Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

If you want the flat sound you don't have to search for high priced rare strings ... just buy a cheap set of rounds and put them on then go get a bunch of greasy fried chicken and eat it ... now don't wash your hands just play the bass ... get lots of grease worked into the strings ... repeat several times ... now don't change the strings ... let them get old ... then you can get the THUD sound ...

LOL and maybe some hot cheezy stuff too!

I have tried a bunch of brands, types, and guages, and am right now favoring the stock Rickenbacker nickel 45-55-75-105's. Go figure. I guess I like the heavy top and bottom strings and lighter middle ones.

I like a 105 E string too ... and a 125 B string ...

My "usual" string for the last few years or so have been Fender 9050 ML's. Flat, SS, 50-65-85-100.

I had a set on my 4001, and even when the string itself sounded deader than a doornail I had tremendous sustain and deep bass in the amplified sound. When I put a new set on, the piano like ring that Ricks are known for came out clearly.

I use the same strings on my fretless J bass...

My new 4004 Laredo has the stock flats. Now convinced that the guages are 45-55-75-105 (I had believed the guitar care booklet that came with the bass, which states 45-55-75-95), and although I was unhappy with my sound the first gig I played with this bass, the last couple of times I've used it I have been happy.

I'm torn about strings, I guess for now I'm going to stay with RW's the same guage, until the 4001 strings are worth changing. At that point I think I'll go RW on the 4001 and switch to the Fenders for the Laredo. But since the strings on the 4001 are relatively new it's going to take a while before that guitar is ready for new strings...

And I might just waffle about what I put on the Laredo...

I like flats because of their feel, sound (yes, I like THUD-THUD-THUD) and durability. I noticed yesterday that the E on the Laredo is sounding quite dull unamplified now...the way that I remember RW's dying their slow death. But amplified it was fine, and I think I'll be ordering some new sets of 45-55-75-105's so I can change out soon. I'm still not sold on the feel and sound of RW's, but the way I play and set up my tone (I often close the tone pot) I can get a decent enough thud when I want it, and certainly the highs are more prominent. For what I'm doing I guess it works well, but so did the flats on the 4001. So all in all, the real issues with sound come from elsewhere, mainly our own heads.

D'Addario XL-170's are great strings. I swear by them, the '170's are guaged .45 .65 .80 .100

XL-165's are guaged .45 .65 .85 .105

XL-220's are guaged .40 .60 .80 .100

I've never used 165's, because once I found XL-170's, I was sold. I have '220's on my CII.

You can find all kinds of strings here
www.juststrings.com

Thanks for all the input. I love the sound of flats, but when I put on the elixir's, the Ric growl came back. I want to try the D'Addario XL's just to hear what they sound like. Then I just might go back to the Chromes. The fireglo will keep the Pyramids on it, and I'll try a few other sets on my other 4003. I thought I found my sound, now I have the bug again. Time to break out the charge card.

You never really completely finish "finding" your sound, and sometime the sound "comes" to you.

Even dinosaurs evolve...as I (old flats guy) am seriously thinking of keeping at least one bass with rounds...

I use TI flats on two semi-hollowbodies, but they just don't seem to have the overtones the rounds have. When I first went to practice with the Ricky nickel rounds on my 4003, the drummer even asked "What did you do to that bass? It sounds so alive now!" Yep, just another good reason to own multiple instruments, eh??

Pyramid Flats on my 4001 C64S

Rickenbacker Nickel Roundwounds on the 4003

LaBella Nylon Tapes on the '61 Fender Jazz

Thomastik Infeld Nylon Core Phospher Bronze Roundwounds on my Washburn ABG 34.

That covers all of the basses (o;}

I use DR Nickel Lo-Riders on my V63 and 4003.I like them a lot. For flats, I like D'Addario Chromes the best so far. I'm still debating what to put on my new C64FG when it arrives. I'm thinking maybe DR Sunbeams or SIT Silencers, or D'Addario Half-Rounds . The Chromes flats are a possibility too. So many choices...........

I have one bass out of 6 with rounds on it, I never use it though, and incidently dead round wounds sound nothing like flats, they just sound like dead strings with no bottom and top.
Back in the old days bass players used to buy a new set of flats, put them on an old bass tuned to pitch, put vaseline all over them so they didn't rust and let them sit like that for a year or in the closet so they got properly conditioned, but those guy were bass players.

What are we, chopped liver? {:^)

I mean BASS players, a lot of them came from upright and wanted their bass to sound like a bass, nothing else. A lot of guys today sound like low frequency lead guitar players compared to the 60's session guys who I got that tip from in bass player magazine. I forgot his name, used to play with Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes, they reran an old interview along with his obituary.

Upright to me sounds more like thwaap thwaap than thud thud!