I've got a set of Dunlop Super Bright Stainless Steels on my Jazz that have really mellowed nicely and show no signs of dying. On my Roscoe 5 I've been enjoying Nickel Lo-Riders as they age. All my other basses wear flats! 
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Your favorite broken in rounds?
- Thread starter DingwallDingus
- Start date
Even after they are broken in past the fresh roundwound "zing," Optima Gold rounds sound great for hours upon hours of play time.
Even 1 year later, DR Hi-Beams can still sound good. They're pretty sizzly fresh out the package, but once they're broken in they bloom.
I like D'Addario XLs once they're broken in (I also like them when they're new).
R.Cocco nickel rounds seem to break in nicely. GHS nickel rounds do, too.
DR Sunbeams get a little dull but they still feel pretty good after they've gone dead.
Years ago I played SS rounds and I was never very happy with the way they broke in. Nickels seem to work better for me.
R.Cocco nickel rounds seem to break in nicely. GHS nickel rounds do, too.
DR Sunbeams get a little dull but they still feel pretty good after they've gone dead.
Years ago I played SS rounds and I was never very happy with the way they broke in. Nickels seem to work better for me.
Rotos 66 age gracefully if you don't sweat too much. They then acquire a characteristic thump that I like a lot.
Rotosound 66 steels. Most people seem to love them right out of the package, but I prefer them broken in.
I have to buy a custom B string for my 5 string due to the tailpiece that required a tapered string to fit properly @ $12 per plus shipping.I feel your pain, sort of.
Lots of DR love in this thread, and it's well deserved IMO.
I ran dead 45-100 Sunbeams on my Jazz bass almost exclusively for a couple of decades. (Not the same set the whole time… but I'd get 1-2 years out of a set before changing.) Love those strings.
… but I've been back on a Sunbeam / Nickel Lo Riders comparison kick lately, and as much as I love the SBs, the NLRs have that immediate "thwack" in the low mids that the SBs just don't have.
I might have to string the NLRs up and leave them on long enough to hear their "dead and dusty" tone
I ran dead 45-100 Sunbeams on my Jazz bass almost exclusively for a couple of decades. (Not the same set the whole time… but I'd get 1-2 years out of a set before changing.) Love those strings.
… but I've been back on a Sunbeam / Nickel Lo Riders comparison kick lately, and as much as I love the SBs, the NLRs have that immediate "thwack" in the low mids that the SBs just don't have.
I might have to string the NLRs up and leave them on long enough to hear their "dead and dusty" tone
Fender 7250,7150, Dunlop Superbright nickel, DR Sunbeam.
As a general rule, I abhor round wound strings - even the strings on most of my guitars are flats. However, in 50+ years of playing basses with flats - lots and lots of different flats - there is a teeny, tiny handful of rounds that have met with my grudging respect. In descending order:
* GHS Bass Boomers (hex core). My '13 Gibson Thunderbird wore these for several years, because... hey; they're what T-Birds are supposed to wear, right? My 2 Headless Kramer Dukes came to me with Boomers as well. One still wears them - because it's a righty, and I'm not. But, I love the sound of Boomers, and it took me a long time to find flats that gave me a very similar tone. I did, finally, so I'm happy. I will say, though, that for me? Boomers last a very long time. 6 years for the ones on the T-Bird (and they weren't dead when they came off); God only knows how old the ones on the Kramers are. The ones on the lefty got played for 8+ years - by me - before I replaced them. They weren't dead when I did, and the ones on the righty? They're not dead yet, either...
* Thomastik-Infeld JR 324 Jazz Rounds. I bought these "short scale" strings by mistake, actually. I put them on my '94 Gretsch Broadkaster (which is a 30" scale bass, but so big that it usually wears long scale strings) out of desperation, more than anything else. The bass was just an inarticulate, toneless, almost useless Mud machine. And that was with long scale rounds. It sounded so bad that I'd never put flats on it. I had to try something - anything - to get a useful sound out of it. The TI's actually fit the thing (surprise, surprise), and - Holy S**t! The 'kaster actually sounds good now! They've been on there for about 15 months, so far. They feel very good - for rounds - and I'm hoping that they'll live up to their reputation of lasting almost as long as TI Flats do...
* DR SNMR45 Sunbeams. I didn't buy these. The owner of Cowtown Guitars in Las Vegas gave them to me when his luthier was building my Warmoth 30" scale Mini-Precision Bass. Normally, I'd never have used them, but not to would have been rude. Besides, I didn't have a set of "real" short scale flats to use, so... on they went. I didn't like the tension much, and playing them was like running my fingers across a cheese grater, but... Man! The tone from that little bass was to die for. I'd almost have been willing to put up with everything else, just for the tone. But... they died in less than a year. Shortest lived strings I've ever used - by far. So, off they came, and on went the strings I'd always intended for it to wear - light gauge GHS Precision Flats. No, they don't sound like the Sunbeams; but, they do make the Warmoth sound like it's big brother - a "78 Fender P-Bass. Which was the whole idea, anyway...
* EB Regular/Hybrid Slinkys. None of my basses wear these as their normal string now, although several of them have done so (for several years) in the past. They're usually what I put on any long scale bass that comes to me with any strings that aren't flats. I use them as my "baseline" string; to see what strings I think I would like on that particular bass. Although they don't sound like anything in particular ("generic bass" is the description that comes to mind), I like their tone for what I use them for; The feel and tension are... acceptable; they tolerate swapping from bass to bass well; they're cheap and very consistent from set to set; and for me? They last a long time; I can't recall Slinkys ever dying on me...
So... other than those? Sorry; round wound strings are not for me. Besides; with 23 basses? I'd go broke trying to keep new rounds on them, and doing so would be a full time job - that would cost me $$ instead of paying me...
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