Cheers dude, think I'll leave reamping to you though, was abit out of time when I was recording it and had to carefully get it back in time
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The TalkBass String Comparison Sound Clip Thread!
- Thread starter IconBasser
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Aurora Blue Coated Strings with Peavey Cirrus. Eden Traveler amp sim and Eden 4x10. Tube Screamer and Analog Chorus.
Thank you @rob_thebassman !
I think I was too quick to judge these strings initially. I like them.
They feel fairly smooth. They don't feel grabby or sticky. As you can hear they are bright. Especially for a coated string. Again my only experiences with coated strings are DR Neons which I wasn't a huge fan of. Although the Neons are coated nickel plated strings? I wonder if that has more bearing in the sound? These are coated stainless steel I believe.
I love the color!
They look great on my Cirrus with its darker wood combinations. I don't think they glow under black lights like the Neons but I have no way of testing that. That's fine though I would rather not be too flashy. 
They have a nice tension. Even on my Cirrus which is a 35" scale. Not too tight or floppy.
They aren't cheap though. Searching around, about $25 before shipping. I found them as low as $19 but that particular store seems to be out of stock.
I think I'll keep these on for a while to test their longevity. Maybe I'll do a month to month comparison with my first clip as a reference? I have spent over my usual string budget so I'm in no hurry to take these off!
I'll keep you posted!Cheerio,
Brent
Do it man, always good to hear how they sound after they've broke in. Doesnt matter if they glow or not, it's all a gimmick really innit. I've seen some lime coloured ones that I think would look cool on my jazz bassThank you @rob_thebassman !
I think I was too quick to judge these strings initially. I like them.
They feel fairly smooth. They don't feel grabby or sticky. As you can hear they are bright. Especially for a coated string. Again my only experiences with coated strings are DR Neons which I wasn't a huge fan of. Although the Neons are coated nickel plated strings? I wonder if that has more bearing in the sound? These are coated stainless steel I believe.
I love the color!
They have a nice tension. Even on my Cirrus which is a 35" scale. Not too tight or floppy.
They aren't cheap though. Searching around, about $25 before shipping. I found them as low as $19 but that particular store seems to be out of stock.
I think I'll keep these on for a while to test their longevity. Maybe I'll do a month to month comparison with my first clip as a reference? I have spent over my usual string budget so I'm in no hurry to take these off!
Cheerio,
Brent
glad you like them though
Got abit of dirt from the La Bella Nickels todays lads, using my Line6 GX to record with using pod farm, straight into mixcraft. Heres the settings
and heres the clip
enjoy
and heres the clip
enjoy
@rob_thebassman ,
That's awesome!
I'm going to try out your settings on my Bass Pod XT!Cheers,
Brent
Cheers man@rob_thebassman ,
That's awesome!
Cheers,
Brent
I backed the volume down on my Bass to tame it down abit
I wasn't going to say anything but turn it up!Cheers man
May do next timeI wasn't going to say anything but turn it up!
gunna use my line 6 abit more tbh
sounds good either way, but yeah, make that thing roar!
Everything I've recorded on my stingray (expect the passive di box) had the pad switch on
Hi,
I made recordings of three sets of strings.
Played on an Ibanez sr800 with active PJ pickups and it's onboard eq ditched.
Recorded through my Zoom set with compression and straight into the line-in of my PC, recorded using audacity.
Short review:
Fodera Nickel Medium (105-45) (about a year old)
These start of as the brightest sounding nickels, with the E string sounding like a piano.
Quickly fade into a warm nickel kind of tone. In terms of feel like a more flexible D'addario XL, with similar tension put on the neck. The higher flexibility makes for a better sounding higher register.
Pedulla Steel 100-40 (9 months old - not played a lot) these are tapered.
Great balance, bright sound and sort of high tension for being this gauge (I guess this implies just like a D'addario XL of the same gauge in terms of stress on the neck).
Sadly, These are very rough feeling strings, causing my fingers to stick to them.
You can hear it on the recording, after the fifth try of playing 'School days' I just gave up and kept the recording with a missed note or three.
Yesterday I practiced some double thumping and they gave me two blisters :/
LaBella 760FX (96-39) = the lightest gauge deep talking flat.
