What brand of strings do you play?

[NickD]

I'm back to GHS Boomers after years of trying other brands. Years ago, I used to use Rotosounds (roundwounds). Loved the sound but I noticed that my frets were wearing out pretty fast. Anyone else experience that with Roto's?

[danomite64]

No, but I use the nickel Rotos, so I'm probably not going to have that particular problem. Heck, those don't even eat up my fretless!

[knacker]

Hi.

I tried D'Addario nickel, GHS and the Rotosound flatwound. But my favourites
are the Rotosound 66 stainless steel. Great punch. I always have some at home
and in the bass case.

Alex

[KingOfAmps]

Primarily have used nickel Fenders and regular steel Fenders in medium gauges.

Have also used TI flats.

Currently using Roto 66 in a 40-100 set.

Been happy with all of them.

[Pbass58]

These days I use either Fender 7250M's, 45-105, or LaBella flats. I have one P bass strung with a set of LaBella Black Nylon Tape, also my G & L Fretless, sounds great with the ebony 'board. The Fender strings are as bright as I need them, and the LaBellas are, as they like to call th em, "deep talkin". I have phospher bronze on my Kelly acoustic, they may get replaced.

Bart

[kosmicwizard]

Elixir

[Jeroen]

Elixirs on all electrics (various gauges), D'Addario roundwounds on my fretless, D'Addario Chromes flatwounds on my acoustic fretless.

[slybass3000]

After ending my sponsorship with LaBella, whom I helped designed the Modulus set for 5 strings 35", I searched for better strings for 35" bass and I found the D'Addario XL. They are cheap, well balanced and very good QC. For others basses I'm always experimenting with differents brands and sets. As far as DR, I find their QC very weak. It usually takes me at least 2 sets to make a good one and they are very expensive.

[amimbari]

you guys kid me about my "cheapness" of owning a dozen 200-400 dollar basses...strings are no exception...
I bought 40 sets a year-1/2 ago when SamAsh was having a 66 cent sale on GR 50-105 strings..still got at least 2 dozen packs.

If I want dead thumpy sound I turn down the treble, If I want bright sound I turn up the treble..I'm not picky anymore since I don't do too much recording, only live gigs.

so they last about 3-4 months before I can tell the deadness on them, but who cares, for that price I'd change them weekly if I was gigging that much

[AustinLeftyBass]

general flats:
GHS Precision Flatwounds 45-105

general rounds:
DAddario XL 50-105

Hofner:
LaBella "Beatle" bass flats 50-100

Gretsch 6-string bass:
LaBella "Bass VI" flats 26-95

Jerry Jones 6-string bass:
Daddario XL "Jerry Jones" 24-84

Rickenbacker 4001CS:
Rotosound Swing Bass 45-105

[GrahamBo.]

D' Addario Pro steels. I think I'm going to switch, as much as I adore their ultra-metallic sound, their destroying my frets.
Not too sure if anybody else has problems with them losing their tone after a week like I do, but it sure is annoying.
Probably be switching to Wyres strings, as they'll make whatever the heck you want.

[thumbslam]

Most everything has been said already but I will say different tools for different jobs. I find the D' Addario XL just have way too much tension and sometime require a different truss rod adjustment for them. They are cheap and well there is probably a good reason for that. The Pro Steel I agree for a metallic bite they are great and come in a lighter set and the tension is good but they are fretting hungry.

I play with a pick say 1/2 the time and any coated string I have used has the colors wear off or like Elixirs they Frey and get hairy. I like my fingers in hair but not bass strings.

I love the tone of Marcus Miller DR's but they are inconsistent and I just had a set with an A string that was dead. At their price I can't justify the price.

The string I go back to constantly and always sounds great to me and has a tapered B for my Spector bridges and Warwick is the Warwick strings. Black label just kill it and last forever. Hell I bought some old leftover stock Warwicks and the 6r is a 07 and the strings were the original and they were bright and snappy and even all over.

I "builder's" proprietary strings to be BS since they are just someone else’s string marked up. Blue Steels sounded like trash as well as SIT but this is all subjective right?

I think after reading this I'm going to try some good old Roto-Sounds it's what I started with anyway...Warwicks are my current all time favorite though.

[Rodent]

in a pinch I loaded a set of Ernie Balls on my '77 Stingray - YEOWSA!!!!!! I played this at my gig that evening with the tone controls and volume dimed and it was total bliss. how could I have been so misguided for so many years?

I had totally neglected to give these a try since sometime back in the late 80's. I have since used a set on my M-Series 5-strings and a Heritage Tribute 4-string that shipped to the Philly area earlier this month. I liked these so much that I'll be swapping out strings on several of my other basses over the coming months

all the best,

R

[velalv]

My string choices are pretty close to King of Amps. Use TI Flats for my P'bass (which oddly enough, I was able to get a good tone out of using my pick at church yesterday, got lots of comments from folks). I have Fender mediums gauge steels on my Jazz Deluxe.

