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RotoSound with no yarn?
- Thread starter MachMike
- Start date
Two options I know of... the UltraMag set has no silk. It's an alloy-52 wrap rather than stainless steel, but definitely sounds similar to the Swing Bass set.
The RotoBass set also has no silk. Nickel-plated steel. The general consensus seems to be that these strings are NOT identical to the nickel-plated Swing Bass set, though exactly what the differences are might be challenging to pinpoint.
The RotoBass set also has no silk. Nickel-plated steel. The general consensus seems to be that these strings are NOT identical to the nickel-plated Swing Bass set, though exactly what the differences are might be challenging to pinpoint.
Rotobass have been confirmed as Swing Nickels without the silk.
I sent an email to Rotosound a few years ago inquiring about this. And yes, they did tell me the only difference between the Rotobass and the Swing Bass 66 Nickels is the silk itself.
That being said, there have been posts by people who have used both, and some of them insist they're NOT identical either in tone or in feel. So, go figure...
Well, I'm one of those who thought they were different, to wit, the sets of Swing Bass nickels that I've tried seemed to sound superior to the one (one!) set of RotoBass that I tried. Which could simply point to, perhaps I got an old / bad set of RotoBass.
I thought for sure though that I read somewhere that someone had "confirmed" from Rotosound that they were different, but maybe I'm misremembering.
I actually just saw a marketing blurb from Rotosound recently which implied but did not seem to directly state that Rotobass and Swing Nickels were the same, except for the silk, but I thought it was odd how the wording seemed to fall short of outright saying the string constructions were identical...
In any case. I personally like having silks. So if I were wanting a set of nickel roundwound Rotosounds, I would buy the Swing Bass set. It has nickels, and... I THINK... MAYBE... it sounds better. ...... or does it?
[EDIT: WAIT! Hold up! After I posted the above, I just remembered -- what I tried was NOT RotoBass. It was the unsilked roundwound Rotosound nickels sold exclusively at Guitar Center. Which opens up a whole other door of mystery and intrigue.]
If you're looking for an unsilked stainless string, you might try Dunlop regular SS. I like them a lot, although still prefer RS66.
“They look different therefore they are different strings and therefore sound different…”
Confirmation bias at work.
D
I also sent an email to Rotosound about this. They told me they were NOT the same strings. I don't remember the exact details but they said something about "different spec wire".
The reason I sent this email in the first place was that I kept reading here on Talkbass that Rotobass strings are the same strings as Rotosound 66 nickels and my ears didn't agree. In my experience the Rotobass strings sound different (in my opinion inferior) and don't last nearly as long before they "go dead" or "mellow out" (depending on how you look at it). It could be a bad batch I guess. Rotosound are known to have had issues at certain times in the past. But I tried the Rotobass strings on more occasion, over a period of several years and they just didn't have the unique Rotosound mids to my ears. I love Roto 66s but I wasn't very impressed with Rotobass. They sounded and felt like more generic, nickel plated roundwounds.
FWIW Rotosound's marketing of these stings also indicate that the Rotobass strings are wound on automated machines and the 66 nickels are hand wound. But I never trust marketing so I take this with a grain of salt.
I couldn't care less if they have silks or not btw. I have never understood the obsession about this.
The Rotobass strings are, in a word, awful. I absolutely could not believe they could have come from the same company.
Thankfully I only bought the one set.
Thankfully I only bought the one set.
JustStrings.com brand bulk stainless steel strings don't have any silk. They don't sound exactly like Rotos, but they're good sounding stainless strings and last longer than Rotos. If you can get them on sale, you get 6 sets for around 13 USD each.
Bassically, Michael
Bassically, Michael
D
It's also worth mentioning that the windings under the silk on 66 nickels (and all other Rotos except Rotobass) are very "knurled". The Rotobass stings have smooth windings all the way to the end of the strings, like on for example D'Addario XLs.
So basically, if you remove the silk on 66 nickels they won't look like Rotobass strings AT ALL. I don't know much about string manufacturing but this suggests to me that the manufacturing process is different. Which can surely affect the tone?
So basically, if you remove the silk on 66 nickels they won't look like Rotobass strings AT ALL. I don't know much about string manufacturing but this suggests to me that the manufacturing process is different. Which can surely affect the tone?
D
Do you need no silk or just not red silk? The only Rotos without silk are the Rotobass strings but I personally don't think they sound like the Swing Bass 66 strings at all (see my posts above). And even if they did, they're nickel plated so they should be more like the 66 nickels with the blue silk, not the steels with the red silk. Rotosound do not have any stainless steels stings without silk.
If you just want a different color silk than red there's the Solo Bass 55s with green silk. These are pressurewound versions of the 66 steels. They are not nearly as smooth as pressurewound strings from other manufacturers. If I didn't know they were pressurewound I would have guessed they were roundwounds. They feel slightly stiffer than the 66s (although they are actually slightly lower tension when comparing the same gauges). They sound VERY close to the 66 steels. Maybe just a tad more "polite" sounding but it's close enough that I could go either way. In my experience the 55s also stay bright much longer than the 66 steels. I prefer the slightly more supple feel of the 66s and I also prefer the tone of Rotos when they've mellowed out a bit. But if I wanted Rotos that stay bright, and wanted a slightly tighter/stiffer "feel", I would go with the 55s.
Of course you've also got the Swing Bass 66 nickels with the blue silk, but they don't sound quite like the Swing Bass 66 steels.
