NSD: it happened :O

[GwenOnBass]

Well... I've decided to take a little detour by installing GHS Super Steels 40-58-80-102 on my Ibanez instead of the Compressors. I've always had a love-hate relationship with stainless steel rounds in general, ie "love the tone, hate the feel", so I'll have to see how long they will stay on. Meanwhile, I do have four sets of KS Compressors in my personal stash as a backup.

These Compressors literally stay in tune for days, and are stupidly easy and fun to play. Yet my inner ear still hears the stainless steel roundwounds I swore off ages ago. It's baked-in memory.

It appears the tension of the lightest set of GHS Bassics is close to the pulling tension of the .040 - .096 KS Compressors. That would get me into brighter territory with the 'Ray. And yes, I've thought about it in these last weeks.

What is in front of me is a proper recording date with My 'Ray, and the Compressors will serve me well. I sort of mind/don't mind the pressurewound construction. My view is Pressurewounds, like flats, mask technique problems. OTOH I will record with these strings and it will be fine. That's why I installed them in the first place: more of what I call the native StingRay howl. The Compressors do deliver in this department ....

.... and I have everything low passed at 5kHz

I'll see how I feel in five months. Right now, I'm perfectly happy with the GHS Compressors.

 

[michael_t]

These Compressors literally stay in tune for days, and are stupidly easy and fun to play. Yet my inner ear still hears the stainless steel roundwounds I swore off ages ago. It's baked-in memory.

I'm already thinking of replacing the Super Steels 40-102 on my Ibanez with the Compressors 40-102 after less than a week. There is something about the Pressurewounds/Compressors that make me feel at home. Like sleeping in my own bed after a long journey.

It appears the tension of the lightest set of GHS Bassics is close to the pulling tension of the .040 - .096 KS Compressors. That would get me into brighter territory with the 'Ray. And yes, I've thought about it in these last weeks.

Compressors 40-96 = 152.6 lbs.
Bassics = 40-102 = 153.3 lbs.

The Bassics would definitely be brighter than the Compressors with a clear and crisp top end without being overly zingy or harsh.

 

[GwenOnBass]

Old (and likely faulty) memory of assorted flavors of SS rounds, plus listening to Ari Cap with her Marleaux, is what makes me yearn for a brighter string than the Compressors/Pressurewound on the StingRay. It's an aural will-o'-the-wisp, I suspect.

What I find IRL is a set of strings that literally stays in tune for days (for starters). Whether this is a function of the tuning machines, the neck and its truss rod, and the strings themselves is unclear. Likely all three factor in. And I mean they really stay in tune — right on the money with a strobe tuner from evening until morning.

My suspicion is the Compressors will stay right where they are, tonally, for a long time. It's common to read here they sound like broken-in rounds, and won't argue that.

The 'Ray sounds unmistakably like a 'Ray, and I still sound like me on whatever bass I play