So our sound guy comes to band practice...

[Ronzo]

Bless your heart.

 

[JRA]

i trust our sound guy he is very smart and he is very good...

'nuff said! you're lucky. good luck on your string quest!

 

[Medicine Man]

I play dead rounds, and hate the clankiness of new strings with a passion, but there is surely a point where they sound too dead. It is certainly less than a year of regular playing for most music styles.

 

[btmpancake]

Yes go ahead and change the strings but don't tell him you did. Lets see if he'll notice the difference.

 

[david barnes]

The first thing he says after listening to us play 5-6 songs....murph, how long have you had those strings on that bass....I start thinking, then I say, half stammering..,uh...like I don't know...well, I bought the bass with them on it...and I think they were on it before that ...so a year plus...lol...he says yeah you should get new ones...you need more brightness out of strings and those sound dead... I have no idea what kind of strings are on them...I know they are stainless, rounds...maybe..lol could be nickel but I'm thinking stainless...So I need a new set of stainless bright strings...

i change my strings atleast 1 time a month..2 times if im gigging a lot..and i change them on all my basses.

 

[MDBass]

The amount of people suggesting the sound guy should shag off is both hilarious and a little sad.

Someone being employed by the band was specifically asked to come by rehearsal and make suggestions to help them sound better...and your knee jerk, ego driven reply is that they should shut up?

Year old flats are awesome, but year old rounds on the other hand are frequently not.

Rounds well over a year old may very well have shot intonation in addition to being harmonically dead, and it's much easier to darken an inherently bright sound than vice versa: that's literally what the tone knob on your bass is for

 

[dave64o]

Yes go ahead and change the strings but don't tell him you did. Lets see if he'll notice the difference.

Or, better still, save yourself the money and just tell him, "Yep, these new DR's should be nice and bright now!" and see if he notices the difference.

 

[Gary Poe]

Who cares what some 'sound guy' thinks? It's your bass, not his. What if he had said to get a new amp? New bass? New bass player?

I've got a Precision I last changed strings on in 1981. I play a bass, not a 'treble'. If he wants bright tell him to buy a flashlight.

I agree but at the same time a good soundman is worth his weight in cheesburgers and can make you sound great or not/ im using flats on almost all my 9 basses and love the sound and feel and I cant complain at all cause many of the sound guys in this area are also bassplayers and always complement my tone / I know im blessed in this as its probably not the norm!

 

[cnltb]

The first thing he says after listening to us play 5-6 songs....murph, how long have you had those strings on that bass....I start thinking, then I say, half stammering..,uh...like I don't know...well, I bought the bass with them on it...and I think they were on it before that ...so a year plus...lol...he says yeah you should get new ones...you need more brightness out of strings and those sound dead... I have no idea what kind of strings are on them...I know they are stainless, rounds...maybe..lol could be nickel but I'm thinking stainless...So I need a new set of stainless bright strings...

did he say why he thought you needed more bright?

 

[MDBass]

I've got plenty of business being in a band.........30 plus years worth. If I'm playing old country and some ding dong tells me that I need bright, clanky strings, I'm gonna tell him to buzz off! I know what tools I need for my job. I pretty much use a different sound tech for each venue. Some I trust, some not so much.

You're projecting quite a bit...I don't see anywhere in the OP that mentions "old country", or the sound guy being a "ding dong", or requesting "clanky strings".

 

[JaketheB]

If you like the brightness and zing of rounds be prepared to change them every 2-4 weeks if playing reguarly.

Meanwhile, if you like the warmth and fullness of flats you can leave them a long, long time without changing.

I have a jazz that I use D'Addario XL Nickle Balanced Tension rounds with and a P-bass with flats.

I practice mainly with the P so I don't dull the rounds and take whichever of the two is best for a gig.

 

[MoeTown1986]

If they're roundwounds, he's right. In my opinion, an average set of rounds only lasts for 2 months of gigging tops. Usually less. I think dead rounds sound horrible. Flats on the other hand, no problem. The sound better as they age.

 

[Spidey2112]

OH I accept his analysis...and will be getting new strings over the weekend...

Unless you have the Amazon Prime drone drop ship to your 'new' swimming pool, I'm going to say not...

( hope you and yours are ok... or better yet, are currently vacationing in Toledo)

 

[Spidey2112]

Funny... whenever my rounds went dead, I started accepting them as flats...

... and, here we go.

 

[Old Blastard]

Go to GC and get a set of Ernie Ball Slinky Bass and start from there. They're inexpensive and decent until you experiment with different brands and ultimately find what you really like.
You might also get a real bass set-up if you've never had your bass serviced.

I know a local tech who is awesome and usually set them up when I get them. But I have idea what strings he put in them years ago because, well, it didn't seem important at the time.

I may have been wrong.

 

[DavC]

soundman is kinda right ... except for the fact that ; if that's how YOU want your bass to sound , then that is Your choice , not the Soundmans ..!!

 

[micguy]

I'd tell my sound guy to pack sand! On a couple of my basses I prefer dead strings.

My experience is that the sound guys you don't want to work with are those that cut off your mids and highs, just leaving the low frequency stuff. So, you never hear the bass - maybe you feel a bit of something, but that's it. In this case, we have a sound guy that:

1) Shows up when he doesn't have to - apparently he cares and is proactive.
2) Is listening to things, and actually wants to hear the bass in the mix
3) Understands enough about how basses work to suggest a string change

I wouldn't tell him to pack sand. I'd give him a raise. Seriously.

 

[devnulljp]

Glad this guy wasn't around when James Jamerson was alive. Think of all the great music he could have ruined.

 

[MDBass]

Glad this guy wasn't around when James Jamerson was alive. Think of all the great music he could have ruined.

Jamerson didn't play dead SS rounds

Also...why all the assumptions that the OP is playing a style of music that actually benefits from a dark/dead bass sound?

 

[mcarp555]

I agree but at the same time a good soundman is worth his weight in cheesburgers and can make you sound great or not/ im using flats on almost all my 9 basses and love the sound and feel and I cant complain at all cause many of the sound guys in this area are also bassplayers and always complement my tone / I know im blessed in this as its probably not the norm!

A good sound man, probably so when mixing FOH at a venue. But nowhere in the original post is he described as "good". For all we know, he's just a guy who owns a PA, or someone's buddy. In my book, a good sound man would say something like, "Are you happy with your tone? Are you going for a warm sound or something brighter? Would you be interested in my opinion? How often do you change your strings? Do you have a brand preference?" and so on. Listening to a rehearsal then giving instructions is not the way to go about it. I might go see a band and think the guitar tone is horrible; I don't jump up on the stage and start messing with the amp, no matter if I'm "right" or not.