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NSD: Ken Smith: mismatched sets??

dickfitts

dickfitts

Jan 18, 2012
274
445
#1
Been using extra light Slap Masters for years and years and years. Love 'em.

New String Day yesterday!! As I was unwinding the old set I noticed there was two different shades of purple wrap involved, some lighter than the others.. I'm used to...one? Not sure how I didn't catch that before. Had all manner of odd fantasies about the angle of the sun and the bass on the couch and big deep science, you know how it is.

Lo and Behold, on the new set: same deal!

Pretty sure this isn't a case of the wrong strings being put into the wrong packaging, but...anybody got any insight on this?
 

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#2
dickfitts said:
As I was unwinding the old set I noticed there was two different shades of purple wrap involved, some lighter than the others..
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Silk is in short supply due to the pandemic; in fact, from what I understand, the main silk supplier for GHS, who also winds strings for Ken Smith, has completely gone out of business.

The mismatched silk you see is the same purple silk used for GHS Precision Flats. There have been a couple of threads in the last year about mismatched silks on them as well.

The good news is it's purely cosmetic and won't affect the quality of the strings themselves. ;)
 
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#4
That's a very likely scenario. Due to the shortage it could also be a case of thread that would normally not pass qc but they throw on anyway because they don't have the supply right now. I expect this year to be pretty rough. Everything from senseless inflation to senseless war and we're in for a wild ride. We traded pandemic drama for other drama. It'll be interesting if some of our favorite strings temporarily stop getting silk. Or worse yet if we end up not having access to strings the way we're used to. But side note here, Ken Smith strings are some of my favorites.
 
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#10
That's awesome news and hopefully you get your money's worth out of them. I remember the rock masters seemed to really last once they settled in. I expect these to be very similar if not last even longer since they are already more mellowed out so you probably won't hear the tone drop off as much.
 
#12
GTHintz said:
That's awesome news and hopefully you get your money's worth out of them. I remember the rock masters seemed to really last once they settled in. I expect these to be very similar if not last even longer since they are already more mellowed out so you probably won't hear the tone drop off as much.
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I change my GHS Pressurewounds once a year whether they need to be changed or not. I would expect the same with these Compressors. I wanted to try the Ken Smith version specifically for the tapered B after being disappointed with the PW 128B (non-tapered) on this particular bass earlier. And it did make a big difference in terms of clarity and sustain.
 
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#13
michael_t said:
I change my GHS Pressurewounds once a year whether they need to be changed or not. I would expect the same with these Compressors. I wanted to try the Ken Smith version specifically for the tapered B after being disappointed with the PW 128B (non-tapered) on this particular bass earlier. And it did make a big difference in terms of clarity and sustain.
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I can definitely see that. Depending on the bass and how you play b strings are the hardest to get right I believe. If you need more boominess I find thicker gauge and no taper as best for that. For more articulation thinner and tapered helps a lot. My newest bass I'm actually using an old Dean Markley sr2000 b string which is .128 and tapered and it actually complimented the other strings better than the b string the set came with. (Diaddario pro steels) that's why I keep lots of strings though. You just never know what you need until you have to go digging through the backup sets.
 
#14
GTHintz said:
As for the silks the colors really look straight out of the 90's. Especially with that headstock. Really cool and that's a case of accidents that turn into really cool accidents.
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I'm kind of surprised I'm not at all bothered by the mismatched silks, considering how picky I can be about things like that. As long as I have a set of strings that sound good to my ears and feel good under my fingers, that's all that really matters.
 
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#18
michael_t said:
By the way, I have another set of these on order. Curious to see how mismatched they're going to be. ;):D
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Mike Vee said:
I feel like if they came that way from the factory I'd be fine with it. Kinda cool.
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Funny you should bring up the subject now. I just installed a new set of Ken Smith Compressors on my BB435 two days ago. I got these back in May and they turn out to be the same "COVID Edition" as the previous set. Exactly the same mismatched silks in three shades of purple. :D

KSCOM 231017.jpg
 

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