What's your philosophy on strings? Same strings on all/most basses or different strings on all/most basses?

[Iristone]

I tend to use the same roundwounds (Rotosound 66) on all my basses with rounds, since no other rounds touch it tone-wise. I do experiment a bit with different flatwounds for my other basses, though, and I've found Rotosound 77 and La Bella 760FL/FX to be solid go-to choices.

 

[GIBrat51]

I voted different, but not sure I really fit that description. I use...
TI Jazz Flats on 4 basses
La Bella Flats on 4 basses
La Bella Super Polished (MTD version) on 2 basses
EB Cobalt Rounds on 2 basses
EB Cobalt Flats on 1 bass

Philosophy is....
I pick a string that works with the bass and what I want to do with the bass.
I prefer the feel of flats.
When I have similar basses, I typically use a different set on each.
Sometimes I want the tone of rounds and ignore my feel preference to get it.

^^THIS^^ More or less...
With 30 basses currently in my "Herd", I'm not going to try and remember which bass wears what strings. Except to say...
3 basses wear 2 different brands and scale length tape wounds. The rest wear flats; different gauges, different scale length, and different brands... I ldo ike to match the strings to the bass, as well as the music I want to play with it. And, yes; I do have different brands/gauges of flats on my two Dano DC59 Pro basses. Same goes for my two Thunderbirds - although one is a Gibson, and one is a Tokai TB48. For reasons I won't go into here, my Rick 4003 and 4001 wear two different brands of flats - although they do sound very, very similar...
I'm also willing to spend the money to experiment with different flat wounds. I can afford it, and, TBH? I've found some flat wounds that most people would pass on, but that sound just like I want. They make me... happy.

 

[DaveParker39]

I try to keep things as uniform as possible but if a bass ended up in my arsenal that was better suited to a different string I would try it.

My two go-to sets are DR Lo-Riders for rounds and DR Legends for flats, 45-65-85-105 (I wish they made a 47-107 set)

With acoustic guitars, though, I almost always use the same string make/model that the factory shipped the guitar with just for simplicity of setup/intonation... my Martin has coated Martin 12's and my acoustasonic Fender has coated Fender 11's.

 

[Mister_GothFrak]

I play in:
G#0 or C# standard
Drop C (sometimes with a low G below that)
Drop E0 / B standard

I have three basses for each. Regular fretted, multi-course, and fretless. One is shortscale, one is hybrid fretted / fretless (7-strings total). Ergo, each bass has slightly different strings. Typically, they're fairly heavy gauges.

I generally run DR Neons/Black Beauties/Red Devils where they make appropriate gauges. For the most part, I stick with that one brand. Except they do not make tapewounds and I went with a .165g D'Addario for that low E -- it's beastly.

 

[dbsfgyd1]

I'm simply not fussy enough to find a bespoke string set for every bass, life is too short.

Ya know, you got a point there. When the notes start flying in an ensemble, as long as instrument sounds like a bass, nobody else is going to care what it’s strung with. I’ll agree there are definitely tactile differences where some have preferences over others, but if you can hear the difference on the job, you’re probably too loud…

 

[mpdd]

been trying to simplify things
dark sounding basses - nyxl rounds
brightish sounding basses - ti flats

 

[Zazie Moondust]

I voted different but to be fair I only have 3 basses with one being a fretless and the other 2 being in different tunings. If I had a lot of basses I might start using the same ones for multiple basses.

 

[Jazzdogg]

All of my double basses wear TI Spirocores.

Most of my electric basses wear TI Jazz Flats.

My ABG wears tape-wounds.

One of my fretless fivers wears Dogal Hellborg rounds; the only rounds I am currently using.

 

[Fuzzbass]

I'm simply not fussy enough to find a bespoke string set for every bass, life is too short.

FWIW I do lazy searching, time investment is minimal. Every so often I'll get a string recommendation from somewhere (often from friends), so I'll buy a set (or multiple, depending on price), and eventually get around to trying them when a bass needs a string change.

So, just seat-of-the-pants stuff. I doubt many of us are swapping out a dozen fresh string sets per bass over the course of an afternoon (but hey, respect to those who have the time and money!)

