Noisiest Strings for Practice

[Rib 13]

Caution: providing it isn't too abundant and minimized, noise is that organic element in playing that makes it alive....even bass VSTi instruments, like the Solemn Tones Kraken, have parameters to purposefully put IN fret noise, string noise, and imperfections to make them sound more real.......but the main thing is not to overmicroscope yourself - there is a danger of trying to be too perfect and you will microscope all the joy out of your playing........experienced players of almost any stringed instrument master control imperfections and they become part of their technique and sound

 

[Ricky Rioli]

Standard template for every forum on every subject:

OP: I've decided to do X, what would be the best way of going about it

The replies: Don't do X!

Man, people love telling people what to do

 

[Rib 13]

Standard template for every forum on every subject:

OP: I've decided to do X, what would be the best way of going about it

The replies: Don't do X!

Man, people love telling people what to do

I think what he's doing is a great idea,..........perhaps I should've prefaced that in my previous post

 

[5StringBlues]

Jaco didn't need no noisy string.

 

[packhowitzer]

Turn up the highs on your eq and/or engage the bright switch (if available) on your amp while your at it.

 

[BlueTalon]

So I've only been playing for a few months now, and I'm actually having a lot of fun concentrating on my smoothness/muting/playing cleanly technique.

When I practice, I crank up the treble all the way, use the bridge pickup, and make things as bright and noisy as possible to highlight my flaws. This gives me plenty to work on.

What strings do you consider best for highlighting all the flaws in my playing? I read lots of complaints on here about certain strings making lots of noise as you slide up and down the neck. For my purposes, that's not a bug, that's a feature!

This is all on a Yamaha TRBX604, FWIW.

Bravo! I did that very thing years ago, and it helped me out a lot. I recommend that technique to people for the very same reason you discovered it. For your purposes, pretty much any fresh set of roundwound strings will do the job. The only thing I'd recommend that neither you nor anyone else in this thread has mentioned yet is practicing with headphones. A fresh set of strings, the treble up, & headphones, and there's no hiding anything.

 

[JeezyMcNuggles]

So I've only been playing for a few months now, and I'm actually having a lot of fun concentrating on my smoothness/muting/playing cleanly technique.

When I practice, I crank up the treble all the way, use the bridge pickup, and make things as bright and noisy as possible to highlight my flaws. This gives me plenty to work on.

What strings do you consider best for highlighting all the flaws in my playing? I read lots of complaints on here about certain strings making lots of noise as you slide up and down the neck. For my purposes, that's not a bug, that's a feature!

This is all on a Yamaha TRBX604, FWIW.

Hi beams

 

[LetItGrowTone]

I'll skip the long explanation and recommend Hi Beams too (over Rotos).

 

[Grahams Groove]

So I've only been playing for a few months now, and I'm actually having a lot of fun concentrating on my smoothness/muting/playing cleanly technique.

When I practice, I crank up the treble all the way, use the bridge pickup, and make things as bright and noisy as possible to highlight my flaws. This gives me plenty to work on.

What strings do you consider best for highlighting all the flaws in my playing? I read lots of complaints on here about certain strings making lots of noise as you slide up and down the neck. For my purposes, that's not a bug, that's a feature!

This is all on a Yamaha TRBX604, FWIW.

Most new round wound strings will have that emphasis in treble and highs until they smooth out. And they all start to mellow eventually. If money isn’t a huge issue, maybe take the opportunity to simply try a few different types of strings. For one, you can cycle through and they’ll all be relatively bright while new. Additionally, it gives you a chance to explore some of your early preference in string brands, materials, tension, etc. Just a thought to kill two birds with one stone.

As a general rule, stainless strings will be brighter than nickel plated/wrapped strings. As far as feel goes, hex core will generally feel stiffer and have higher tension, while round core will be more flexible or “floppy” to some. Anyway, have fun with the experimenting and good on you for focusing on technique early!

