Your Favorite Strings

I agree with matching the strings to the guitar concept. Some basses just sound better with certain strings in my experience. That said, my favorite roundwounds are the TI superalloys. They just sound and feel great to me. My favorite flats are the EB cobalts. They have a real nice tone to them and don't sound muted like most flats do.

 

Rotosound and T-I are my favorites. If I cant afford them, I get Dadario XL

In the past Ive like Blue Steel, Slinky, DR Hibeam.

 

Here we are!

 

Lekker!

 

Sure is tasty

 

Used DR Sunbeams for a decade, recently switched to GHS Balanced Nickels and really enjoying them!

 

I love gooooold!

 

What are the Optima Gold like? Anything you could compare them to?

 

Hard to describe. They are halfway between regular roundwound and Elixir. Smooth, but not slick. From the very beginning the Optima Gold are not too aggressive but they have a nice, clear tone. And a big advantage is that they do not die quickly, the always do their job. The clear tone will fade away but the fundamental tone stays.

 

In my most active band, we down tune two full steps, making my bass tuned (low to high) G C F Bb Eb. Finding strings for this was a challenge, until I discovered Kalium Strings, with their balanced tension sets. I use a .166 for the low G.

Their customer service can at times leave a little to be desired, but their strings are awesome!

 

Elixirs have this plastic-y character to their attack which I actually like! They sound a bit "squared". Interesting account about the Optima Golds, they are definitely on my to-try list now.

 

Funny thing: yesterday we had our „rehearsal room party“. Exactly yesterday the Optima strings were at the point that they started to sound „old“. We played a lot songs and I wanted to compensate the loss of clear tone with digging harder into the strings. Now I have a blister, shayte! I spoke with our „sound sheriffs“ after the gig. These are mostly musicians too. They just shook their heads and mentioned that they heard every tone of the bass lines and that the bass was well audible, even at the bar. The room was crowded and is not that high. Means there is a good chance that at the back of the crowd the whole sound is dull, boomy, muffled. It was not. Sorry HPW, but Warwick EMP strings don’t manage this. They loose punch and volume, starting at the E string which will just fade away. Well done, Optima! But today I have to open a new pack of strings. 3rd set this year if I‘m right.