Musician Gear & Tech Discussion

I am using DR Sunbeams 45-130 on my fiver and 45-100 on my 4. I also am digging the Labella beatle strings (50-105 I think) on my beatle clone. I am looking at which flats to put on a hollow bass next.

5 String - D'addario ENR71-5SL Half Rounds.
Regular light guage - .045 to .130

The half rounds sparkle without sounding "screechy".
Lows are crisp and clear while holding good tone.
B)

GHS boomers are my personal fave man, but Ernie Ball strings arent bad either, just depends on personal preference.

Wow! As many different responses as there are players, it seems!

Dunno why, but I almost expected more agreement...LOL

Evidently, for a lot of you, there are different strings that work best for different axes. It isn't like that for guitar players, for the most part. They find one brand they like & stick with it, more often than not, no matter the guitar they're using.

I tried those tape-wound strings once, & I found them to be too dead sounding for my taste. I love the clear bell-like ring from a new string, esp on bass, but these damned things cost too much to replace as often as I do guitar strings, which for me is about once a week when I'm playing a lot.

I need to upgrade my axe, I think. I've been using an Aria Pro II for tha last 7-8 yrs, & it fits my hand okay. Tried out a Thumb (is that a Wilmer? I forget) & loved it a lot. It was like smooth chocolate under my fingertips after that Aria, & not as big as the Smiths, which I didn't like much, mostly for the body style - too bulky. The Thumb was much better even than an Ibenez for my hand, & I liked them a bunch, too.

Eh...next $1500 I have lying around I'll get me one.

My first bass was a short scale Kay bass that came with flat wounds and very high action by the time it got near the pickups, of course this offered a flat tone that was difficult to play.
When I finally got a long scale bass it came with round wounds, the tonal difference was huge.
After trying different types of strings I stumbled across the Rotosound swing bass 66 roundwounds, these seemed to have the best tone (for me) and stayed sounding new longer then previously tried brands.
I basically assumed that the thicker the string the heavier the sound so I used the thicker gauge Rotosounds for years .
One day right before a long overdue string change our band was offered a last minute gig at a bigger venue, I went to the local music store only to find that all they had in Rotosound were the medium light gauge (RS 66LB), since I had no choice I purchased them and hoped for the best.
I put them on right before the show and quickly tuned up.
During the first song I was stunned at how easy, quick and powerful the new strings played, our guitarist approched me right after that first song and exclaimed that my bass tone was incredibly hot sounding, the vocalist came over right after him and said "How in the hell are you getting such an awesome sound tonight?", after that show not only did the drummer tell me that my tone was never better but our sound person (my wife) said "Tonight you were getting the best sound I ever heard".

That was about 9 years ago, I've since come to the conclusion that since the lighter gauge are thinner they are easier to play, have a much faster attack which translates as a powerful "punch" and also have a sweeter overall tone, of course being that music and tone are very subjective others may have a different view.

I've tried a bunch of brands thinking they're all pretty much the same till I tried DR Low-Riders. For some reason, they actually DID sound and feel better than any previous strings (D'Addario, GHS, Slinkys, etc.) Usually .45-.105, but thought about going to "heavy up" to .50-.110 to see what happens...

I use D'Addrio XL Nickel Round Wounds (XL160 sets) on my Ibanez GSR190 and Johnston Precission