 

[babaseen]

I have wasted way too much time and money on this, but here is what I ended up with...
1999 Status S-2 Classic: SIT Foundations
1999 Sadowsky Modern 5: Black Diamond Nickel Rounds 550L
Classic '70 Series Fender Precision MIJ: Sadowsky Flats
2008 Bravewood Bass of Doom ('62 Jazz): D'Addario Pro Steels
'05 Nash P-Bass: Ernie Ball Pino Palladino Extra Light Flats
2020 Squier Classic Vibe '70s Jazz V: DR Pure Blues

 

[Jammy Jellyfish]

Let's see...

La Bella White Nylons x 2

DR Lo Riders

DR Sunbeams

GHS Contact Core Super Steels

Pyramid Nickel Rounds.


Different spices that enhance (the sound) variety...and the cooking experiment never ends when it comes to strings in this house....

I'd forgotten about Sunbeams! Love those!

 

[ljazz]

Fender CS '59 P - Sadowsky Blue Label Flats.... 9+ years old, and still going strong.

'08 American Standard P - DR Sunbeams

'87 G&L SB1 - a fresh set of LaBella Olintos

'92 Fender American Standard Jazz - an old set of Daddario XL's - will be putting something new on.... haven't decided on what yet... probably SS DR LoRiders.... love those on J's.

97 Fender American Dlx Jazz 5 - DR SS LoRiders

Rogue Beatle Bass copy.... an old set of GHS Tape wounds I had laying around.

Cort Action PJ that I got as a freebie has a set of Daddario xl's.... not sure what I'm gonna do with this bass.

 

[ElectricBass72]

The majority of my basses have either Dunlop Super Bright Stainless Steel or Nickel rounds or Ernie Ball Cobalt Flats.

Some exceptions are my Ibanez Multi-Scale 5-string with DR Dragon Skins and my Ernie Ball MusicMan Stingray 5HH has DR High Beams.... both with .130 Low B.

My 12-String Schecter Stargazer has D'Addario XL Nickels.

 

[iqi616]

FWIW I do lazy searching, time investment is minimal. Every so often I'll get a string recommendation from somewhere (often from friends), so I'll buy a set (or multiple, depending on price), and eventually get around to trying them when a bass needs a string change.

So, just seat-of-the-pants stuff. I doubt many of us are swapping out a dozen fresh string sets per bass over the course of an afternoon (but hey, respect to those who have the time and money!)

Yep. When I'm going try something different, I buy a set as my "new spare" to go alongside my "old spare Fender headstock" and my "old spare two on-top two beneath headstock" sets.

 

[BassicJazzy]

Yep. When I'm going try something different, I buy a set as my "new spare" to go alongside my "old spare Fender headstock" and my "old spare two on-top two beneath headstock" sets.

I have various strings that I've bought then changed my mind before I put them on the bass. I'll eventually get around to putting them on a bass. Oldest is a set of Bass Boomers from '96. Might be nice on the Sire P5R, one day, if my LTFs ever wear out.

 

[brianrost]

For bass guitar, I like playing both rounds and flats. For DB, I like playing both steel and synthetic strings. Except for my two P basses, every bass has a different string set.

 

[80jazz]

For me, it is more about gauges. 35-90, 40-95 and 40-100 are the 3 I use the most. If it's 35-90. Rotos are preferred but SIT Power Steels are my next choice. If it's 40-100 Warwick Red Labels are the first choice for that gauge. 40-95 could be multiple brands (Rotosound or DR Lo-Riders are probably the top 2), as I think nothing works better on a Jazz Bass than Rotosound Swing Bass strings (at least for the tone I want. Sometimes I think I need to try a P with flats, but I light gauge flats don't seem to have too many options).

I have nearly 30 basses and I have a list hanging around of what bass gets what string. As my technique has changed though, it seems that I can make 35-90 work across the stable better than I thought I could. I DO think I will eventually get away from 40-100 altogether. We'll see.

 

[vvvmmm]

What about if I don't have a philosophy, just a string theory?

 

[Richard Lindsey]

What about if I don't have a philosophy, just a string theory?

 

[12BitSlab]

My strings sing, therefore they are.