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Stainless steel strings feel like scratching a sand paper

#42
Sparkl said:
Well the title says it all. I prefer stainless sound on my Jazz bass elite5 and I currently use rotos swing bass 5string.

The sound is really nice, I especially love the feel of the 5th string, but see the title problem.

Is there a way to overcome this? Fast fret doesn't help (well it does for a tune or two, then same story), elixir stainless also don't work because the 5th string sounds pretty bad compared to rotos.

I tried other strings (stainless dean markleys, drs, daddario etc) and it's pretty much the same story. I could say that rotos are the harshest to my fingers of them all (they all feel like scraping the concrete floor). Ironically I like the sound they give. Even after cca 60hrs of playing them they still feel like sand paper.

Is there a way around it or should I accept the fact that stainless are too harsh for my hand and return back to nickels?

Thanks for any input guys (and girls), I appreciate it.

Edit: I could easily overcome the strings harshness. The problem is that my fingers get stuck while playing it which annoys the crap out of me. Really hard to play those smooth funky lines when you get stuck on a 16th note groove.
Click to expand...
You might want to try LaBella Gold Tapewounds, not the new gold flatwounds, but the nylon-wrapped strings. They're more expressive than any flatwounds I ever tried. You might he surprised by how much variety you can get out of them with a simple tone knob adjustment. I recently put them on my CV Jazz and my buddy didn't believe they were tapewounds when I had the tone knob turned all the way up.
One more thing, they're very smooth.
 
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#43
jd56hawk said:
You might want to try LaBella Gold Tapewounds, not the new gold flatwounds, but the nylon-wrapped strings. They're more expressive than any flatwounds I ever tried. You might he surprised by how much variety you can get out of them with a simple tone knob adjustment. I recently put them on my CV Jazz and my buddy didn't believe they were tapewounds when I had the tone knob turned all the way up.
One more thing, they're very smooth.
Click to expand...

Thanks for an idea. I just mounted a set of Dunlop stainless flats on my 4 string USA Jbass and I like it a lot. They are also pretty bright for a flatwound.

Never tried these labellas though so I will definitely give them a shot.

Any experience with GHS though? As much as I want to like them they just don't fit with any of my bass guitars. Funny thing, Lakland used to have their strings that were supposedly (so I've heard, no real facts for it) based on GHS Boomers and I still play that set on my Pbass. They sound great and smooth and tight. The GHS Boomers? Not really.

And also, I would like to hear some opinions on Fender and ErnieBall strings, since I haven't tried them for a long time (like almost 10 years long) and I don't remember being impressed back then.

The only Fender strings I tried were the original strings that come with a new Fender bass and those seem like complete poopie.
 
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#44
Sparkl said:
Thanks for an idea. I just mounted a set of Dunlop stainless flats on my 4 string USA Jbass and I like it a lot. They are also pretty bright for a flatwound.

Never tried these labellas though so I will definitely give them a shot.

Any experience with GHS though? As much as I want to like them they just don't fit with any of my bass guitars. Funny thing, Lakland used to have their strings that were supposedly (so I've heard, no real facts for it) based on GHS Boomers and I still play that set on my Pbass. They sound great and smooth and tight. The GHS Boomers? Not really.

And also, I would like to hear some opinions on Fender and ErnieBall strings, since I haven't tried them for a long time (like almost 10 years long) and I don't remember being impressed back then.

The only Fender strings I tried were the original strings that come with a new Fender bass and those seem like complete poopie.
Click to expand...
I had GHS flatwounds on a bass once, but didn't notice anything outstanding...nothing wrong with them, either.
I have five basses. My Dean Acoustic has D'Adarrio black tapewounds on it, my CV Jazz has the La Bella gold tapewounds, and my two G&Ls have Fender 9050 CL flats...excellent flats.
I have an Epiphone Classic IV Thunderbird that needs strings but I haven't decided what flats to use...I want something with red silks!
 
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#46
Sparkl said:
Ahem, I play upright bass with no problems at all so I don't think that finger strength is an issue :)

Strength is not the point. I can dig in really hard. Point is that the finger gets stuck there and I do not desire to play my instrument harder than needed. Also, for certain musical styles, less finger pressure is preferred.
Click to expand...

I could be wrong of course..........but my experience is that this "stickiness" is mostly psychological. They feel stickier and so you try harder, tense up, and there you go. Slow.

I've never played the rotos. But I go back and forth between SS lo riders, and a set of old Sadowsky flats that are as smooth as silk. For gigs I really want what SS strings have to offer, and once I learned to just relax a bit and do good warm ups for a while I learned that there is no real difference in the end (except in tone of course). Most of the screech goes away too once you relax and play with confidence.

It's not all in your head because SS strings do feel stickier at first, and screech more. That's real. But it's our response to that in our head that magnfies the problem, again IMO, IME.
 
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