Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I buy bulk nickel round wound strings ... 5 strings sets ... I always pay less than $10 a set ... I get Copley, Music Yo or whatever brand is selling cheap ... I have lots of basses and I change strings a lot ...

Owen, it's not that simple. As John Hall has said many times, the 4001 necks were not designed for the tension of roundwounds, they were designed for the old low-tension RIC flatwounds made for RIC by Maxima. The old 4001s you have seen are the ones that survived! But many did not, it just varied from bass to bass. You're right, some were damaged from misadjustment, but many just didn't stand up to roundwound tension.

The reason Rotos in particular get the blame is just because they were the first rounds to become popular.

Oh yeah, time to repeat my motto: Friends don't let friends use roundwounds.

Owen, I did have roto,s on my 60,s Ric basses for many years. One of them has been affected by string tension, (before my ownership) and the neck has suffered. The other, which has a slimmer neck has never had any problems. These older basses were never designed to take the tension of roundwound strings. However, some older basses can take them...and some can,t, which is why today there are so many stories about owners who have lost their old 4001,s due to roto,s. I currently have D,addario,s rounds exl 40-95... very light tension..

Hey Dave, you beat me to it!!..Owen..don,t take it personally!!

OK, well the 73 4001 i have bought on ebay (picking it up next month) has Fender flatwounds on it WHICH ARE THE HEAVIEST TENSION STRINGS EVER........so i think a set of standard guage roto swings are like half the tension.

I have roto swings on my 4003 - but recently put ona set of roto jazz flats (I took em off tho - didnt like them) i had to TIGHTEN the rods like 1 and 1/2 turns for those flats vs rounds

I have a '68 that has only rounds on it since 1973 ... no problems ... I use nickle wound strings .105 to .45

I used to own a '73 and '74 ... I used rounds on them no problem ...

most 60's and 70's ric's handle rounds just fine ...

to me a Ric without round wound strings just aint worth playing ...

I can't remember the last time I saw a Ric with flats on it ... oh ya it was 1973 ...

save for black nylon tapewounds, roto swings are the lightest strings i have ever seen - Ernie ball slinkys are stiffer, as are fender 7250's, Roto Jazz flats, and Fender flats are the heaviest strings ever.

Its quite confusing really//////

Jeff has a good point - 45 - 105 nickle rounds on a 60's 4001. I have a 70's 4001. And Stainless steel strings are apparent slighty lower in tension than nickel plated so im sure ill be ok

I've been using stainless steel 45-65-80-105 on my early 73 4001 for the past 15 years without any neck problems. They are considered medium-lite gauge strings.

They are exactly the standard Rotosound gauge. In fact they are basically the same strings...Jon - what brand?

Owen, they are Blue Steels. I was a big time Rotosound user up until I switched to the Blue Steels. But I found the quality control of Rotosound strings was very poor. I constently bought sets that would have a dead string in the package. I got very tired of that **** and switched.
Over the past 15 years I can tell you that I have never found a bad string in any package of Blue Steels. They sound great, feel great, last a long time and don't casue a neck problems to my basses.
They work very well for me on my 4001 and T-Bird.

Jon - i have found Rotosound to be really serious when it comes to quality control. But as they are a UK company, and im in the UK (well about 40miles from the factory actually) i guess I get "fresher strings" I bought a set recently where the D was covered in **** - looked like a ten yr old string. They sent me two replacement sets

I used to use those Blue steel med.lights, I thought they were were a much lower tension than Rots (woops I mean rotos, honest mistake, but I thought it was funny so I left it in), in fact that´s why I switched, for me they were too mushy. They had some bottom end to them though that I have always found utterly lacking in rotos.
Jeff if you haven´t seen a Ric bass with flatwounds on it since 1973, you ain´t a lookin´ very hard!
If I were going to put RW´s on a 4001 I think I would go with Original equipment Ric Nickle strings, and I think it is nickle strings that are slightly lower tension, I may be wrong however.
I like Daves saying by the way, about friends and Round wounds..

John Hall once posted that nickle plated strings are a tiny bit higher tension than stainless