Could be one of those maybe.. My interpretation is that a square is a circle with four equidistant hard corners. These corners were not equidistant.
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Rectangular Strings?
- Thread starter Tpi
- Start date
In that regard, these strings had the aspect of giant old-style rubber bands without the stretch, wide and thin.
This is fascinating to me. I love unexplained mysteries in general and I hope somehow we can figure this one out! The fact that there was another thread with somebody reporting a similar experience AND somebody here pointed out the shortlived strings from the Netherlands... there has to be something to this.
Logically, I could see this working if the rectangular coating on these strings was flexible/soft enough. The nylon tape on tapewound strings serve to dampen the sound and get closer to an upright sort of warmth and decay, though I think they never quite did the trick. Don't get me wrong, I love tapewounds, but I don't think they quite make it into upright territory. Maybe if the synthetic coating had 90 degree corners, it would shorten the decay even more, do something funky with the remaining harmonic content, and get closer to upright? All just theorizing, speculating... but sometimes an outside-of-the-box, absurd, unsuccessful, bad designs can land us in the ballpark of the actual answer... if this experimental company didn't sell enough sets to keep themselves afloat, that may have been enough to make everyone else in the string industry write off the idea and not look further into it. Hmmm.
Anyway, thanks for sharing your experience! One of the more intriguing threads I've come across on TB in quite a while. That said, I'm probably going to have stress dreams about this tonight... trying to perfect the rectangular coated strings to finally achieve a genuine upright-like decay and resonance on an electric bass
Logically, I could see this working if the rectangular coating on these strings was flexible/soft enough. The nylon tape on tapewound strings serve to dampen the sound and get closer to an upright sort of warmth and decay, though I think they never quite did the trick. Don't get me wrong, I love tapewounds, but I don't think they quite make it into upright territory. Maybe if the synthetic coating had 90 degree corners, it would shorten the decay even more, do something funky with the remaining harmonic content, and get closer to upright? All just theorizing, speculating... but sometimes an outside-of-the-box, absurd, unsuccessful, bad designs can land us in the ballpark of the actual answer... if this experimental company didn't sell enough sets to keep themselves afloat, that may have been enough to make everyone else in the string industry write off the idea and not look further into it. Hmmm.
Anyway, thanks for sharing your experience! One of the more intriguing threads I've come across on TB in quite a while. That said, I'm probably going to have stress dreams about this tonight... trying to perfect the rectangular coated strings to finally achieve a genuine upright-like decay and resonance on an electric bass
Ummmm, what was its name again? and the rest of the product line?
Ummmm, what was its name again? and the rest of the product line?
Okay okay, S&M
... I could see how that may have been an attempt at a joke, BUT it was the 80s right? Plenty of overtly kinky BDSM stuff going on then... Lots of leather and bondage stuff in alternative rock and punk culture then. Just saying that it doesn't seem like such a stretch for a progressive, music industry related company from that era to use those kinds of names, especially in a less taboo-fearing neck of the international woods like the Netherlands.If it was a joke... ya got me! I can see that, but I guess I just didn't automatically think a sex-related reference in the 80s music industry would be so unimaginable.
In any case, even if that post had never been made, I still want to know about these rectangular strings!
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To this day I still watch bizzare retro commercials on YT from that era marketing things so "out of the box" that you'd swear everyone would remember them, or that entrepreneurs would've grabbed it up and made it the greatest thing since sliced bread. But like you said, it was such a revolutionary time that many groundbreaking (or just plain weird) concepts never really caught on.
I do vaguely remember hearing/reading mention of rectangular or "square" bass strings sometime around a decade or two ago, that's why I clicked on this thread.
I'd bet any money these mystery strings were some whacky form of tapewounds manufactured by a small company before inevitably going belly up in a couple years.
No disrespect to the OP, memory is a funny thing, I often misremember things myself. But this is my theory.
When I first started playing and heard of flatwounds, I wrongly assumed if roundwounds had a round cross-section then surely flatwounds must have flat sides, like a square or rectangular cross section. I think the OP made this assumption as well, and since the strings were only on the bass for a short time misremembered what they were.
The OP says that another musician friend called them flatwounds, the friend who was more experienced was probably correct. Or perhaps they were tapewounds (since the OP mentions them being black) that the friend just refereed to as flats.
