Why don't manufacturers list the string silk color?

[bassydrums]

OK, but you've just said it doesn't matter, but then you say, "I would care to avoid certain colors."

(You do realize my initial response was having a bit of fun, as is this one? Sorry, I'm an Aussie and we do tend to take the p#*s I'll leave now....)

I hear you no worries!! Hah it's interesting to me how many people get so worked up over whether it should be important or not. Clearly some people care, others don't. Both are fine but if you don't, why do people feel the need to tell others how they should feel about a completely arbitrary, personal, and insignificant thing? Geez, let other people be. If you don't care, move on, and let other people discuss instead of sabotaging the thread.

 

[rashrader]

Considering the impact the silk color has on one's tone (similar to the impact of a Tort PG vs anything inferior), I'm surprised that people don't seem to care. Actually, manufacturers should off the same strings with silk color options to match our tonal needs. I feel slighted.

 

[Discount Bassy]

My question: Is anyone actually concerned enough about the color of the silks to remove them and replace them with whatever hue floats whatever boat/color scheme? I played strings with no silks for a decade and never noted any tuning component wear. I've played strings with silks for years and can say with some amount of certainty that I think there is a strong possibility they might be black in color.

 

[fhm555]

I know that for a lot of people this doesn't matter, but it doesn't seem like it would be a hard thing for a manufacturer to specify whether strings have silk ends, and if so, what color they are.

Great! Something else I never knew I had to feel self conscious about…until now.

 

[superheavyfunk]

I'm pissed they don't list string weights.

I'm pissed they dont list the number of wraps on each string. For the $50 I'm paying for a pack of strings, I think I have the right to know if it's an unlucky number before shelling out that kinda dough!

 

[superheavyfunk]

13 years and 568 posts so far... Some do care and think about them.

Silk colors

I'm willing to bet that there are at least that many posts PER DAY across the TB forums. 568 across 13 years really isn't significant by any measure worth using.

Is anyone actually concerned enough about the color of the silks to remove them and replace them with whatever hue floats whatever boat/color scheme?

I'm gonna go ahead and say "absolutely not."

The amount of work that'd be required to do that is (I'm sure) far more than the amount of perceived "suffering" that someone might get from using strings with polka dot silks or whatever their bugaboo is.

 

[Stewie]

I'd like a choice of at least four or five colors when I buy strings. To hell with inventory management and cost. I certainly deserve better. Who's with me?

 

[Stevorebob]

I don't care much about silk colors. But I'll agree in general with the need to communicate more product details, especially for internet sales. (String spacing for basses would by my pet peeve.) However, most of the market disagrees, it seems, with the largest internet marketer apparently not hindered by their scant product information and images.

 

[Vinny_G]

I like colored silks. I like colored ball ends. Color is life.

 

[gln1955]

If they specify a color and for some reason change it, someone will call it fraud and create a PR nightmare.

 

[zenrad]

If it weren't for TB, I would still be playing the strings the bass came with. (...and saving a whole lot of money!)

If it weren't for TB I'd own 12 fewer basses

 

[maxschrek]

This has very little to do with the original question but I find it odd that my two favorite string sets, offered by differing brands, have the same silk color.

 

[allen_m]

I've never bought a set of strings because of their silk color…nor have I refused to buy a set because of their silk color. However, there is one situation I can envision where I would buy strings for the silk color only: if I ran across some NOS Peavey Gliders (or any other brand with the same silk color) I'd buy them for that reason alone. I don't think they were particularly good strings but they were light brown which made them unique and looked good on the natural headstock of the T-40. They were original equipment and sold separately for a short while so if you find an old T with brown silks you know those strings are well broken in.

 

[LBS-bass]

If it weren't for forums like TB you could probably live your entire life as a bassist without ever having a discussion about silk color.

When I was a young tyke, we had one silk color, and that color was the red on my Rotosound 66 round wounds, and we liked it that way!

 

[BobDeRosa]

It's not so much the cosmetics of string color, but the practical identification value. What if you buy a used bass with a set of strings that really sound good on it and those strings need to be replaced? Having a silk color to start with could make the string-matching process a whole lot more efficient.

 

[mrjim123]

I always paint my string ends in the color of the season - green in spring, red, white and blue for the 4th of July, pumpkin for the fall, etc. I'm really surprised that I seem to be the only one who does this.

 

[Jon Moody]

If I recall Jon Moody said once that the companies that provide the silk to string makers are very few - and that although they request colors there can be variations and, well, you get what you get.

Yep, that's it. Finding the type of silk that'll work sounds easy enough; so does finding a bolt at Lowes. Once you get into the specifics of what you actually need, suddenly there are one or two options out of many perceived ones.

If they specify a color and for some reason change it, someone will call it fraud and create a PR nightmare.

Oh, there's been many threads on Talkbass where people have asked that very thing when companies have had to either change companies, gotten different dye lots, etc..

 

[LBS-bass]

It's not so much the cosmetics of string color, but the practical identification value. What if you buy a used bass with a set of strings that really sound good on it and those strings need to be replaced? Having a silk color to start with could make the string-matching process a whole lot more efficient.

This is why we have @michael_t . He can usually pinpoint a string by a number of factors, silk color being one.

 

[MonetBass]

None of the strings I use have silk ends on them. Problem solved!

 

[Bob E]

From 10' away nobody will notice.