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What has your SIT string experience been like?

#22
I really like SIT Powerwounds for nickel rounds; they're fairly bright & warm sounding, and sounded better IMO than D'Add XLs or EB Slinkys plus I thought they lasted a little longer.

I was disapointed with the Powersteels though because they weren't anywhere near as bright as SS should be like D'Add Prosteels.
 
#24
Solarmist, I have mostly had contrary experience with the Power Steels - they were what I have switched to from D'addario Prosteels. But not all my Power Steels sets have felt as bright, with the original set with the exposed cores that came on my bass being the brightest. I also tried Rock Brights in stainless and after recording several vary controlled sound samples for an experiment to compare them to each other, I couldn't reliably tell the Power Steels and Rock Brights in stainless apart while listening to the playback. I will say that I noticed that the Prosteels may be brighter in the upper mid range, which I'm actually not very fond of, but that could lend a feeling of the Prosteels being less bright in that range, if you are really into that band of frequencies.
 
#25
ELS said:
NorCal Dog,
This is common for those who try the Silencers. Players either love them or hate them.No in-between. Send me an email with your address, Ill send you out something else to try.
[email protected]
Click to expand...

I personally love the Silencers. I've been using them for years. Recently, I tried a set of Dave Ellifson's signature SIT strings, and I liked them as well. Now I'm kind of torn between the two.

NorCal Dog, one of my best friends owns a music store here in Florida, and he stocks more SIT strings than any other kind. He's a guitarist, and he swears by them. He turned me on to them.
 
#26
Yeah, I'm a big fan of the SIT powerwounds as well. The only strings I currently use are Roto 66s, but if/when I can't get a hold of them I have no qualms with picking up a set of SITs and have used them quite a bit in the past when Rotos weren't in stock, etc.
 
#27
I've tried 2 sets of Rock Brights nickles, 1 set of the stainless, and about 5 sets of the Silencers.

One thing I can say is that the sets I've used have always had consistent feel in tension, from string to string. IMO, better than daddario, elixir, webstrings. Another brand I consider to have a good consistent feel in tension is Rotosound. So you can use that as a gauge of how I "feel" things.


As far as sound: Its been a few years since I've used the stainless Rock Brights, so I can't really comment.

I recently used my second set of nickel Rock Brights. New, they sound very deep and fairly tight sounding. But they lack some of the warm mids. They don't sound scooped, just "cold". They tend to keep that colder tone for awhile, before they start to warm up and go "dead". Tension is a tad higher.

The Silencers, which I generally like, are an interesting string. they are very even in tension from string to string. They also seem to be a bit lower tension than some other strings. They have more of a "middy" tone to them. They sound like a round wound without as much clank or as much top end bite, but still have that roundwound zip when sliding. Fresh out of the pack, the high end can be a little "modern" on some pickups/basses. Again they are pretty middy, but in a pleasing way. They sound great with a P-bass or a soloed front pickup. They are not a very deep sounding string.

They are a bit grabby, which does feel weird. But I'm not sure it actually slows me down and if you can ignore it, these are pretty great strings. The grabbyness does subside a bit, as the gaps fill with hand crud. These strings do get visibly cruddy. Its just the way they are. If you are OCD about that sort of thing, you have been warned. The grabbyness does not seem to be consistent. A couple of sets have seemed notably less grabby, than others.
 
#29
Toptube said:
The Silencers, which I generally like, are an interesting string. they are very even in tension from string to string. They also seem to be a bit lower tension than some other strings. They have more of a "middy" tone to them. They sound like a round wound without as much clank or as much top end bite, but still have that roundwound zip when sliding. Fresh out of the pack, the high end can be a little "modern" on some pickups/basses. Again they are pretty middy, but in a pleasing way. They sound great with a P-bass or a soloed front pickup. They are not a very deep sounding string.

They are a bit grabby, which does feel weird. But I'm not sure it actually slows me down and if you can ignore it, these are pretty great strings. The grabbyness does subside a bit, as the gaps fill with hand crud. These strings do get visibly cruddy. Its just the way they are. If you are OCD about that sort of thing, you have been warned. The grabbyness does not seem to be consistent. A couple of sets have seemed notably less grabby, than others.
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I use the Silencers on my P bass and I have not experienced the grabbyness and the strings getting cruddy that you describe but I do know the chemicals in each person's body can vary from person to person.
 
#30
hey guys I'm a slapper and like a .125 B and would consider a .120 B. which set would you recommend? I want the most bright twangiest, piano string sounding set I can get.
 
#31
Philly, you're a man after my own heart. Their Power Steel and Rock Brights Stainless are the brightest strings that SIT makes, I believe, and as I described above in an earlier post, I wasn't able to tell them apart in some ultra low-variable recordings of the two sets I made. I feel like maybe the Rock Brights felt slightly more tense, but it's hard to say. The absolute brightest SITs I've tried were the exposed core (or Power Core?) stainless steel ones I've mentioned here a couple times that came stock on my Drozd bass, but unfortunately those don't seem to be available anymore (they are available in nickel). So I would recommend trying a set of either the Power Steel or RBS ones, and they have a .125 Bs in some of those sets :)
 
#32
Spfairchild said:
Philly, you're a man after my own heart. Their Power Steel and Rock Brights Stainless are the brightest strings that SIT makes, I believe, and as I described above in an earlier post, I wasn't able to tell them apart in some ultra low-variable recordings of the two sets I made. I feel like maybe the Rock Brights felt slightly more tense, but it's hard to say. The absolute brightest SITs I've tried were the exposed core (or Power Core?) stainless steel ones I've mentioned here a couple times that came stock on my Drozd bass, but unfortunately those don't seem to be available anymore (they are available in nickel). So I would recommend trying a set of either the Power Steel or RBS ones, and they have a .125 Bs in some of those sets :)
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Thanks. I guess my choice of tone is not too popular here on TB. I don't care for warm and round. I want that piano tone and growl and aggressiveness LOL!!!
 
#34
ELS said:
NorCal Dog,
This is common for those who try the Silencers. Players either love them or hate them.No in-between. Send me an email with your address, Ill send you out something else to try.
[email protected]
Click to expand...

thanks for the offer Eddie, i appreciate it.

the silencers seemed to be a good set of strings that had great tone, but were indeed grabby to the touch, perhaps that would have diminished over time, who knows as i didn't give 'em that chance.

since then ( as that was a few years back ) i've transitioned to flats & now to tapes & love the tone & feel of tapewounds.

if you had a set of SIT tapes i'd take you up on your offer, it's all good :bassist:
 
#35
I've been using SIT strings for about 10 years. Most of the sets "powerwound nickel" I have used were great. There were a very few strings that went dead faster than the other. Never had one dead out of the box. Over all I have been very happy with the strings. I wish they made a wound .020 for my 7 string!

Most importantly the manufacture stands behind their product and helps their customers out when there are problems which can happen in any manufactured product.
 
#36
Just got my Guild B301 back with powerwounds. Strings sound great so far. They are indeed bright as new but also have a balanced presentation of the whole spectrum. They definitely bring out the character of the bass in a good way. Props to SIT for delivering a solid consistent string at a great price.
 

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