Disappointing set. The E is dull and lifeless, but the G string is twangy. The first La Bella set I ever had that sucked soundwise. Balance is good on the other hand and they have a very smooth feel.
A remark is that IMO these recordings make my impression on the sound of these strings different, or even more subtle.
I think it is the DI recording doing this. Next time I can use the amp/cab sim on the zoom if people care.
The LaBella's E string sounds OK on the recording, but sounds worthless through the amp when set flat. Perhaps I am just not used to the extreme hifi, bright sound you can get DI, so I now tried eq'ing the amp to get the same tone, somewhat fixing the dull E. My conclusion from this is that next time I look for strings I will check on what feels the best primarily with the sound just being something that needs to work (For example: I had the same conclusion from Ernie ball cobalts as the OP - too narrow frequency range)
I made recordings of three sets of strings.
Played on an Ibanez sr800 with active PJ pickups and it's onboard eq ditched.
Recorded through my Zoom set with compression and straight into the line-in of my PC, recorded using audacity.
Short review:
Fodera Nickel Medium (105-45) (about a year old)
These start of as the brightest sounding nickels, with the E string sounding like a piano.
Quickly fade into a warm nickel kind of tone. In terms of feel like a more flexible D'addario XL, with similar tension put on the neck. The higher flexibility makes for a better sounding higher register.
Pedulla Steel 100-40 (9 months old - not played a lot) these are tapered.
Great balance, bright sound and sort of high tension for being this gauge (I guess this implies just like a D'addario XL of the same gauge in terms of stress on the neck).
Sadly, These are very rough feeling strings, causing my fingers to stick to them.
You can hear it on the recording, after the fifth try of playing 'School days' I just gave up and kept the recording with a missed note or three.
Yesterday I practiced some double thumping and they gave me two blisters :/
LaBella 760FX (96-39) = the lightest gauge deep talking flat.
Disappointing set. The E is dull and lifeless, but the G string is twangy. The first La Bella set I ever had that sucked soundwise. Balance is good on the other hand and they have a very smooth feel.
A remark is that IMO these recordings make my impression on the sound of these strings different, or even more subtle.
I think it is the DI recording doing this. Next time I can use the amp/cab sim on the zoom if people care.
The LaBella's E string sounds OK on the recording, but sounds worthless through the amp when set flat. Perhaps I am just not used to the extreme hifi, bright sound you can get DI, so I now tried eq'ing the amp to get the same tone, somewhat fixing the dull E. My conclusion from this is that next time I look for strings I will check on what feels the best primarily with the sound just being something that needs to work (For example: I had the same conclusion from Ernie ball cobalts as the OP - too narrow frequency range)
Bryan R. Tyler
TalkBass: Usurping My Practice Time Since 2002
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I just noticed this thread- might as well repost some sound clips I made from way back in 2006 comparing four different brands.
DR Hi-beams .040 .060 .080 .100
Elrick steels .045 .065 .080 .100
D'addario Chromes flatwounds- .045 .065 .080 .100
Fender 9050 flatwounds- .045 .060 .080 .095
All of the strings were tested new. I also ran them through two different basses- one, a neck-through with Bart soapbars, and the other a bolt-on with Bart X-style Jazz pickups.
Fingerstyle samples for the neck-through with soapbars:
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Chord samples for the neck-through with soapbars:
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Slap samples for the neck-through with soapbars:
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Fingerstyle samples for the bolt-on with Js:
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Chord samples for the bolt-on with Js:
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Slap samples for the bolt-on with Js:
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Overall review:
I liked the Elricks quite a bit- they were similar to Fodera Diamonds but the mids were really dominant. I'm not used to a .065 D string, and they don't offer a set lighter than Medium-Light. They were still quite quick-feeling. Very good strings overall- even and flexible.
The DRs were all about a slap tone... they had a thinner sound with super-bright high mids. Very metallic-sounding. Super-fast strings- I could play quick string-crossing parts and they'd respond immediately. Not much in the way of a deep or mellow tone though.
The D'addario Chromes flatwounds were a pleasant surprise- they had a great feel, smooth, deep mellow tone, and a pretty good slap tone. Very stiff at the string wrappings, yet quite flexible to pluck. Thumpy but still a bit defined. Still not as fast in response as roundwounds. Had a definite difference in tone compared to rounds on my bolt-on..I enjoyed them very much, and if I dedicate a bass to a thumpier tone, I'll use these.
