Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I've never had problems with any flatwound on any fretlesses, and I've never used tapewound strings. When I was young I used to wrench the sound out of my basses,(fretless P bass, you had too,) I'm surprised I didn't have ruts on my necks, but never any problems. And thank both of you, I'll give both the Ric and Pyramid strings a try. I like the gauge of the Ric Round wounds, so I'm sure I would like the Ric tapewounds. Are the Ric/Maxima strings still made? Also I used Rotosound half rounds on an early 80's 4001FL and had no problems with them on the neck. In fact I brought a 1968 fretted P bass and my Ric Fretless to a session at one of the local studios, the engineer liked both of them so of course I used the Ric on the session. That was about 12 or 13 years ago, and the sound still stands up today on that album (local)

Maxima still exists as a company (primarily making fishing line) but when the founder died many years ago, their method of making the flatwounds or perhaps the materials knowledge also went away.

We currently do not supply flatwounds and won't until there is an equal to those old strings.

>>>>My humble advice to anyone regarding strings: play what works best for you
Jeffery- Good advice.

In regards to the Rotosound/Sheehan question, the problem with the strings was not in their manufacture, but, with the US distributor.
The former distributor was selling strings that had been in storage for over two years in an unsuitable environment (for string storage that is).
As big a fan of Rotosound as I am,even I stopped using them (late 80's early 90's) because of the bad quality. Fortunately the quality control problem has been rectified and the Rotosound strings sound & play as good as ever. Their customer service is excellent also.

Oddly enough Mr. Sheehan has returned to using Rotosounds.

Edmond-- Thanks very much for the additional info and the update on Sheehan's current string choice. I was going strictly on memory and obviously the finer points on that situation had escaped me. Good to know that Rotosound got everything fixed up. Although I don't use Rotosounds anymore, they were still good strings when I did use them. I always considered them the best of the limited selection that was available to me 30+ years ago. But things change and I'm quite a bit more informed about the larger selection to choose from. It's difficult to imagine switching to something other than what I'm using now.

I have found rotosound to be the best strings available. Being an English company, they are the most widely available choice over here- not to mention slightly cheaper than everything else. The standard Swing bass set (45 - 105) is a perfect match for 4000 series basses IMHO.

I cant understand all this talk of high tension, they are the lightest compared to similar strings of different brands (at 45 - 105). I switched from ernie ball stainless to rotosounds on my 4003, and had to slightly loosen the truss rods accordingly. They have a sound that no other stainless round can match in my opinion.

With regards to quality control, i recieved a set with a highly corroded and dirty D string. I contacted the mail order company that supplies my strings and they were shocked at this - especially since they were rotos. They set me TWO replacement sets!!

I too used to own a fretless 4001 and made the huge mistake of putting rounds on it(I was much younger then)..it sounded really cool while it lasted(picture"Jaco Squire" on steroids) but,it did'nt last very long. I wore the clearcoat right down to the wood.which made it almost impossible to sell later.I wish there was some alternatave fingerboard material that could have been used on the fretless Ric's(phenolic or graphite maybe?)because nothing on the planet sounds like a fretless ric with rounds..sorry,that has nothing to do with the question...I guess my point is that rounds WILL eat your board,so beware.

Hi Patrick,
I too found out the hard way on a 4001FL, I only played it that way one night and it had enough buzzes that I realized the fretboard would not be long for this planet if I continued with them (roto swing bass RS66). I then tried the Roto half rounds with just the core showing across the bridge, these sounded good for a couple of weeks and then went dead on me, so I stripped the neck and put two part epoxy on it like Jaco and ruined the sound. That bass sounded good with the half rounds (I think they were half rounds anyway, this was about 15 years ago) I should have kept it that way, I almost bought a 4003FL a few years ago with a treated neck for roundwounds, but that one too sounded dull. I don't know what the original varnish is on them but it really sounds nice. The whole point is moot for me know anyway as I use mostly flatwounds now.

Woops, didn't mean to repeat myself, sorry.