Review: GHS Round Core Bass Boomers

[Linnin]

The more I play these strings, the better I like them! They are settling in sooooo very fine that i can't keep my fingers off them! Such Balance!

 

[Linnin]

I've stopped playing my bass with the hex core Bass Boomers. I am playing my Jazz strung in round core Bass Boomers to give them a chance to catch up in number of playing hours. This is so I can do a fair hex vs round core Boomers comparison. It's getting close. Next week some time.

 

[miles'tone]

The more I play these strings, the better I like them! They are settling in sooooo very fine that i can't keep my fingers off them! Such Balance!

Very interested in a set of these for my fretless Precision. What gauge set are you using? Interested to hear which feels the most balanced.
Cheers in advance!

 

[Linnin]

Very interested in a set of these for my fretless Precision. What gauge set are you using? Interested to hear which feels the most balanced.
Cheers in advance!

They'd be great on a fretless! I tend to stick with standard medium gauge 0.45-0.105 as I don't like skinny strings. The balance of these strings is not in the tension numbers, but rather in the string-to-string feel; volume, and tone.

 

[miles'tone]

They'd be great on a fretless! I tend to stick with standard medium gauge 0.45-0.105 as I don't like skinny strings. The balance of these strings is not in the tension numbers, but rather in the string-to-string feel; volume, and tone.

Brilliant! Just what I wanted to hear. I have the GHS tension chart PDF which is a great guide, but nothing beats how strings feel in the hand.
Thank you.

 

[Linnin]

I'm feeling really good today. Plus Hurricane Hermine is off the east coast of Virginia Beach. I have beautiful sunshine and puffy white clouds at an absolutely gorgeous 68 degrees. Great day to play and write a bit.

Hex vs Round Core Bass Boomers

Hex exhibits more growl throughout the entire midrange. Round has greater low mid punch and bottom attack. Round is therefore more defined. Hex is more animalistic. Perfect to overdrive a tube amp. Hex has a sharply delineated treble bite even after 40 playing hours. Round has become more smoothly supple on the top end that flows seamlessly into the high mids. There is a lot of lovely definition right there especially if playing chords and very nice with chorus or phase shifter.

Both sets have very good string-to-string balance of feel; tone, and volume. Round core being a bit more flexible.

For some, the round core Bass Boomers may be too polite and you may like the rude brutality of the Hex better.

 

[Maiden Bass]

I'm feeling really good today. Plus Hurricane Hermine is off the east coast of Virginia Beach. I have beautiful sunshine and puffy white clouds at an absolutely gorgeous 68 degrees. Great day to play and write a bit.

Hex vs Round Core Bass Boomers

Hex exhibits more growl throughout the entire midrange. Round has greater low mid punch and bottom attack. Round is therefore more defined. Hex is more animalistic. Perfect to overdrive a tube amp. Hex has a sharply delineated treble bite even after 40 playing hours. Round has become more smoothly supple on the top end that flows seamlessly into the high mids. There is a lot of lovely definition right there especially if playing chords and very nice with chorus or phase shifter.

Both sets have very good string-to-string balance of feel; tone, and volume. Round core being a bit more flexible.

For some, the round core Bass Boomers may be too polite and you may like the rude brutality of the Hex better.

Thanks for this info, very helpful!

Bottom line IMO is that you need to try both on any particular bass to see which set sounds best.

 

[Linnin]

Playing these this morning, and loving them all the more. Perfect sonic fit on my Fender American Standard Jazz bass. Fully played in and well seasoned with 75+ playing hours. I'm running a new extreme deep tone setting on my Fender Rumble, and these strings on this bass is giving me that super menacing Grizzly bear growl of impending doom.

 

[oren]

I took my 68 Jazz strung with RC Boomers to practice with my soul jazz group yesterday and they performed brilliantly! The slap sound was great and if I dialed back the tone a bit the finger style nailed the sound on Crusaders tunes perfectly. The lows are full, the mids punchy and the highs are balanced and not overwhelming. I'm a fan. I don't know why these don't get more notice around here.

 

[trothwell]

How flexible are the Round Core Boomers, vs. Hex Core Boomers?

If anyone has tried both, how flexible are they compared to DR round core strings?

 

[Jon Moody]

How flexible are the Round Core Boomers, vs. Hex Core Boomers?

If anyone has tried both, how flexible are they compared to DR round core strings?

In terms of flexibility, I'd put them like this:

DR Round Core --> RC Bass Boomers --> Bass Boomers

TO ME, the RC Bass Boomers in a medium set (45-105) when compared to the medium set (45-105) of Bass Boomers feel more like a set of 40-60-80-100. However, that's still stiffer feeling than a medium set of DR.

 

[dagrev]

To resurrect an old thread a little.... I got a good deal a while back on a couple sets of the RC Boomers. I tried them on a Jazz and the were not really far off in taming the odd upper mids I personally find with J basses. They added some thickness which I think they also lack while retaining definition. So I was going in the right direction. I slipped them on my '05 Pbass. I really like flats. TIs on my '55, '58 &'64 Ps, GHS Pressure Wounds on a '00 Hotrod. I wanted a Precision with rounds but never really found what I was looking for with my current cab. I liked the Regular Boomers with my secondary cab (EBS 2x12) but the D and G were a little too twangy and thin for my tastes, especially when played with a pick.

I used the RCs at practice and I liked everything I was hearing. Fingers and pick all sounded great. So good, in fact, I never even looked at my amp to consider adjusting anything. You know that's a good thing. I was getting great lows, low-mids and pleasant mids that are characteristic of GHS were all there and the highs were sitting nicely on top, but not that harsh or zingy thing that can happen with most rounds. Especially for a flat guy. Very balanced as far as frequency goes, through my set up anyway. In other words, everything was in the soup just like the recipe called for and it tasted really good. Now I can have Pbass with rounds that I'm not wishing had a little more or less of something. These RC Boomers were just what I was looking for. Why I didn't put them on before I don't know! Glad I have another new set in the drawer.

