You Can't Pull The Sheep Over MY Wool!

[Dust2Dust]

You are the chosen one. And You'll choose DR Low Riders. Then you'll choose D'addario XL's. Then you'll choose Rotosound 66's.
And then you'll know.
It'll be awesome.
Good luck.
We're all counting on you.

That sounds good, but I want to replace the LR's with Sunbeams, I don't like D'Adderios so I'll switch that to Fender 72505M, and RS66's broke my tuner last time so I'll switch that to EB Slinkys

Alright! Let's do this

 

[Matt Liebenau]

No, no , no you've got it all backwards. You need to pick the strings you like and keep buying basses until you find the one that sounds good with those strings. You're welcome.

 

[Bar Band Bassman]

So, I posted a thread asking about strings, and received a constant stream of replies stating that "Only YOU can determine that."

Can it be? . . . am I the Chosen One?

The only one who can discern that a Dunlop Nickel Wound 120 B resembles a stepped-on rattlesnake if you pluck it too hard

.

Yeah, right

So, I went back thru the thread and noticed a whole bunch of "Buy a whole bunch of sets and try them out" . . .

That's when I suddenly realized there must be a bunch of hidden cameras close by me, with a bunch of TB-ers gathered around a video monitor somewhere, with one of them saying;

"He's gonna do it! . . . . He's gonna buy 50 freakin packs of various brands and gauges!"

.

Yeah, Good one guys . . . I'm man enough to admit I almost fell for it

I have a briefcase full of bass strings. Not 50 sets, but only because the briefcase isn't big enough. It is almost worth the pain, though, when I find a set that magically transforms a formerly lackluster bass into one that's an absolute joy to play!

BBB

 

[Passinwind]

There's a running joke on an acoustic guitar forum I lurk at about redundant "What Strings Should I Try On X Guitar?" threads. Kinda' like the usual repetitive ones here.

Thing is, I read them sometimes if the "Guitar X" being discussed happens to be of particular interest to me. I happen to have a buncha' guitars, and the same strings don't sound right (or work right) on all of them. At any given time, my guitar strings box has probably 24 sets in it, just so you know.

I bought my very first acoustic guitar a year ago and blew through five different test sets in the first six weeks or so. As it turned out, Breedlove's stock choice was by far the best of the bunch for my particular use cases, but naturally also the most expensive. I wasn't too surprised though, having tried 11 guitars in half a day before buying my favorite out of that group.

 

[EdwardofHuncote]

I bought my very first acoustic guitar a year ago and blew through five different test sets in the first six weeks or so. As it turned out, Breedlove's stock choice was by far the best of the bunch for my particular use cases, but naturally also the most expensive. I wasn't too surprised though, having tried 11 guitars in half a day before buying my favorite out of that group.

It's funny; acoustic guitar is probably the toughest to pick a string set for of all. I've got a process... it starts with figuring out what gauges get the soundboard to resonate well but still feel okay under my hand. Some of that depends upon the setup, but I do repair and setup work anyway. So once I know, okay... this guitar responds and plays well with "custom lights" (.011-.052) or reg. lights (.012-.053) then I'll experiment with different alloys and/or coated and treated strings. Most of the time I don't go for the gimmick-y stuff. I'll admit they do sound different, just not always in a way I prefer. There are exceptions... the D'Addario XS sets are fantastic. It just bothers my soul to pay $20 for a set of guitar strings.

Bass guitar strings for me are simpler. With a few exceptions, I think they all have Thomastik-Infeld of some stripe, Jazz Flats or Rounds, at least a couple have the PowerBass set. I keep one Gibson bass strung with D'Addario NYXL lights. It's my "loaner" bass.

Upright bass is the easiest of all now... I guess because I fought all those battles years ago. I have two basses set up radically different... one with Eurosonic lights, a kind of white nylon tapewound that sound nice and thick, good for bluegrass and oldtyme. The other gig bass is strung with D'Addario Zyex, a synthetic core, chromesteel wound string good for pizzicato or arco styles. I switched-off to these domestic wires when the USD tanked against the Euro, and collaterally, the Pirastro Obligatos got outrageous. (like $300 a set) They are however, far superior strings. An old gut-bucket player like me would never get the difference out of them to support the extra $$$ though. Just give me the $150 D'As.

I reckon that about duzzit for my Monday morning string dissertation... better get to work and change some strings here.

 

[Passinwind]

Upright bass is the easiest of all now... I guess because I fought all those battles years ago. I have two basses set up radically different... one with Eurosonic lights, a kind of white nylon tapewound that sound nice and thick, good for bluegrass and oldtyme. The other gig bass is strung with D'Addario Zyex, a synthetic core, chromesteel wound string good for pizzicato or arco styles. I switched-off to these domestic wires when the USD tanked against the Euro, and collaterally, the Pirastro Obligatos got outrageous. (like $300 a set) They are however, far superior strings. An old gut-bucket player like me would never get the difference out of them to support the extra $$$ though. Just give me the $150 D'As.