I know a lot of guys swear by the Fender 9050s, but I didn't like them for my style of playing at all. They offer a good mix between roundwound sound and flatwound feel, but I didn't much like the plastic-y texture of the strings. Very slow response- I really had to work to get the slap parts played. They did have a beautiful chordal tone though. I'll be selling this set as I don't see myself using them again.
DR Hi-beams .040 .060 .080 .100
Elrick steels .045 .065 .080 .100
D'addario Chromes flatwounds- .045 .065 .080 .100
Fender 9050 flatwounds- .045 .060 .080 .095
All of the strings were tested new. I also ran them through two different basses- one, a neck-through with Bart soapbars, and the other a bolt-on with Bart X-style Jazz pickups.
Fingerstyle samples for the neck-through with soapbars:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
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Chord samples for the neck-through with soapbars:
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Slap samples for the neck-through with soapbars:
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Fingerstyle samples for the bolt-on with Js:
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Chord samples for the bolt-on with Js:
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Slap samples for the bolt-on with Js:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Overall review:
I liked the Elricks quite a bit- they were similar to Fodera Diamonds but the mids were really dominant. I'm not used to a .065 D string, and they don't offer a set lighter than Medium-Light. They were still quite quick-feeling. Very good strings overall- even and flexible.
The DRs were all about a slap tone... they had a thinner sound with super-bright high mids. Very metallic-sounding. Super-fast strings- I could play quick string-crossing parts and they'd respond immediately. Not much in the way of a deep or mellow tone though.
The D'addario Chromes flatwounds were a pleasant surprise- they had a great feel, smooth, deep mellow tone, and a pretty good slap tone. Very stiff at the string wrappings, yet quite flexible to pluck. Thumpy but still a bit defined. Still not as fast in response as roundwounds. Had a definite difference in tone compared to rounds on my bolt-on..I enjoyed them very much, and if I dedicate a bass to a thumpier tone, I'll use these.
I know a lot of guys swear by the Fender 9050s, but I didn't like them for my style of playing at all. They offer a good mix between roundwound sound and flatwound feel, but I didn't much like the plastic-y texture of the strings. Very slow response- I really had to work to get the slap parts played. They did have a beautiful chordal tone though. I'll be selling this set as I don't see myself using them again.
Another sample here. This from the Rotosound Swing Bass RS66LA set. Probably the lightest gauge you can buy (30-50-65-85). I bought these primarily because this bass has some neck issues, and I wanted to see how it would play with something that puts out less tension. Those standard 105-45 sets make it bend at the 14th fret causing somewhat high action even with the trussrod maxed 
The set is about 4 months old.
Small review: Errmm very bright and very loose? Balanced well I guess, but being so low in tension and high in flexibility the string-to-string balance just doesn't matter that much.
Requires a lot of focus to play these to not end up with a fret buzz. It means that a minimum action of 2mm is required even with a very light touch. For the part played with a pick, I switched to a super light one for the 2nd try because I was buzzing out with the medium pick I was using. Slightly lower output but that can be overcome with a slight boost. A little bit rough, but not overly so like the Pedulla's.
The set is about 4 months old.
Small review: Errmm very bright and very loose? Balanced well I guess, but being so low in tension and high in flexibility the string-to-string balance just doesn't matter that much.
Requires a lot of focus to play these to not end up with a fret buzz. It means that a minimum action of 2mm is required even with a very light touch. For the part played with a pick, I switched to a super light one for the 2nd try because I was buzzing out with the medium pick I was using. Slightly lower output but that can be overcome with a slight boost. A little bit rough, but not overly so like the Pedulla's.
Right lads, today we have Ernie Ball Group iii flats vs La Bella Deep Talkin Flats FS, bare in mind the ernie balls are brand new out of the bag and the La Bellas are old. Enjoy
Thoughts on the ernie ball flats.. They feel so slick, not too tight either, saying that I had to tighten my truss rod to get my E string to how I have it, a little clacky on low action. I'd say these are more scooped than the La Bellas, and didn't seem to have that thump that flat users love, though had a nice solid low end to it, defo goes well with a musicman. And like slinkys, the slip whilst putting them on the bass. They have powder blue silks which look nice too. Worth a try
