The price of strings!!!!!

[aus_bass]

I'm crying with you! Try looking for flatwounds. I'll have to take out a mortgage just to try them. A friend, years ago, had some nylon (I think) covered flatwounds on his Yamaha Neck Thru. I'd dearly love to find something similar. I can not ask him as he died many years back. That said, AliExpress does seem to have some cheap strings, of course, quality may vary!

Sounds like your friend had Tapewounds. I've wanted to try them for a while, but already have a heavy investment in a variety of flatwounds, which fortunately last forever.

Fender 9120M Nylon Tapewound Bass Guitar Strings 58 - 110

Best thing to do is grab 3 or 4 sets of your preferred strings from Fret Nation. Even with the horrible exchange conversion and international shipping, it still works out cheaper than buying locally in Aus. Cheapest flatwounds you'll find is the Fender 9050's. I picked up a set locally for $69. Fortunately, they are great flatwounds. They suit my Jazz, perfectly.

 

[Watchootognbout]

I pay about $40.00 for a pack of S.I.T Conklin Powersteel 7 PSR18135.
It's about what they've always cost.
SIT- PSR18135 Conklin Signature Stainless Steel 7-String Bass Exposed Core 18-135 | Reverb
Invalid Link Removed
SIT Strings PSR18135 Conklin Power Steel Extended Range 7-String Bass Strings | eBay

 

[Dynacord]

And realistically Electric Bass strings have been between $20-$30 since the 90's, they haven't really tracked with inflation much at all

Yep. I remember Rotosound Swing Bass sets being $25 US pre tax in the early 80's...

Also what others have said about double bass strings.

 

[pcake]

i guess it depends on what strings you use, where you buy them and what country you're in.

i first bought bass strings as a gift for a bass player - they were rotosounds, and they were $20 at hollywood GC. today you can still get them for $20. i've been using d'addario super light nickel rounds for over 2 decades, and they still cost around $20, just like they did in around 2000.

boomers, which i used in 1999 and 2000 have gone up about $5; i just checked, and they haven't even kept up with inflation or they'd be over $35 per pack rather than $25.

 

[GMC]

Any Bass string maunfactured here in the UK is sub £20 for a set of four. Anything I buy that is imported stateside...I'm looking at £60 plus. Welcome to the wonderful world of inflation and marketing greed.

 

[Indiana Mike]

A set of high quality cello strings, a mix of TI Spirocore and Larsen mediums, is over $300. I just bit the bullet and restrung my trusty wood cello. I am really happy to pay whatever the current price is for a set of strings for my Fender Jazz, lol. It's all relative

Not to mention bow re-hair or the cost of a proper instrument.
My daughter is a cellist in college.
I still grumble about strings and instrument pricing , but not as loudly.

 

[PiquetBass]

Thats US math. He was using Candian math.

And Candian spelling too, by the looks of it....

 

[StereoPlayer]

Price per song, hour, per note, per weeks, per month…..they are cheap.

 

[groooooove]

i remember a set being about $20 at the time i started playing/buying my own stuff..

$20 in 2005 according to a google inflation calculator adds up to $30.39 today.

sounds like the price of strings has actually more or less stayed the same.

 

[groooooove]

Eudoxa Gut (Silver Flatwound) Upright Bass Strings
View attachment 4969437

obviously upright strings can't compare - BUT

expensive gut strings, over many years, are actually by far the cheapest option. gut lasts "indefinitely" and always sounds good - never dies. Bozo Paradzik told me he's had the same set of gut strings on his bass for 12 years, and has no reason to replace them.

compare that to a set of evah pirrazzi or other $300+ strings you'll need to replace every year or so... much more expensive.

 

[Danny C]

I pay under $25 for DR pure blues. That's over 800 to string my basses. Not including the 275 for my upright.
Insane....yes. It's the life I chose. Amazon and Just Strings are both fair prices.

 

[micguy]

I have been buying strings for basses since the 1970's. You pay less actual dollars now for a set of 5 strings than you did back then for a set of 4. Adjusted for inflation, strings are very cheap.

 

[lamarjones]

A paint can filled with denatured alcohol is way cheaper. And works like a champ for that fresh roundwound sound.

 

[No Malarky]

Some doggone prices are for the birds

 

[duruk]

On top of that, if you're from a country where 1 USD equals about 19 units of your currency, you are pretty much stuck with whatever flats you managed to buy years ago, and maybe some rounds that feel like flats.

 

[edencab]

I posed a similar question here last November focused on flatwound strings....some good comments and pricing info from all over if anyone is interested

Flatwound String Prices

 

[Relsom]

Until the millennium it was common at our local mom and pop stores to sell strings at 2 for 1. 2 sets of Boomers wouldn't usually ding me for more than $20.

 

[Ron Berenato]

back in the day bass strings were marked $40.00 a pack but you always paid half that. From the late '70's to the mid '90's that was my experience. I laid off a lot of years to raise a family and now that I'm back into playing I was disappointed that now $40.00 actually means $40.00. I paid that for a set of Rotosound flats for a bass (that I ended up hating - I have no use for flats but I gave it a shot). So that leaves me to NOT want to experiment with different strings and just stick to what I already have confidence in - DR strings.

 

[Slevage]

Price of (almost) everything is up.

I remember Fender flats costing me $10 in the early 70's. That was a lot for a young kid, but I was making $25 to $40 for a gig, so I took it in stride.

 

[Notaluthier]

Go on the DB side and see what a set of strings costs.

Exactly, a set of Pirastro Euxoda's is 800 USD.