Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

just strings has optima gold flatwound bass string sets for (choke) $80.00. these are 45-100 gauge.(set number bg2099flatw). i passed on the recent sale of original maxima/rickenbacker at $90 per set,wonder if these are basically the same?? plus anyone here buy one of those rick sets and have them on? impressions? i am very interested,altho turned off by the price,the gauge seems more likely to appeal to me (not a fan of the (lighter)TI's.

I have a set but have not had a chance to try them yet. We've had a really lousy week and I still need to fix the tail lift on the new to me '91 4003S I got before I try the Maxima/Rick strings on it. I thought $90 was a very fair price for strings that are for all purposes unavailable any more. There cannot be many more old stores closing that find a box of these sets in an dark corner.

I read somewhere that the gold flakes off of the Maximas eventually and they look real crummy after that starts. Don't remember where I read that though.

$90 for NOS Rick flats is a different ball game.

hey,what can i say-i'm cheap! or at least want to know what i am getting for my $$$.if this is the same company that made the original strings for rick,i wonder if they are pretty much the same string... and i would have bought one of those nos rick sets,but i tend to ponder instead of pounce,so ya snooze ya looze...

what can i say? i'm cheap! i procrastinated on the NOS strings,lost out on that,and then found the optimas on line. if this is basically the same company that supplied rick flatwound bass strings in the past,i'm wondering if this is essentially the same string set...

Hi Woody,
They are not the same strings. JH has stated somewhere IIRC that the original company, Maxima, is still in business but does not make musical instrument strings.
I also have played the GOLD strings, on a friends bass... no comparison to the originals.
Hope this helps!

I read somewhere here, (forgot who and when) that TI's were about the closest you could get to the originals today which were very low tension like TI's.