 

[michael_t]

I used the RCs at practice and I liked everything I was hearing. Fingers and pick all sounded great. So good, in fact, I never even looked at my amp to consider adjusting anything. You know that's a good thing. I was getting great lows, low-mids and pleasant mids that are characteristic of GHS were all there and the highs were sitting nicely on top, but not that harsh or zingy thing that can happen with most rounds. Especially for a flat guy. Very balanced as far as frequency goes, through my set up anyway. In other words, everything was in the soup just like the recipe called for and it tasted really good. Now I can have Pbass with rounds that I'm not wishing had a little more or less of something. These RC Boomers were just what I was looking for. Why I didn't put them on before I don't know! Glad I have another new set in the drawer.

This last post was from three weeks ago. @dagrev, how are the RC Boomers doing? Or, more specifically, how have they been breaking in?

I wanted to revisit this thread because my RC Boomers just showed up in my mail box this morning. They will go on my Jazz on Wed. Meanwhile, the custom Boomers (45-60-80-105) on my P, now two and a half months old, will stay where they are for now, while I'm anxiously waiting for the Balanced Nickels to become available.

Boomers on my P and Boomers on my J! As a former flatwound enthusiast, I'm having a hard time believing just how much I've been enjoying playing my P with rounds on it, while my J with the Fender 9050CL flats hasn't seen the daylight in two months. I'm hoping these RC Boomers will infuse some life into my J.

 

[dagrev]

This last post was from three weeks ago. @dagrev, how are the RC Boomers doing? Or, more specifically, how have they been breaking in?

I wanted to revisit this thread because my RC Boomers just showed up in my mail box this morning. They will go on my Jazz on Wed. Meanwhile, the custom Boomers (45-60-80-105) on my P, now two and a half months old, will stay where they are for now, while I'm anxiously waiting for the Balanced Nickels to become available.

Boomers on my P and Boomers on my J! As a former flatwound enthusiast, I'm having a hard time believing just how much I've been enjoying playing my P with rounds on it, while my J with the Fender 9050CL flats hasn't seen the daylight in two months. I'm hoping these RC Boomers will infuse some life into my J.

Well Michael, I took them off (for a while anyway). Crazy, right, after my initial impression? My second time at rehearsal I noticed the D&G sounding "less full" in some way in what seemed like a noticeable drop-off from the E&A. More biting and not as even with the rest of the strings as I recall. I also noticed when I played a song that starts on bass (E&A strings only), and I wasn't liking what I was hearing with a pick there either.

Anyway, I but some GHS Precision Flats on and that seems to have smoothed out some of the upper-end things that I was not pleased with. I love flats, so that's a big part of it. Yet I didn't want to put Pressurewounds or TIs on that bass as I have them on other Pbasses and was wanting one with rounds. Last night I decided to put some Fender Pure Nickles on it to see how that will do. I'm on vacation and won't get a chance to play in a band setting till Wed next week at practice.

I don't know what happened, but was disheartened after that as I really wanted the RCs to be "that string" for that bass. I don't know why something can sound great one time and in the same setting it can sound less than amazing the next, at least for me. I don't know if it's just in my head or it really sounds that different. I know there are some variables even in the same setting, but to go from "wow" to "well not what I was hoping for" is confusing. I try to leave my amp pretty much the same so that's not the problem. But it maybe it is in that with the RCs I may need to do more adjusting to get what I want. Yet I didn't the first time using the RCs and that's the confusing part.

My plan is to try the Fender PNs and most certainly put the RCs back on for another go.

 

[michael_t]

Well Michael, I took them off (for a while anyway). Crazy, right, after my initial impression? My second time at rehearsal I noticed the D&G sounding "less full" in some way in what seemed like a noticeable drop-off from the E&A. More biting and not as even with the rest of the strings as I recall. I also noticed when I played a song that starts on bass (E&A strings only), and I wasn't liking what I was hearing with a pick there either.

I don't know what happened, but was disheartened after that as I really wanted the RCs to be "that string" for that bass. I don't know why something can sound great one time and in the same setting it can sound less than amazing the next, at least for me. I don't know if it's just in my head or it really sounds that different. I know there are some variables even in the same setting, but to go from "wow" to "well not what I was hoping for" is confusing. I try to leave my amp pretty much the same so that's not the problem. But it maybe it is in that with the RCs I may need to do more adjusting to get what I want. Yet I didn't the first time using the RCs and that's the confusing part.

Hey, thanks for the update.

The RC Boomers are still part of my "experiment", or "just another leg in my string journey", so it won't be a do-or-die thing. If they don't work out, I know I can always call on my trusted Pressurewounds. I'd like to give them at least a few moths before passing any judgement.

Will be back with my own updates, so stay tuned...

 

[michael_t]

I was going to wait till tomorrow to do this, but couldn't wait...

Gone is the green...

Here comes the red...

 

[michael_t]

By the way, @Linnin, that's my ironing board the bass is sitting on. Thanks for this very practical idea!

 

[Linnin]

By the way, @Linnin, that's my ironing board the bass is sitting on. Thanks for this very practical idea!

Works a treat every time!

 

[trothwell]

Gone is the green...

I think that was close to the GHS Balanced Nickels green. Depending on the light, they can look just a twinge teal, but definitely more green.

 

[michael_t]

I think that was close to the GHS Balanced Nickels green. Depending on the light, they can look just a twinge teal, but definitely more green.

I'm hoping I'll have my BN (40-101) for my P before December so I can have red and green for Christmas.