i've never used coated bass strings, but i did put a coated set of elixirs (i think) on my acoustic guitar about 20 years ago. i strummed it once and couldn't stand the way they sounded. they honestly sounded more dead than the two-year-old strings i had replaced. i thought it might just be me, so i went into the living room and played just a little bit. my wife looked up from her computer and said, "what's wrong with your guitar?" so i don't pay much attention to coated strings any more.
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Neon Blue colored strings disaster
- Thread starter Barticus
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- coated strings strings
Loved the visual effect of glowing green strings but they are definitely a flat sounding round wound!
to each his own. I just did a gig with green neons and I like them a lot. Yes they are not quite as bright as new uncoated rounds and I don't have them on all my basses, but I think they have a cool summertime look and sat fine in the mix.
Isn't that the point of EQ and volume ? I am not having a dig but I am sure you could have made it work better by twiddling the knobs . Still , at least a lesson was learned . Most of the lessons in life that have stuck with me have been learned by things that did not work out . Sometimes at considerable expense .
So I refinished the finger ramp on my headless to more closely match the purple/blue theme on the body and really let the flame to Maple show through. So I strip it down to bare wood, refinish it and reinstall it and it looks amazing!
As part of that, I thought why not try a set of those cool DR neon blue strings to really pop under the lights for a big gig last weekend. I asked my band members to pick a color, they like the pink better, but I had blue on hand.
so a couple of hours before the gig I swap out the strings and test them out in my practice amp… they sounded OK but it wasn’t through my full rig.
I make the hour and a half drive to the venue and get set up. I plug in my bass to tune and then unmute so I can hear the glorious new blue strings through my Mesa rig… and what a complete and utterly disappointing moment to hear such flat, lifeless, dead strings.
I immediately plug in my backup bass to hear easily a 30% increase in volume nice clarity, tone and punchy sound. My guitarist agreed with me that having what felt like a thick coating of latex house paint on strings was probably not a great idea… especially if you really care about the tone of your instrument.
I immediately look at the sound engineer and ask how much time before full band soundcheck and he says ‘20 minutes’.
I grab my bass/case run down to a picnic table, rip the blue strings off, put on my favorite nickel hybrids and make it back on stage with plenty of time to spare before soundcheck. Once again, my base sounds amazing like it should!!
I’ve read plenty of comments about the coated strings sounding so good, maybe these are all just bedroom players or like them for the novelty only.
I have yet to experience good tone from any coated strings (clear or colored) and that’s the last time I’ll ever spend time or money on coated strings…
It was $40 well spent for a lesson on sticking with my high quality strings.
It's true they have lower output, but fortuinately my amplifier has a volume control
I have to say I really like the DR Neons myself and I've got quite a few positive comments from sound engineers and other bass players. Currently using them on a Sandberg VM4 where I tend to favour the P style pickup, treble rolled offf quite a bit, and I also often use a foam mute, playing mostly ska/funk/reggae. But I've also used this bass&strings in a 'rawk' setting (no mute, treble back to flat, small bass boost) and lifeless is not what I'd call them.
Then again, there must be a reason why there are so many different strings and people preffer different things, but I find the DR Neons quite alright. They're not my "favourite of them all", but I like them.
I used a set of black nylon wound stings many years ago. I was playing with a folk guitarist and was trying to get my Ibanez SR to sound more like an upright. It didn't really sound anything like an upright, but it certainly was a lot less, er, bright? punchy? dynamic? than I was used to.
I guess some people are into them, and that's fine, but I've decided they're not for me.
I guess some people are into them, and that's fine, but I've decided they're not for me.
Black nylon tapewounds are a very different beast, 'though. Definitely a lot thumpier and duller. The DR coated ones are more like 'slightly worn roundwounds'.
So I refinished the finger ramp on my headless to more closely match the purple/blue theme on the body and really let the flame to Maple show through. So I strip it down to bare wood, refinish it and reinstall it and it looks amazing!
As part of that, I thought why not try a set of those cool DR neon blue strings to really pop under the lights for a big gig last weekend. I asked my band members to pick a color, they like the pink better, but I had blue on hand.
so a couple of hours before the gig I swap out the strings and test them out in my practice amp… they sounded OK but it wasn’t through my full rig.
I make the hour and a half drive to the venue and get set up. I plug in my bass to tune and then unmute so I can hear the glorious new blue strings through my Mesa rig… and what a complete and utterly disappointing moment to hear such flat, lifeless, dead strings.
I immediately plug in my backup bass to hear easily a 30% increase in volume nice clarity, tone and punchy sound. My guitarist agreed with me that having what felt like a thick coating of latex house paint on strings was probably not a great idea… especially if you really care about the tone of your instrument.
I immediately look at the sound engineer and ask how much time before full band soundcheck and he says ‘20 minutes’.
I grab my bass/case run down to a picnic table, rip the blue strings off, put on my favorite nickel hybrids and make it back on stage with plenty of time to spare before soundcheck. Once again, my base sounds amazing like it should!!
I’ve read plenty of comments about the coated strings sounding so good, maybe these are all just bedroom players or like them for the novelty only.
I have yet to experience good tone from any coated strings (clear or colored) and that’s the last time I’ll ever spend time or money on coated strings…
It was $40 well spent for a lesson on sticking with my high quality strings.