The OP also said that when they did buy their first set of flatwounds expecting these square strings they received roundwounds with a plastic coating instead.
Well flatwounds aren't roundwounds with a plastic coating, so that is another episode of the OP misremembering something. Here the OP could be remembering Elixr strings which have a polymer coating.
When I first started playing and heard of flatwounds, I wrongly assumed if roundwounds had a round cross-section then surely flatwounds must have flat sides, like a square or rectangular cross section. I think the OP made this assumption as well, and since the strings were only on the bass for a short time misremembered what they were.
The OP says that another musician friend called them flatwounds, the friend who was more experienced was probably correct. Or perhaps they were tapewounds (since the OP mentions them being black) that the friend just refereed to as flats.
The OP also said that when they did buy their first set of flatwounds expecting these square strings they received roundwounds with a plastic coating instead.
Well flatwounds aren't roundwounds with a plastic coating, so that is another episode of the OP misremembering something. Here the OP could be remembering Elixr strings which have a polymer coating.
I only speculated that gut potentially fits the form factor.
Having joined two day's ago, I had no idea about DrewKore's post from years ago. That most replies in that thread were mockery and derision from the ignorant with few genuine insights to offer is duly noted by this fresh face. That the trend just leaked into this thread is most comical.
Whatever these strings were, if they were even the same as Drew's, their existence was fact. Folks are free to gaslight all they like, don't make no difference to me even after the blatent brow-beating I read over in that other thread that left Drew questioning his very reality in the end. That thread is a fine display of a most noble pig pile.
If no one here knows or has insight on the topic, cool enough. With the assembled knowledge base here, I thought sure some wisdom would be had. All else is just noise looking for a ground, any ground.
A pleasant day to all good readers. This forum has been mostly enjoyable so far.
I honestly do not know why my post upset you so much. I simply suggested that if the bass made sound through an amp, metal strings were involved. So no cat or horse gut.
I'm a newbie here myself and "mockery and derision" was not my intention. If I came across that way, I apologize.
This is fascinating to me....
That said, I'm probably going to have stress dreams about this tonight... trying to perfect the rectangular coated strings to finally achieve a genuine upright-like decay and resonance on an electric bass
Good luck with those dreams and watch that blood pressure!
I've only just heard of them since arriving here. Image search a moment ago shows their profile to be circles, not rectangles.
Those grounds must catch on the finger real well without the grooves to facilitate air flow between string and skin.
Are groundwounds especially good for picks or some other technique or tone? Or do they simply exist as an esoteric sub variety of strings that are out there that could be made so were made? They look painful for long playing.
Yeah like in cartoons with the steamrollers -no stress fracture or damage like that just, a comical smush-shape.
The 2nd post has a link to a 2yr old thread that has a photo of square strings. What I saw wasn't those, unless it were squished into more of a rectangle.
Those square strings look ugly and probably play poorly which is why they never made it.
Now, triangle strings... THOSE are the next big thing, my friend! I just need one million of your dollars as starting seed money wired to the following account. Don't worry, your investment is safe with me and will return ten fold. I've got your promise on that! Ok. Got a pencil? Ready for the address?
-In actuality, it was on deliberately buying what I thought were flat wounds only to get what I will now more precisely describe as nylon-dipped round wounds in tan packaging. That is the ignorance of a noob 19yr old kid. The vague recollection of tan packaging suggests those could have been Rotosounds, Ernie balls, daddarios or even a Markley.
I've more than often described these were physically rectangular. It was later I bought flats thinking that's what it meant because of my experience with actual flatt-ish, physically rectangular 'strings'. That music store was not Daddy's Junky Music over by the highway, it was downtown on Manchester in Manchester, NH. The name of that music store, whether Macnhester is astreet, blvd or avenue, those are fiddly memory bits that get jangled. That there was a music store that I could go on to vaguely describe and yet not name, doesn't mean it wasn't there. What I paid for those strings, what the clerk looked like, all I can tell you is I walked there myself from the college up the street -a college that went bankrupt and is also not there anymore. The buildings are all now privately owned and there isn't clue there was a school there. Did I not spend 4yrs of my life there though I can't show you it exists now?
Now this is not to pick on any one person, but come on folks, this memory lapse meme only holds so much water for so long.
I concur with your answer to your statement, sxsaxsx.
