Need help identifying these unique strings!

[shal1234]

Hello good people, I picked up this old Kaman bass from the early 90s and I absolutely love the strings that were on it. They sound so smooth and sweet. They appear to be round wound nickel or stainless. Despite being old and worn they still have good sustain, great flexibility and response, and just sound pure and fundamental. They have very unique ball ends which I haven't seen before, with no hole in the middle. And they have a tighter outer wrap than other brands I've seen. I removed them and put a set of GHS boomers on and the new strings were awful, no sustain, and the low E just had a terrible metallic bloom that quickly died after initial attack. So I put these old strings back on and i was back in business. I measured the guages with my digital caliper and repeatedly got these results: E-97, A-73, D-56, G-40. Any help identifying these would be awesome. Thanks! The last pic is a comparison with GHS string with larger outer wire wrap.

 

[JTE]

I vaguely seem to recall that Ovation Adamas strings had ball ends without holes. It was towards the end of my time in MI retail, so late '80s. We never had any of their bass string, but did sell a lot of their acoustic guitar strings. I don't know who made their strings and don't recall Kaman Corp. owning their own string manufacturer, but it's not unlikely that they did buy Black Diamond or Sterlingworth

 

[michael_t]

They sound so smooth and sweet. They appear to be round wound nickel or stainless. Despite being old and worn they still have good sustain, great flexibility and response, and just sound pure and fundamental...

...And they have a tighter outer wrap than other brands I've seen.

I honest have no idea what those strings might be. They're probably no longer available.

If you want to try something currently available that closely matches your description, I would suggest the DR Sunbeams (nickel-plated steel roundwound on a round core) as a viable alternative.

 

[shal1234]

Thanks for your reply. Kaman was owned by Ovation, so it's possible that these are the original strings...from 1990.

I vaguely seem to recall that Ovation Adamas strings had ball ends without holes. It was towards the end of my time in MI retail, so late '80s. We never had any of their bass string, but did sell a lot of their acoustic guitar strings. I don't know who made their strings and don't recall Kaman Corp. owning their own string manufacturer, but it's not unlikely that they did buy Black Diamond or Sterlingworth

 

[shal1234]

I honest have no idea what those strings might be. They're probably no longer available.

If you want to try something currently available that closely matches your description, I would suggest the DR Sunbeams (nickel-plated steel roundwound on a round core) as a viable alternative.

I have a set of sunbeams on my Carvin which are pretty nice but I havent used it much because it had a neck issue so it's been at the shop for a while. I will compare these to the Carvin when it comes back from the shop.

 

[JTE]

Actually Kaman Corporation owned Ovation as well as the original aeronautics company. They later wound up owning Takamine, CB700 percussion, Genz-Benz, Hamer, and several other music brands and a music distribution company.

When FMIC bought Kaman Corporation's music division they moved Guild production to New Hartford too. But they eventually shut all of them down and only retained the distribution part. Since then Guold was salvaged, and I think Ovation is as well.

 

[shal1234]

That's very interesting, thanks for the info! I noticed some of the basses like mine say GTX 53 on the headstock, while other have "Applause" written under it. But everything else looks identical. I've also been trying to figure out more about the pickups. They are pretty dark but I like their responsiveness and they have depth. I want to swap them for something similar but with more treble.

 

[shal1234]

I vaguely seem to recall that Ovation Adamas strings had ball ends without holes. It was towards the end of my time in MI retail, so late '80s. We never had any of their bass string, but did sell a lot of their acoustic guitar strings. I don't know who made their strings and don't recall Kaman Corp. owning their own string manufacturer, but it's not unlikely that they did buy Black Diamond or Sterlingworth

You were right on the money. They are the original Kaman strings that came on the bass in 1990 probably! Very rare. I found a 5 string set for sale, same guage as the set on my bass. The stars aligned!