Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

The D'Addario Pro Steels are also nice stainless steel strings, and they cost a few $ less than the Blue Steels.

Hi Steve, I love Smith strings on my Smith bass. I've tried the others and the KS, Medium Taper Core, 44-63-84-106, are the best all round athlete's I've found. I think I would call the string sound a compressed, full, punchy, tonk. Not sure how much is the bass, and how much the strings, but the Smith loves them.

Strange that I've never thought about using them on a Rick, until now. I've always used Ricks on the Ricks. Hmmmm.....great idea, thanks Steve.

Seems like there is a spec missing. Oh yeah, it would be the B string. You forgot the B string!!!!!

I have Light Ken Smiths on mine. Not 100% sure what type. I just know there light. Ill have to ask Chip. he put them on when he set up my bass.

What about those DR Hi-beams? I put some DR Sunbeams on my Ric for like... a day and took them off. It was almost unplayable. My action is set really really low. With there cores it wouldnt work on my ric. The tension wasnt enough I think. Cause my neck is convex (right word?) and has to have strings to fix that.
Anyways are the cores the same in the hibeams as the sunbeams. Their really flexable on the sunbeams.

Wow, you obviously need really stiff strings then. Sunbeams and Hi-beams are EXACTLY the same except that the Hi-beams are compressed steel and the Sunbeams are compressed nickel. They are both roundcores and both very flexible. And they both sound absolutely amazing, as do both the steel and nickel Lo-Riders (which are basically just higher tension).

Personally, I had absolutely no problem setting up my bass to play with Hi-Beams. They sounded amazing and were easy to play. When I put nickel Lo-Riders on my bass, I only had to adjust the saddle height a bit on the bridge to get the action right. The neck is straight, the action is perfect (though they are a bit stiff for my liking, which is why I'm going back to Hi-Beams or maybe Sunbeams). And they last forever.

But yeah, if you want super-awesome steel rounds, definitely check out Hi-Beams and/or Lo-Riders.

The cores are the same. I like the Hi-Beams and the nickel Lo-Riders too. The lower tension dosen't bother me at all. I want to try the Sunbeams on my V63 soon. I think they will work well for me.

Well my Neck is straight and the action is awesome with the Ken smiths on there. But the sunbeams gave me alot of fretbuzz when i was playing open E and such. So it was pretty much touching the fretboard. Of course I didnt reset it back up. I just took the strings off thru them on my dean and went back to Ken smith.

I dont know... Im happy either way haha.

So a good substitute for Rotosounds are DR hi beams? Are these nicer for the frets?

Isnt Nickle a little softer? I put that on my fretless to help slow the distruction of the fretboard.

Dean Markley Super Wound strings are the ones that they market as an alternative to Rotosound
http://www.deanmarkley.com/Strings/Bass/SuperRoundBa.shtml

If anyone likes taper core strings, the Dean Markley SR2000 sets are very nice strings.

Just a Rickenbacker-related note about the Dean Markley SR2000 strings...

...they don't work with the Rickenbacker tailpiece!

The "tapered" section isn't long enough to span the distance from the anchor point to the bridge.

A shame too, 'cause they are excellent!

oops, double post on the edit!

I never tried the SR2000 or any other taper core strings on a 4001 or 4003, but thanks for the heads up. I'd bet they would be great on a 4004. They should work fine with the ABM bridge.

Just to back up what others have said, I tried Rotosounds but found the same consistency/string breaking problems that others have had. And the Markley Steel Blues have been my preferred string, EXCEPT that they don't come in 45-65-85-105 sets, so I've had to buy mismatched sets or special-order individual strings.

If you're looking for thump, low tension and smoothness, yet brightness as well, try Thomastik Infeld Jazz Flats. They are very smooth, even in all registers, nice top without zing. On a 4001 or 4003, very close to the Sgt. Pepper McCartney sound. Better than Ric flats, IMHO.