why do so many famous Elect. Bassists use such light gauge strings?

[Lord THand]

"why do so many famous Elect. Bassists use such light gauge strings"

Sounds better on the high notes actually (to them). I personally dont notice a difference. Im using 60s to 120s on my main bass (squire jazz bass) and they feels fine. Feels great in fact, they just seem more real. More natural.

As far as the sound goes, eh- I dont know. I play metal and rock derived stuff mostly and that doesnt require a whole lot of tone. I per se am not a tone freak. I dial into something that sounds okay and then play.

My secondary bass (ibanez gio I believe) is running 45s to 105s. That string gauge is way to big for that bass. Plus that particular brand (ghs) sounds like zhit. Maybe the whole bass is crap. Who knows. I just plan on using it to play in E.

My next set of strings for that bass are going to be Dunlop. I run those on the Squire Jazz Bass and they are great.
They make Bass playing seem real again. Remember when you first started playing and everything seemed so new and mezmerizing (the strings, their smell, holding the bass, the sense of power it gives you, et all)?

[For me anyway] Playing with Dunlop strings brings back that feeling.



But a crappy silver cover. In all honesty, my ibanez is a piece of crap and probably needs to go. Sometimes its better to spend a little more many than to waste time making countless fruitless truss rod adjustments and going through set after set of strings.

I mean I realize that may slightly contradict what I said about tone and stuff not really mattering, but you really do need to play on something that is going to look and sound semi-professional.

 

[Jeff Lee]

Gary Willis uses D'Addario nickel xl 45-105 with a tapered 135 B string. Marcus uses 45-105. I prefer lighter strings. Notes sounds more articulate

 

[Sazazie_Spring]

I use much lighter than average ( 30-90 ) purely because i have a frail body and the thicker strings make playing more difficult than it needs to be. While that might be excessively light for a string gauge, it works well and I can play without destroying my left hand

 

[maturanesa]

Its not that hard to realize. If are going to play thousands of notes (like Victor or Dickens) you better dont do it on a string that requieres a lot of energy per note...

 

[bearfoot]

I got into string tension when noticing the low E was almost always floppy when playing in high-energy situations.

Then I noticed how over-tight most G's are, and came to despise the .45 G-string.

But, on my most recent string change, I noticed that pure nickel strings have a MUCH higher perceived, or real, tension. Fender pure nickels have a tighter feel than SS.

So I am finding that .40-.100 pure nickel rounds are currently my ideal string. They are light and quick, but not at all floppy or slow when the adrenaline kicks in.

 

[ixlramp]

I think it's because so called 'standard' tension is actually very high, and advanced bassists come to realise this and move towards less tension through refining their technique.

'Standard' tension seems to be a tradition carried over from acoustic contrabass and never really corrected and relabelled. Electric bass was initially designed to be an electric contrabass, and had flatwounds at high tension, .050-.105 was considered 'normal'.
New basses come with .045-.100 or .050-.105, new bassists get used to it from the start and develop their technique around it, many won't question it or experiment or put the required effort into getting used to less tension.
There's also a commercial vicious-cycle that means guitar shops are biased towards stocking the 'standard' sets.

The fact is no bass string needs more than around 30 lbs tension to have good tone (although some players like more for various reasons), and it makes sense to exert yourself less and reduce the chance of injury.
The vertical neck of a contrabass creates an ergonomic and health advantage, high tension on a horizontal neck is more of a problem due to the wrist bending and twisting caused, and the longer reach to the lower frets.
I think that bass guitar needs to become a guitar instead of an electric contrabass.

 

[Clark Dark]

Stanley Clarke plays .035-.090
Mark King plays .030-.090
Both great players and I think they both have great tone.

 

[rashrader]

Lighter touch.... Economy of Motion.

I play my 5 strung E-C (95-70-55-40-28). I’m not even famous. Lol.

 

[bass12]

I've been using .040-.120 for the past few months and I'm surprised to find I don't miss anything about .045-.130 sets.

 

[ixlramp]

For EADG, if i tuned that way, i'd be happy with roughly .085 .060 .040 .025.

 

[40Hz]

I use 'em 'cos I like 'em . . .

^Possibly the single best reason of all.

 

[40Hz]

I think that bass guitar needs to become a guitar instead of an electric contrabass.

I think it already has for the most part.

 

[denhou1974]

Play heavy gauge 6-8 hours a day for 20 years ... then you won't.

 

[BassGreaser]

Once I went heavy gauge/high tension flatwounds (.52-.110), I haven’t looked back.

I find the stiffness is not only a great match for my SG bass but also really helps with fast runs and fills.

 

[Lobster11]

I still will offer $50 to anyone who can consistently identify light gauge strings from heavy gauges simply by a recording.

I share @JimmyM's skepticism. This reminds of the endless debate about whether 15" speakers sound "deeper" than 10's (spoiler alert: they don't) and I wonder if people who think heavier strings sound deeper are listening with their eyes rather than their ears.

 

[Kaplan]

I switched to lighter strings when I start soloing more often. Above the 12th fret heavier strings feel clumsy.

 

[japhy4529]

I like lighter strings because I think the harmonics are more in line. With a thick string, it resonates more a like a bar than a pure string. This means that the tone is more clangorous than the pure harmonic series that a perfect string generates. The added flexibility of a lighter gauge also means that I can pull more tones out of the string. I find it easier to vary how high the up harmonic series each note can have. I also like the bendability.

YMMV, etc, etc.

Edwin

I know this post is nearly 11 years old, however, I just wanted to congratulate you on your excellent use of the word "clangorous!"

P.S. Do you still prefer lighter gauge strings?

 

[chilliwilli]

I'm different than all of you in that I use lighter strings, so I can play with high action comfortably. Action has a much greater impact on tone than switching guages IMO.

 

[maturanesa]

Because more chops require more mechanical effort so you want the strings to make it easier.

 

[Jnemz]

I love that this thread has gone 2 decades. I have a lot of opinions on this.
Different brands have different definitions of light! DR calls 40-95 "light", but D'addario calls that "Super Light"

I used to use D'addario Super light to try to sound like Vic. I then went to their regular light, partly because at that point I wanted to play more like Gary Willis, & read he used those. (Maybe even slightly higher guages now as someone said here). Obviously the strings don't make you sound like the man, it's more in the fingers, but it can sometimes get you in the right ball park.

Pretty sure Marcus uses thicker strings than Victor's 40-95's. And you can hear his bass sounds thicker, and harder to play, double thump, etc. I feel like Vic plays way more stuff, but Marcus has such the signature, thick slap sound that perhaps each slap is a little more "significant"?. It's easy to hear when they play together.

So after using D'addario 45-130 (I just play 5's) for years, just for fun I put some DR Black Beauties 40-125 on my Ibanez SR1405T and OMG so effortless, and the action is able to go lower without so much fret noise. (I find with the thin necks on Ibanez they like lower tension for low action.....not true of every bass) Super fun to play for chording and stuff, but I don't feel like I can really get fat notes from the G string, so I end up playing higher on the neck on the lower strings. Plenty of low end to be had though for sure.....I'm sure I could get through any gig with it.

So now I'm all obsessed with Hadrien Feraud as I'm sure a lot of people are, and just read he uses Elixirs. 5 string set is 45-130, but looks like he sometimes also uses 40-95 with an added 130 (they don't make a "light" 5 set). I really want to know how often he uses the lighter ones!