Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

My first guitar was a Harmony arch top with Black Diamonds(barbed wire)!

I just put the Chromes back on my V63. The rounds just sounded too thin on it for me. They work fine on my 4003, but that V needs something beefier. And I really like the slickness of flats, the Chromes in particular. As far as the Rotos go, I hate the rounds. They are rough feeling and they are murder on the frets. The flats aren't bad at all, but sometimes they are dead out of the box. When you can get a fresh set though they are pretty good sounding strings.

Oh, Black Diamonds! I used to use them on guitar! They are hard on the fingers for sure! Probably gave me strong hands though. Then I started using Darco Funky strings.

I used Rotosound Swingbass for many years. They are rough textured strings. That makes them brighter though. The more they polish the windings, the duller they get. Like the difference between GHS Boomers and D'Addario XL's. The Boomers are more polished, but not as bright.

Rotosound Swingbass will eat your frets for sure! Especially the small fretwire on Rics. The flats are nice, as are the black nylon tape wounds, but quality control is poor. I used to know a guy that worked for the US distributor and he said they would have sets laying around on the floor for weeks!

I swore off Rotos a long time ago... I use D'Addario XL's now.

I wonder why the Rick factory doesn't make official Rickenbacker flats?

If this site is any indication of your average Rick Bass player, I think there's a definite market for Rick label flat strings.

I think they have always had outside companies make their strings for them and currently are not satisfied with any flats for some reason. They offered tapewound flats up until a few years ago.

The Rick flats that came with my 4001 were very nice! I'd buy them if they were available now.

TI's are similar to me although it was in 1977 when I last tried them, very low tension and nice sound.