Strings- How bright? Or not at all?

[DJmtd]

I used to seek out the brightest strings I could find and used a bunch of different stainless variants to that end. But I've found I like the feel of nickel under my fingers more and when they're brand spankin' new they're usually just as bright. The downside is they don't stay that way as long so now I'm an obsessive string cleaning old man. My wallet cannot handle how badly I crave the feel of new strings!

On my fretless Vigier I use a set of our Super Polished and they're super bright for something that's not a regular round wound. I REALLY dig that for the fretless but the tension is a little daunting for any other application. I will be putting them on one of my fretteds soon to see if that's something I could gig with. I would love to find a string I can leave on for an entire tour without sacrificing the brightness/growl that I like. Might try the IMAs while I'm at it.

 

[GIBrat51]

It can depend on the style of music you play, and other contextual stuff, but some like bright strings & others don’t. Or how bright?
Brightness can help you cut through the mix, or be too shrill.
Of course the strings aren’t the only factor.

But just isolating strings for a moment, what is your preference?

Mine has always been for bright strings, so I tend not to like flatwounds.
If it’s too bright I can “de-bright them by amp or bass settings, EQ pedal, or technique.
I find it easier to take away brightness than to add it.
Of course YMMV, even if you like brightness as well.

So what are your thoughts?
And if you play guitar as well, does it differ for you?
Since the guitar is midrange, my thoughts are pretty much the same for both guitar and bass.
Thanks.

My thoughts? Well...
1. I learned to play bass in 1968, on a friend's '68 Rick 4001. It wore the factory-installed German Maxima 4440 Flat wounds. So, I've been... inclined... to flats on a bass ever since. Currently, only two of my 29 basses wear rounds (and one only does so because it's new, and I haven't yanked them off yet); two wear tape wounds (and one does so, because it was built to sound like with anything else); all the rest wear various brands, scales, and gauges of flats. The Maximas, by the way, were low tension; light gauge; and pretty mellow - compared to other flats of the time...
2. I don't do- and never have done - "bright". Nothing I ever had to play when I was in a band - and nothing I play now, just for fun - requires "bright". Some music I play sounds best with "mellow"; I have basses with flats that do that quite well. And, of course, I also have basses with flats that do low down, rattle your fillings out. And, when I want "organic & woody"? That's what the tapewounds are for...
3. The one bass I have that deliberately wears rounds, is my '94 Gretsch G6119BO-LH Broadkaster. It wears TIJR 324 Jazz Rounds, because Gretsch, in a fit of... something... decided to put ceramic magnet, guitar Filtertrons in it; and, in 12 years of trying more strings than I care to think about? The TIJRs are the only strings that make it actually sound like a bass - instead of a big orange guitar. Even then, the bass is brighter than a big hollow-bodied bass has any right to. But, I can live with it; mainly because, if I want to keep the only left handed Gretsch bass I've ever seen - in 35+ years of looking? I have to...
4. My brightest basses with flats? One is a first gen. MIK Danelectro DC59 Pro with 39-96 LaBella 760FX's on it. On the Dano, they give me the characteristic "Dano sound"; not bright, so much as sharp - but they're definitely flatwounds... The other bass is a '95 Alembic Epic, with TI Jazz Flats. I consider TI's to be just to the bright side of the center of the flat wound tone spectrum. With the Alembic's tone controls, it's possible to get the TI's pretty bright; but it's a very creamy, smooth bright. More like a contralto opera singer - instead of the rocker's screech of rounds...
5. As for guitars? Out of the five that I own, the four that I play occasionally, wear flatwounds, too. Italian Dogal strings; either their "Expressive Jazz" flatwounds, or the "Evolution Flatwounds". Pretty heavy ones, too. The 5th guitar? It's a cheap Strat knock-off, that I haven't even picked up in at least 2 years. IIRC, it's wearing EB Slinky 9s...

 

[zontar]

Again, it’s cool we don’t all play the same thing.
Mostly musically and for listening.
But imagine a forum in that world.
It wouldn’t last long…

 

[roccobass]

My tastes and style have evolved (or devolved depending on who who knows me).

Originally it was Roto Swing Steels Standard Gauge only coupled with my passive fretted Fender Jazz coupled with my SVT. Nothing wrong with that set up. Simple and I always cut through the mix in all my loud club rock bands.. Bright with just enough honk. Nowadays, with my Mesa Subway amps, I like GHS Pressurewounds the best on the fretted.

Nowadays, I’m playing a lot of jazz and blues mostly using passive Fender Jazz fretlesses using TI flats. I never was a big fan of flats until I started playing fretless. The TIs are bright and flexible. I wanted to like Labella Lotensions, but within a month or to, it was flab city. Chromes are good sounding, but felt stiff to me at the time, so I put them aside. Maybe I’ll revisit them in the future.

 

[Steve88]

I agree with all who said they prefer the strings to be on the bright side. There's lots of ways to easily tame a bright bass and add warmth and thump...tone controls, treble knobs, EQ, etc. I use a SGFX Beta with the gain and tone set low as my one button "make it thump" box.

It's much harder to add brightness and sizzle that isn't there to begin with.

 

[Makten]

I agree with all who said they prefer the strings to be on the bright side. There's lots of ways to easily tame a bright bass and add warmth and thump...tone controls, treble knobs, EQ, etc. I use a SGFX Beta with the gain and tone set low as my one button "make it thump" box.

It's much harder to add brightness and sizzle that isn't there to begin with.

Problem is, there is so much more that differs than brightness. You can't make roundwounds sound like flatwounds with EQ, for example. Not to mention how different they feel when you are playing.

 

[ElectricBass72]

I want my bass strings as bright as possible. Ever since Dean Markley Blue Steels in the 90's, hearing Tool's Opiate/Undertow, King's X, etc.... I must have the complete spectrum of piano-like bass tones with growling aggression on my Spector, Fender PJ's, Ibanez SR's, etc. It's always easy to reduce the highs and mids on a bass... than not having them at all. I like lots of mids/highs on my Fender P's and J's too... like Jane's Addiction (P) and Smashing Pumpkins (J) had on their tones. I appreciate the deep, bassy tones of Motown and Reggae/Bob Marley bass tones... but it's not my thang.

 

[Steve88]

Problem is, there is so much more that differs than brightness. You can't make roundwounds sound like flatwounds with EQ, for example. Not to mention how different they feel when you are playing.

Well sure, can't argue with that If you want what flats have to offer, then there's nothing like a good set of flats!

I meant given two otherwise equal strings (like that can happen), I would lean towards taking the brighter ones to give myself the biggest variation in sounds readily available

 

[Nuisance]

Strings are a tough one for me. Depends on genre I'm playing and my general mood.

I had switched all of my basses to rounds recently because I was just tired of flats, but this morning I strung the Stingray back up with flats. There's a klanky tone I can get with some compression and the action set real low that I just can't get with rounds. It's great in a rock mix, but that's about all.

I've noticed my taste and genre change so much I just need to have different strings on different basses (it also justifies me having so many basses......lol).

Once I decide I like a certain string the trick is to resist the urge to switch all of my basses to that particular string. The bass really needs to choose the string.

 

[ElectricBass72]

I think it's safe to say that I like extremely BRIGHT bass guitars...........