I reckon that about duzzit for my Monday morning string dissertation... better get to work and change some strings here.

I settled on D'Add XTs for my acoustic, which run about 12 bucks a set if you buy three sets at a time. Didn't feel like tooling up for acoustic guitar setup tools just yet, but it's coming. The Breedlove is a sort of uptown entry level Chinese job, not a US made model, but my playing is progressing reasonably well and I'm pretty sure it won't be long before I'm looking at more uptown ones.

My EUB brings a lot of unique challenges and I've never done the deep dive on strings, but I still intend to once I make a new preamp for it. Might as well optimize those two elements to work together as well as possible!

 

[N. Kentucky Bass]

So, I posted a thread asking about strings, and received a constant stream of replies stating that "Only YOU can determine that."

Can it be? . . . am I the Chosen One?

The only one who can discern that a Dunlop Nickel Wound 120 B resembles a stepped-on rattlesnake if you pluck it too hard

.

Yeah, right

So, I went back thru the thread and noticed a whole bunch of "Buy a whole bunch of sets and try them out" . . .

That's when I suddenly realized there must be a bunch of hidden cameras close by me, with a bunch of TB-ers gathered around a video monitor somewhere, with one of them saying;

"He's gonna do it! . . . . He's gonna buy 50 freakin packs of various brands and gauges!"

.

Yeah, Good one guys . . . I'm man enough to admit I almost fell for it

It's remarkable how some people are unable to acknowledge the possibility that other people just might have an idea worth trying. This is coming from a guy who gave in and tried a bunch of strings ... and is very happy with sets that I otherwise would never have used.

 

[Faith Nicole]

All my playing basses have D'addario chrome flats. I bought them, liked them, kept using them. Then I got a bass body, stuck a neck on it, and needed strings. I had a set of roto BS66 rounds. I never cared for rounds but on this bass, they're staying. I will have to adjust to having callouses, flats don't do that to me. OMG, it'll be like I'm working instead of having fun

Anyway, to be serious in a not so serious topic, start with the tonal quality you're going for. Pick strings in the general advertised area, and try them. From one bass to another, the strings will react differently. Then you have the amp and any pedal in the chain (if you use one) to account for

 

[JC BASS 91]

For me, strings are kind of an individual fit that is a combination of bass, player and strings.

25 years ago, I went through 7 different sets of strings on my bass before I found the ones I liked.

A few years ago when I got my Ric, I went through 4 different sets before finding what I liked on it.

Some of my basses have SIT Nickel Powerwound medium lights on them.
Some I tried the SITs on and didn't like, and those have D'Addario NYXL Light Top/Medium Bottom strings.
My Precision wears Labella Deep Talkin Flats.
My Ric has D'Addario Custom Light Chromes.
My short scales all sport D'Addario XL Regular Lights.

Over the years I have tried various strings from Ernie Ball, Dunlop, Dean Markley and Rotosound and didn't like any of them, but some people won't use anything else.

 

[PDW30]

Just get SIT 45-105 Power Steels. They turn any bass into a tone monster. And any player into whoever they want to be.

You mean, they're better than practicing?

 

[PDW30]

Think of your question this way:

Without putting the values into a Color Picker, what exactly will RGB color 189, 80, 8 look like and will i like it? I've been researching RGB colors and the more R it has, the redder it is, except sometimes it's not red at all because of other factors. Just tell me exactly what color it is and if it's what i'm looking for. (Aka: without putting the strings on my bass and trying them myself, what exactly will these strings sound like on my bass when i play them?)

We can guess at the color. We can make an educated estimate of what it'll be. It's got a lot of Red, but not fully. And it's got some Green, but not a lot. And the blue is minimal. Full Red + Full Green in RGB is Yellow. So maybe a reddish yellow? Or a light red?

But unless you put those numbers into the Color Picker (aka unless you put the strings on your bass and try them) you won't know that it's a kinda bold orange. And even that, you won't know exactly what i mean by "bold orange" unless you look at it. (aka, try the strings on your bass.)

Is it the right color for you? Maybe. But maybe you like it better with 6 more green value and 3 less blue value. The two colors are so similar but without looking you'll never know.

We can give you generalizations about what the RBG values do to the color, and we can give your our own subjective description of it, but until you look at the numbers in the picker, you'll never have your answer for you. We can give you generalizations about what different string specs tend towards, but without trying the strings on your bass, it doesn't mean anything.

And you haven't even mentioned the differences between monitors (= basses)

 

[PDW30]

I'm not looking for the set of strings that I like better than every other set. I'm just looking for a set that I like and is good enough for me. ... So, my recommendation is to try a few brands until you find something you like and don't go chasing the unicorn of perfection.

Satisficing - Wikipedia