Earlier today, I received a package in the mail with some D'Addario NYXLs and I strung them on my main Rickenbacker 4003. I am thrilled with how they sound and I wanted to write a review post about them tonight.
Some Background:
My go to roundwound strings for 10 years were Rotosound 66s. I tried them in both stainless steel (orange packaging) and nickel (blue packaging) over the years and while I loved the sound, I hated how they felt. They even made my fingers bleed on multiple occasions! So I switched to Rotosound 55 pressurewounds for a few years because I wanted the brightness of the 66s without the cheese grater-like roughness. These strings sounded more like roundwounds more than a typical pressurewound to me, so I like to lump them in with roundwounds.
In early 2024, my bass tech introduced me to D'Addario (regular) XLs and they are great strings. I liked them so much that I switched from Rotosound to D'Addario after 12 years of brand loyalty (I also started playing Rotosound 77 flatwounds on my other bass, but that's a different story). The regular XLs sound amazing, but I realized that they die quickly and they lose their brightness. So I wanted to try something similar, but different.
Enter the NYXLs:
I read about the NYXLs here on TB and I watched videos about them with sound samples. It was hard to tell the difference between the regular XLs and the NYXLs from the videos even with headphones on. But I decided to take a chance on them after reading that Frank Bello from Anthrax plays them exclusively. He's one of my favorite bassists and I know he plays quality gear, so if they're good enough for Frank, they should be good enough for me.
I'm so glad I pulled the trigger! The NYXLs gave me back the clanky sound of the Rotosound 66s that I've been missing for years. Plus, I still have the quality and feel of the D'Addario regular XLs that I got used to over the past 18 months. These strings are probably the nicest roundwounds I've ever played! I understand the hype here on TB and why bassists like Frank Bello and others swear by them.
They sound incredible with distortion, without distortion, and on several different pickup settings. These strings pair very nicely with my Rickenbacker 4003 and it's traditional Ric pickups. My 4003 is stock, so there's no mods making my review biased. I always talk about bass-string pairings like most people talk about food-wine/beverage pairings. Some strings work well with certain basses while others don't. This is a beautiful pairing, especially because I play heavy metal and hard rock!
Heavy Gauge:
These strings are thick! I got the heavy gauge (55-110) set because I tune to D Standard. The 110 gauge low D string is huge, but not as big as a low B string on a 5 string bass. I have to get used to the extra thickness coming from medium gauge (50-105) rounds. The heavy gauge NYXLs feel closer to the medium gauge (45-105 and 50-105) D'Addario Chromes and Rotosound 77s on my other basses. They're also about the same in terms of string tension. That's why I chose the heavy gauge NYXLs over the medium gauge ones.
I also chose the heavy gauge because I was having fret buzz with the medium gauge D'Addarios. I realized that I needed more tension for my lower than normal tuning. The fret buzz is gone with the NYXLs because I chose the right gauge for me.
Conclusion:
I'm thrilled! The NYXLs have become my new go to roundwound strings! The regular XLs are still a close second if I'm in a pinch or there's no NYXLs available.
Some Background:
My go to roundwound strings for 10 years were Rotosound 66s. I tried them in both stainless steel (orange packaging) and nickel (blue packaging) over the years and while I loved the sound, I hated how they felt. They even made my fingers bleed on multiple occasions! So I switched to Rotosound 55 pressurewounds for a few years because I wanted the brightness of the 66s without the cheese grater-like roughness. These strings sounded more like roundwounds more than a typical pressurewound to me, so I like to lump them in with roundwounds.
In early 2024, my bass tech introduced me to D'Addario (regular) XLs and they are great strings. I liked them so much that I switched from Rotosound to D'Addario after 12 years of brand loyalty (I also started playing Rotosound 77 flatwounds on my other bass, but that's a different story). The regular XLs sound amazing, but I realized that they die quickly and they lose their brightness. So I wanted to try something similar, but different.
Enter the NYXLs:
I read about the NYXLs here on TB and I watched videos about them with sound samples. It was hard to tell the difference between the regular XLs and the NYXLs from the videos even with headphones on. But I decided to take a chance on them after reading that Frank Bello from Anthrax plays them exclusively. He's one of my favorite bassists and I know he plays quality gear, so if they're good enough for Frank, they should be good enough for me.
I'm so glad I pulled the trigger! The NYXLs gave me back the clanky sound of the Rotosound 66s that I've been missing for years. Plus, I still have the quality and feel of the D'Addario regular XLs that I got used to over the past 18 months. These strings are probably the nicest roundwounds I've ever played! I understand the hype here on TB and why bassists like Frank Bello and others swear by them.
They sound incredible with distortion, without distortion, and on several different pickup settings. These strings pair very nicely with my Rickenbacker 4003 and it's traditional Ric pickups. My 4003 is stock, so there's no mods making my review biased. I always talk about bass-string pairings like most people talk about food-wine/beverage pairings. Some strings work well with certain basses while others don't. This is a beautiful pairing, especially because I play heavy metal and hard rock!
Heavy Gauge:
These strings are thick! I got the heavy gauge (55-110) set because I tune to D Standard. The 110 gauge low D string is huge, but not as big as a low B string on a 5 string bass. I have to get used to the extra thickness coming from medium gauge (50-105) rounds. The heavy gauge NYXLs feel closer to the medium gauge (45-105 and 50-105) D'Addario Chromes and Rotosound 77s on my other basses. They're also about the same in terms of string tension. That's why I chose the heavy gauge NYXLs over the medium gauge ones.
I also chose the heavy gauge because I was having fret buzz with the medium gauge D'Addarios. I realized that I needed more tension for my lower than normal tuning. The fret buzz is gone with the NYXLs because I chose the right gauge for me.
Conclusion:
I'm thrilled! The NYXLs have become my new go to roundwound strings! The regular XLs are still a close second if I'm in a pinch or there's no NYXLs available.