You accuse me of misremembering then answer your statement by saying they could be a particular brand. Well, if Elixer's had the previously mentioend tan/gold packaging 35yrs ago, then yes, they could have been Elixers.
And right, so it's not the case that 19yr old noob asks a store clerk for flat wounds and takes what is given on good faith and feeling cheated at the time. It's a modern-day misremembering of times gone by.
----
This whole distancing and 'othering' with "OP states" that several folks are on to not only here but in that drewKore thread from years ago. Is that normal?
People engaging in conversation with each other usually speak with names, handles, abbreviations or even 'you'. People who are talking at or down at others use weird 3rd-person distancing things. There's probably some smart-person technical term. Maybe I've just never seen anything like this before. It's a strange dynamic, like some kind of trial lawyer-talk thing "Plaintiff of suit is clearly senile and cannot recollect yesterdays meal, much less events of last week, your honor." "Yes, your honor Plaintff this, that." Never address another by name or as a person, just an object or number, 'an other' is what the behavior seems to come down to from some form of self-portrayal as lofty and neutral dispenser of universal truths and ideals to the hopelessly befuddled masses?
That I am posting this in sxaxsx reply is not to single you out, sxaxsx, as the whole thing seems pervasive beyond this thread and always seem focused on making 'the OP' to be out of their mind. And sxaxsx, I do not take your post disrespectfully and hope you do not see this so as well.
Between this and DrewKore's thread, this oddball topic turned out to elicit some very unique displays of less than admirable posts to the launching of some wonderful flights of imaginings. That the preponderance seems to weigh on 'crush the absurdity' than 'ponder the possibility' is disheartening.
Like I said awhile back, Gaslight was a cool movie. Charles Boyer is always awesome. It's too bad Ingrid Bergman's character amounts to little more than damsel in distress that needs saving, but that was the era. A cool modern day re-telling would likely have Ingrid catch on to the trick, rig the gas lines to explode while she happens to be away with an alibi. lolz.
We have two reports. If we're gonna keep trying to solve the puzzle, we have to assume both OPs are posting in good faith, which means either:
-There was a string with edges, or;
-There was a string that OPs recall feeling or looking like it had edges
You can put a metal core in a string made of just about anything and it will make noise through magnetic pickups, so it is certainly conceivable the bass was strung with something not made exclusively of metal.
Questions to ponder
1) What key words might stick out if someone was advertising or marketing a string with edges, or one that felt like it had edges? These will aid us in our search.
2) What properties of a bass string would make it appear or feel like it had edges?
-There was a string with edges, or;
-There was a string that OPs recall feeling or looking like it had edges
You can put a metal core in a string made of just about anything and it will make noise through magnetic pickups, so it is certainly conceivable the bass was strung with something not made exclusively of metal.
Questions to ponder
1) What key words might stick out if someone was advertising or marketing a string with edges, or one that felt like it had edges? These will aid us in our search.
2) What properties of a bass string would make it appear or feel like it had edges?
Your post did not upset me in the least. Your actual statement and my reply are not waht you here suggest. You posted this:
While yes you did 'simply suggest', what you seem to blotting from memory is the backhand smackdown "That is, if they existed." In this one sentence, you seek to deny and dismiss my very experience up to even as a person. This one sentence implies that the person it is being said about cannot be trusted with such a simple thing as their own memory.
Should you go and read the DrewKore thread, you will see similar displays of regrettable statements and behaviors, My reply was to that behavior in that thread, crossing to this thread via your one sentence.
I did then reply in part:
So yes, hogy, the backhandedness and denial has continued on in this thread these years later, however subconsciously so by those who are doing it.
Having just joined, it is interesting to see the continuity of a... community-summoned gestalt being of some sort. Its mode is to attack and downplay rather than lift and elevate. Its not one person, its a manner of thinking, a default mind-path. Master Yoda called it the Dark Side, it's quicker, easier, but not stronger.
And hogy, I do not take offense at your posts. I note the above continuity and casual dismissal that group-think promotes. "Conform to norm" is shouted by artists, scientists and politicians across all flavors and eras alike. No skin off my nose.
Across both threads, it is those few minds that are flying with fancy right now that are the real winners here. They're minds have been liberated to a new way of thinking, even if only as fanciful distraction to ponder and weird little insights to explore that are soon forget that charge the mind and keep it fresh.
Skip the stodge.