 

[mellroc]

Thanks for replies!

I'm using DR Pure Blues at the moment.

I'll be putting in an order with Sweetwater for some of the recommended steel strings today. And you guys have me half tempted to head down to GC and pick up a cheap bronze strung acoustic.

This is actually just a late night hobby to keep my early 40s brain more engaged during winter evenings. I live in a condo and don't even own or have aspirations to own an amp. This is all with headphones. I ordered a pile of bass/theory books from Amazon and I've just been working through those after my day gig/work.

Cheers!

Chris

 

[MultiScaleMale]

 

[michael_t]

This is actually just a late night hobby to keep my early 40s brain more engaged during winter evenings. I live in a condo and don't even own or have aspirations to own an amp. This is all with headphones. I ordered a pile of bass/theory books from Amazon and I've just been working through those after my day gig/work.

I do get the idea of practising on noisiest strings for the sake of forcing yourself to develop proper fingering technique to counteract the unpleasantness. If it works for you, great!

As a former acoustic guitar player in my younger days, playing on those bronze strings was the most irritating thing I had to deal with. Did it help me develop better technique? Not really... Instead, it drove me crazy to the point of giving up playing. Just don't let that happen to you.

 

[coy garcia]

I think your approach is good and strings won't help much. Personally I eventually became a fretless player cause I hated fret noise.

 

[skycruiser]

Thanks for replies!

I'm using DR Pure Blues at the moment.

I'll be putting in an order with Sweetwater for some of the recommended steel strings today. And you guys have me half tempted to head down to GC and pick up a cheap bronze strung acoustic.

This is actually just a late night hobby to keep my early 40s brain more engaged during winter evenings. I live in a condo and don't even own or have aspirations to own an amp. This is all with headphones. I ordered a pile of bass/theory books from Amazon and I've just been working through those after my day gig/work.

Cheers!

Chris

If you mean a bronze strung acoustic bass, try out one of the mini basses such as the Ibanez PNB14E. They are perfect for playing around the house, no headphones required, and not very loud. Might be able to find a used one for $150 or so. They are actually quite fun to play.

 

[BarfanyShart]

This is why I think there is some value to playing an acoustic instrument, or at least practicing some of your technique exercises on an acoustic instrument, even if your main axe is and always will be electric. You just hear different things acoustically than you do through headphones or the speaker. String noise is one thing, but I also find that picking up an acoustic instrument occasionally helps me identify tiny problems with tone production, left-hand/right-hand coordination, articulation, etc. that I'm just not hearing when I practice through the amp.

 

[lfmn16]

Practice with the same setup you're going to play with; that's the rig you have to master. Just my humble opinion, but I think what you're trying to do here is a waste of time, especially if you're just starting out. Get a good teacher and they'll point out your flaws and how to fix them.

 

[GIBrat51]

So I've only been playing for a few months now, and I'm actually having a lot of fun concentrating on my smoothness/muting/playing cleanly technique.

When I practice, I crank up the treble all the way, use the bridge pickup, and make things as bright and noisy as possible to highlight my flaws. This gives me plenty to work on.

What strings do you consider best for highlighting all the flaws in my playing? I read lots of complaints on here about certain strings making lots of noise as you slide up and down the neck. For my purposes, that's not a bug, that's a feature!

This is all on a Yamaha TRBX604, FWIW.

The thing you're looking for is one of the reasons I've hardly ever used rounds in 50+ years of playing bass. However, out of the rounds that I have played for longer than a function check on a new bass? The short scale set of DR Sunbeams I put on a new Warmoth Mini-Precision (only because I didn't have anything else at the time) was the noisiest set of rounds I've ever played - by far. Sadly, they were also the nicest sounding rounds I've ever used. Much as I hated the string noise - and the feeling of running my fingers across a wood rasp - I was kinda sad when they finally died. Not quite sad enough to keep me from replacing them with GHS Precision Flats, though...