new strings wow duh

[tiger vomitt]

my friend called me tonite and said "it's like i have a new guitar! i changed the strings.."

i laughed..... i thought it was funny that even after playing for 15 years or so, him and me both (and i suspect a bunch of others here) are actively still amazed at the improvement in sound after changing the strings.

i must have changed guitar strings a bazillion times in my life. but still every single time, i still say to myself "wow this is so much better i cant believe it!"

just thought i'd share....


peace

TV

[DUC]

I do the same thing when I change batteries in me pedals. And when I change tape on me Echoplex.

More power to ya'!

[lsn110]

This may be sacriledge, but I just don't like how bright/sharp new strings sound (at least for me). I like them broken in.

I'll ditto the new batteries thing though. The same goes for new drum heads...I always encourage new heads for recording.

[Rick Hunter]

Getting new strings for me is like getting a hair cut. The first few days I am super pissed cause it's not what I had before and then about a week later I start to get used to it and then by the time I need new ones I dont want them

[bedbug]

good analogy

[markpar]

I always encourage new heads for recording.

Same here, but they don't and when it comes time to mix, they keep asking me to make the drums more "alive". Sigh.....

[dwelle]

i'm with lsn110. i don't like new strings on any of my electric guitars at all. too bright, man. give 'em a week or two and they start to come around.

i like the hair cut analogy, tho. that's a good one....

[alarmo]

Not so much with guitar, but I don't really like the sound of brand new strings on bass, at least not on a bass I'm playing. Just too bright - give 'em a day or two to get stretched out and collect a little gunk and it's a big help. That's with me playing, though; anyone else's mileage may vary.

[biasvoltage]

My hands can kill a new set of string really quickly. It got to be so expensive to try to keep fresh sounding strings on my bass that I wound up just putting flats on it. Hey! already dead!

[Mason]

You can mitigate some of that new string brightness with a set of flat-wound guitar strings. An Austrian company sells them - I'm fully spacing on the name - for (ulp!) $10 a set. Still, they've got a real cool sound that's worth checking out.

[thirdworldlover]

i've come into habit of using d'addario 1/2 wounds for guitar. completely happy with em.

but for bass, and of course this is all preference, but man... get an old pbass, keep it in the studio, keep it clean, and do not ever change the strings. ever. the roundest, warmest goddamn sound.... four seconds later and the thing is still blossoming somehow...... amazing.

nd

[Russian Recording]

Yeah, flatwounds are great for both bass and guitar. Rounds out the sound, takes away the harshness... but it's only one kind of sound.

[littlebrothersclothes]

The Austrian company that makes great flatwounds would be Thomastik-Infield. If you think those are expensive, you should check out the (German-made) Pyramid flats. They sound fantastic (somewhat brighter and more resonant than regular flats, but nowhere as much so as roundwounds) - I have 'em on my '68 Rickenbacker bass - but you could probably get a cheap Korean bass for the price of a set.

Doug

[black mariah]

I hate new strings. They tear my fingers up, and they feel too stiff. After about a week of playing, they finally seem to relax a bit and there's enough stuff built up that they don't shred my fingers to holy hell. What was really great was at my former job we had a bunch of strings laying around, and they had been sitting out for a few months. PERFECT feel and tone, right from the start. Granted, some of them were pretty damn dead...

[swingdoc]

I'm not a big Thomastic fan. I think they are a bit mushy and have a very short life span. They tend to develop "dents" in them quickly, and as they wear out, they are impossible to keep in tune. After searching long and hard for flat wounds that I like, I keep coming back to the good ole D'Addario Chromes. Great sound right out of the package, and have a decent life span.