[andrew]

in a pinch I loaded a set of Ernie Balls on my '77 Stingray - YEOWSA!!!!!! I played this at my gig that evening with the tone controls and volume dimed and it was total bliss. how could I have been so misguided for so many years?

I had totally neglected to give these a try since sometime back in the late 80's. I have since used a set on my M-Series 5-strings and a Heritage Tribute 4-string that shipped to the Philly area earlier this month. I liked these so much that I'll be swapping out strings on several of my other basses over the coming months.

I like/used Slinkys for years. They're like a more refined/longer lasting GHS Boomer to my ears (which I also used a lot).

You might want to try Fender strings again too Rod. Their current strings are much nicer than what they made years back and remind me of Slinkys in an apples and oranges kind of way.

If you want to go to a more refined style of string reminiscent of a Slinky try a set of Thomastik ss rounds (they make a "rock" string that the name escapes me). Thomastik flats get a lot of love, but their rounds are also quite nice.

[Frenchy-Lefty]

Thomastik Infield Flats on the P Bass & DR Hi Beams but with the rising prices I am looking for a cheaper roundwound. I am going to try the Slinky's as they are recommended by our friend Rodent (It seems that I tried everything but that anyway)

[andrew]

Thomastik Infield Flats on the P Bass & DR Hi Beams but with the rising prices I am looking for a cheaper roundwound. I am going to try the Slinky's as they are recommended by our friend Rodent (It seems that I tried everything but that anyway)

There's no substitute for DR's, but there are lots of other roundwounds that sound good in their own way.

[Addison]

I'm a DR guy... I have been since '98 or so. I've never had the QC problems some of you guys seem to have had.

I threw a set of Black Beauties on my ZON about 2 months ago, and it was friggin' HEAVEN... at first all I saw was "gimmick" but then I read an Ed Friedland review and decided to try them out for myself. I am TOTALLY sold on those strings. It's almost like they come "broken in" and they just stay that way forever... two months and HOURS of practice and gig time later, they're still sounding and feeling kickass ... and only some of the "black" has worn from the G string.

They're not even the new and improved "K3" coating either, which is supposed to last even longer.

On my Lull, my Custom Shop Fender, and my Stingray I use DR Sunbeams... best sounding nickle string I've ever found and those basses all sound best with nickle strings. They have slightly lower tension and last a LITTLE longer than a typical string because of the round core, but... they are spendy and don't last quite as long as I would like them to. Bass strings never do, though...

Not an Elixir fan at all... I've been part of a testing team for them a few times, and I dunno... when I very first tried them I dug it, but the more I used them the more I started to find their faults. Once the coating wears through, it'll actually start to "peel" and I've seen the coating frayed and hanging off my strings before.

The coating also insulates your strings from the ground at the bridge... so if you're playing an old passive single coil bass in a noisy room, touching your strings will not make the buzz go away. And if you're recording or listening through headphones, you can hear little grounding pops come from the strings as you play. I haven't experienced this with the DR coated strings.

They sent me another set to test a few weeks ago... I am supposed to test them for 8 weeks and I have to fill out surveys and stuff, and I can't wait to get them off and put on some Sunbeams.

Other strings I've tried that I like:

• Zon - pretty low tension, but they sound fantastic
• Warwick - totally underrated, but I wish they made a set without the tapered B
• Fender Bullets - as others have stated, these REALLY surprised me... I have a set on my fretless!
• GHS Super Steels - average tension, average feel, and average sound... totally average, but I have nothing bad to say about them.

Other strings I haven't liked so much:

• D'Addario XL - actually pretty decent, but too much tension for me... by the time they "break in" they're already dead
• GHS Boomers - are these dead out of the package or something? They sound lifeless to me... maybe I've had bad luck.
• Ernie Ball strings - sorry guys, but here's another one... I just bought a new Stingray, and along with the other problems it had, the strings sucked too... I'll post more on this once I get the bass back from warranty service
• D'Addario Chromes - Only set of flats I ever bought and it was like putting high tension steel cable from an pneumatic winch on my bass. I thought my bass was going to fold in half. I dunno... maybe I'm a puss, but I thought they were horrible. I do love the sound of flats though, so I need to try TI flats at some point.

I've tried a shit ton of other strings too, but they're not really worth mentioning...

[slybass3000]

Hey Chris,

You gonna make me think twice regarding the DR! I guess I got badlucky when i did try them out


Anyway, this is a great thread Andrew, and it is interesting to see what others are using and it makes me want to experiment more with strings, which is a big part of the sound and the playability of an axe.

[blankrider]

I have d'addario flats on my schecter. I find that the combination of mahogany/bubinga on the schecter with the flats provides a very smooth and mellow tone.

I have carvin flats on my fretless 5. Strung E - C

I am considering buying new strings for my Ibanez 4. I really like the bass, just needs new strings and a setup. I prefer lighter gauge strings and it has pretty fat strings on it now, not a fan. I was thinking of either turning it into a piccolo bass or getting some La Bella slappers for it.