'm string swapping to find the flats I like best on it as phosphor bronze rounds are way too zingy for me, lucky I keep my old sets... TI Jazz Flats very good but still very bright, La Bella LTFs much more to my taste on this but it's a very old set and the E in particular is a little too worn in even for me. But a few more to try. Quite db-ish with flats on especially amplified.

Now I just need to find myself a folk band...
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A very nice addition to your family!
 

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