Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Jeff, you ever use D'Addario?

If so, how do they compare to to the Ernie Balls?

Gary , I used GHS Nickle bass boomers for 18 years before i switched to the Ernie balls .A fellow forum member sent me a ricky With the Ernies on it .They felt and sounded Fantastic.They last a long time too.

Cool, what I've heard of you play, the sound is tight and crisp, great tone.

Just a string maintenance tip for anybody who's not already privy to it: When they start sounding dead & unresponsive, try boiling them in a pot of water for about 5 minutes. It cleans all the hand grime & God knows whatever else has accumulated on the strings over weeks & months of play, and makes the strings sound practically new again. You can repeat this trick with noticeable results pretty much up until your strings break or have substantial fret grooves that may affect the sound. However, I threw out a set of nickel roundwounds (forgot the brand) due to the prominent grooves in them just figuring it was time to replace them, and put on a set of GHS Boomers that I received as an X-mas gift. The new GHS strings sounded so stale & lifeless that I dug the old set out of the trash in a fit of desperation, boiled them again and put them back on. Damned it they didn't sound new again. The GHS set were immediately enlisted to fill the gap I had made in the trash can.

In summation: Boil those puppies.

Good advice Mark. I too have boiled many a set in my day.

Does anyone know if Elixer strings are high tension or low tension. I have the start of a little taillift on my 4003, so to avoid worse it's good to know what kind of tension the Elixers have. I use a 45-105 set.

I also boil my strings one time when they get a dumb sound. For the about 5-10 min boiling I use some drops of dish washing fluid in the boiling water and afterwards also the same time in ultrasonic bath. This works perfect for most of the strings, but I only do it once. The next time the sound goes dumb I boil the bass...

No, just kidding, merely the strings are worn flat at the areas of the frets, so I discard them. It's time for a new set!

has anyone ever tried soaking there strings in denatured alcohol? It supposedly works better than boiling the strings.

I also heard that if you have hard water and you boil your strings it will make them deader.

Actually the boiling works best in my experience, of course you should not use calcium rich mineral water for that, but also the few drops of dish washing detergent smoothens the water and avoids the "calcification" of the strings. The boiling even tightens the round wound further on the core when it cools down, I realized with some strings that buzzed internally. So boiling is the ultimate recommend procedure (and followed by some ultrasonification if possible).

really?...everyone over at the talkbass forums always rave about how the denatured alcohol works so much better than boiling. I was thinking of trying it out cause I'm tired of dropping 45$ for new strings all the time. I guess I'll try boiling them then...how long do you recommend I boil the strings Peter?

Hey Matt - 5 to 10 minutes is usually long enough. Boiling has always worked for me, but I'm curious enough to try the denatured alcohol trick just for the sake of comparison. Where would one get denatured alcohol?

Buy cheap strings and change 'em often. At least that is what I did until I changed to flats.

Which rounds do you recommend?

Ones in the pub (preferably not mine!).

"Where would one get denatured alcohol?"

I've been asking myself that question as well...the people on talkbass say they get it at their local hardware store but I haven't found any at any hardware store I've gone to...I haven't checked home depot yet so hopefully they'll have it.

Try a pharmacy as well.