What brand of colored coated strings? The white DR's sounded kinda flat to me, but the Auroa purple one seemed ultra dead. However, videos I have seen, the Auroa's sounded very lively.
.... all of this talk about coated strings sounding dead.....
Flatwound fanboys are notably absent. I haven't had my daily read of "you should get a p bass with flats to fix your (insert random problem here)" advice.
I havent used any of DR's coated strings, and I'm not a fan of bright rounds. I will say I'm happy with my La Bella black tapes. I've used their white tapes too. The lower tension forces you to play different, and they seem to respond better to varying amounts of attack. But these are not super bright strings, so I wouldn't recommend to those that like a lot of that pick/finger attack in your EQ. I actually think most coated strings will miss that specific part of EQ. If you like that sound, try boosting 800-1000 hz. The percussive clank of the strings seems to live in that area.
And if this thread isn't a good excuse to get a second bass just to try strings on I don't know what is...
Flatwound fanboys are notably absent. I haven't had my daily read of "you should get a p bass with flats to fix your (insert random problem here)" advice.
I havent used any of DR's coated strings, and I'm not a fan of bright rounds. I will say I'm happy with my La Bella black tapes. I've used their white tapes too. The lower tension forces you to play different, and they seem to respond better to varying amounts of attack. But these are not super bright strings, so I wouldn't recommend to those that like a lot of that pick/finger attack in your EQ. I actually think most coated strings will miss that specific part of EQ. If you like that sound, try boosting 800-1000 hz. The percussive clank of the strings seems to live in that area.
And if this thread isn't a good excuse to get a second bass just to try strings on I don't know what is...
So I refinished the finger ramp on my headless to more closely match the purple/blue theme on the body and really let the flame to Maple show through. So I strip it down to bare wood, refinish it and reinstall it and it looks amazing!
As part of that, I thought why not try a set of those cool DR neon blue strings to really pop under the lights for a big gig last weekend. I asked my band members to pick a color, they like the pink better, but I had blue on hand.
so a couple of hours before the gig I swap out the strings and test them out in my practice amp… they sounded OK but it wasn’t through my full rig.
I make the hour and a half drive to the venue and get set up. I plug in my bass to tune and then unmute so I can hear the glorious new blue strings through my Mesa rig… and what a complete and utterly disappointing moment to hear such flat, lifeless, dead strings.
I immediately plug in my backup bass to hear easily a 30% increase in volume nice clarity, tone and punchy sound. My guitarist agreed with me that having what felt like a thick coating of latex house paint on strings was probably not a great idea… especially if you really care about the tone of your instrument.
I immediately look at the sound engineer and ask how much time before full band soundcheck and he says ‘20 minutes’.
I grab my bass/case run down to a picnic table, rip the blue strings off, put on my favorite nickel hybrids and make it back on stage with plenty of time to spare before soundcheck. Once again, my base sounds amazing like it should!!
I’ve read plenty of comments about the coated strings sounding so good, maybe these are all just bedroom players or like them for the novelty only.
I have yet to experience good tone from any coated strings (clear or colored) and that’s the last time I’ll ever spend time or money on coated strings…
It was $40 well spent for a lesson on sticking with my high quality strings.
I had a similar experience with the DR Neon strings. I bought a five-string set of neon pink, and the A string had noticeably lower output than all of the other strings, and I really didn't like the feel of them, either. Never again.
The same exact thing happened to me ! I installed a set of Elixir strings on my Dean ABG and the result was terrible - the dead Dean Markley strings sounded better than the brand-new Elixir's ! Similar result with a set on my Jazz bass. Coated strings - no thanks !
Either the strings were bad, or your band mates were right about using the pink ones. I use them on both basses, but the sound great on my fretless.
Totally agree that the DR Neons are nothing but a useless gimmick...
Currently have a set of pink ones on my Spector-frankenbass and they're terrible
Straight out of the package, the G-string was dead as a doornail
Within 2 weeks, they sound dull and lifeless
Last couple of years I've been playing the Elixr nano coated strings
They keep a good sound for up to nine months
Ernie Balls (uncoated) would be my favorite string of choice, but I don't have the budget nor the patience to swap strings every week (that's how long EBs keep their brightness to my ears)
Tried the coated EBs, but those dull quite fast too
Currently have a set of pink ones on my Spector-frankenbass and they're terrible
Straight out of the package, the G-string was dead as a doornail
Within 2 weeks, they sound dull and lifeless
Last couple of years I've been playing the Elixr nano coated strings
They keep a good sound for up to nine months
Ernie Balls (uncoated) would be my favorite string of choice, but I don't have the budget nor the patience to swap strings every week (that's how long EBs keep their brightness to my ears)
Tried the coated EBs, but those dull quite fast too
After messing with them on and off for years, I'm pretty much over roundcore strings.
coated strings just aren't for you, apparently. makes me wonder why you put 'looks' over performance preferences in the first place!
FWIW: i've never had issues with coated strings --- they are what they are and they do what they do --- and like any other string set = not for everyone.
How would I know without trying???!!!coated strings just aren't for you, apparently. makes me wonder why you put 'looks' over performance preferences in the first place!
FWIW: i've never had issues with coated strings --- they are what they are and they do what they do --- and like any other string set = not for everyone.
Maybe I should have called you to ask?
How would I know without trying???!!! Maybe I should have called you to ask?
edit: i would have advised you to "try!"
