Long Lasting Strings

[dmarotta]

I just played the last show of a 29 concert tour of Europe. I normally don't pay much attention to how long strings last because I use many different basses and sometimes go weeks without playing a particular bass.
At the start of this tour I restrung my Bongo with a fresh set of Slinkys. I brought extra sets expecting to change them each week.The same set is still on the bass and sound great.We play hard and the bass often gets put away wet. I am amazed to say the least. Maybe its the German Pilsner Beer in my sweat keeping them alive.

 

[five7]

that is amazing!

 

[TNT]

well, less string changes mean "MORE SLEEP" between gigs!!!!!


lol,lol,lol

 

[bovinehost]

Hey Dave! Back in the early 90s when flats were kind of hard to come by, I discovered my very best tones were coming from dead Slinkys (or what many would have considered dead, anyway). I absolutely adored "old" Slinkys. Other bassists would pick up my SR5 and say, "Oh, well, yes, um."

So have you ever strung a Bongo with flats? I think I once picked up a bass you'd just played and thought, "Hmm, if I turn all the treble off, this could work."

 

[dmarotta]

I use EB flats on my Bongo fretless basses and an old P bass .

 

[jlepre]

Flats yes...

 

[keko]

I still got the original factory set of Slinkys on my new reflex and so far made huge "mileage" with it, (about 6 months and lots of gigs, every weekend), anyway, much better results according the long lasting strings I have with Coated EB Slinkys, used on my Sterling! Coated set last twice as much than regulars, sound is like regulars when burned in, that means little mellower at the beginning, but than last and last and.....

I just can't wait to "kill" those factory strings and restrung my reflex with fresh EB Coated set of Slinkys!

 

[nurnay]

I used to play Super Slinkys but since I got my Big Al with regular Slinkys I'm liking them better. I just put my last set of Supers on my 4H Stingray and they're just too bright (can't believe I didn't notice just how bright those Supers were until now). Can't wait til they break in a little more, but might just swap em for regulars.

 

[b-unit]

I like dead Slinky's on my ceramic SR5 a lot. They still growl but the brightness is tamed down a bit as this bass is bright. I have an alnico equipped SR5 that really needs fresher strings on it to maintain its tone.

 

[theroan]

Good to know. I love slinkys

 

[russjm]

I've tried most string makes, including some of the expensive ones, and Slinkys seem to last me better than most. I like to keep some zing in my tone, so dead 5 year old strings don't do it for me at all, but the Slinkys really do hold up as well as any others I've tried, no mean feat, I sweat like a glass blowers arse during gigs.

 

[JayDawg]

All of my Electric Basses have Ernie Ball Super Slinkys except for my one 5 string bass which has the Regular Slinkys on it. Although I can't figure out why they are called regular Slinky's when the G through E string are the same strings as the Super Slinkys on my other basses and the Super Slinkys for 5 strings are different gauges. Confusing.

Yesterday I restrung my acoustic bass with another brand due to the other brand of strings being given to me for free when I bought the bass and the original strings were dead. Unfortunately, both E strings broke during tuning even though I wasn't even tuned to 440 yet. As soon as I can, I will be ordering some Earthwoods online for it. I also re-strung my acoustic guitar with them and they sounded amazing. They also didn't break while tuning either!

 

[Freddels]

bought the bass and the original strings were dead. Unfortunately, both E strings broke during tuning even though I wasn't even tuned to 440 yet. As soon as I can, I will be ordering some Earthwoods online for it. I also re-strung my acoustic guitar with them and they sounded amazing. They also didn't break while tuning either!

The A string would be at 440, so you were trying to tune the E string too high. No wonder it broke.

 

[JayDawg]

The A string would be at 440, so you were trying to tune the E string too high. No wonder it broke.

No, it wasn't tuned to E yet but I was always told that standard tuning of
E
A
D
G
was considered tuning to 440. I was at D on the first time around and D# on the second time. Oh well, it will make me have to buy the Earthwoods much sooner which I had been wanting to do anyway.