Bass string sound characteristics

The strings you strap to your bass play a very significant role in the overall sound equation. I would argue that your strings are possibly the most significant factor affecting the tone. It also happens to be one of the least expensive ways to change and hopefully improve the voice of your bass.

I believe that every bass guitar is unique. I mean that even the same make and model can sound different. Wood by nature is inherently unique. The grain, density, cut of a piece of wood is like a fingerprint. So is it not possible that these factors make one bass resonate differently than another bass of the same make and model? The strings on your bass are what sets these resonances in motion. Only your ears can really tell you when you've found the right strings for your bass - I mean your unique, one and only bass guitar.

I've been been playing electric bass for 16 years now. In that time I have tried all kinds of strings on my basses. There is so many types and brands to chose from these days it's hard to decide. For bass players, strings are pretty expensive compared to our friendly 6 stringed guitar cousins.

It's definitely a lot cheaper for a guitar player to cough up 6 bucks for a new set of strings on a weekly basis. For a bass you are looking at shelling out anywhere for $25 to $50 just to replace a set of slowly dying strings. I think this makes a bass player think long and hard about the risks of trying out a different set. The guitar players have the advantage here. They can easily experiment with many types, gauges and brands to find the set that make their guitar come to life. In the end, it's an expensive experimentation for bass but well worth it in my opinion.

As for the strings themselves, there are basically four attributes of a bass string that influence the sound: gauge, material, winding, and condition.

The gauge of your strings effects your tone in a few ways. For a heavier gauge string, the most obvious effect is that your tone will have more low end presence or bass. A lighter gauge will have a brighter overall response. Heavier gauges will also sustain longer than a lighter gauge. So if you want big lows with lot's of sustain you might want to try some heavier strings. I'd say anything over 105 on an E string is approaching the heavy side.

A side note about switching from light to heavy or vice versa.
The heavier the string the slower it vibrates under a certain tension. So to get a heavier string to vibrate at around 40 Hz or E, you need to apply more tension. The more tension you apply to all strings will add more concavity to the relief on your neck. This has two effects: the height of your action increases and; your fretted bass will require intonation. More on how to do all this in a future post.

The two most common materials used for making string windings are nickel and stainless steel. Nickel wound strings are definitely darker sounding than stainless steel wound strings. Nickel is a great material as it doesn't corrode. As a result, your fingers slide over the string very quietly. You can typically get a lot of life out of a nickel set of strings. Sound wise, they are well suited to all styles of music. Stainless strings on the other hand are relatively bright with a real emphasis in the high frequency area. They can sound very percussive and tend to bring out the sizzle sounds of your frets making contact with the string. If you are a sloppy player, stainless strings are just going make you sound really sloppy. They are not very forgiving when it comes to mis-hits. Slap players tend to gravitate toward stainless strings because of the bright percussive quality. Stainless strings are pretty abrasive on the frets, fretboard and your fingers. I don't know for sure but I would bet Les Claypool uses stainless as a main ingrediant to his sound. As for tension, I find stainless strings tend to have less tension than an equivalent nickel set. I personally love the sound of stainless. I love to hear that fret noise sizzle.

String winding types include round wound, flat wound and ground wound. round wound are your typical bass string your see set up on most stock basses at the music store. Of the three winding types this is the brightest and most percussive. I'd guess 9/10 bass players use round wounds. Flat wounds or ribbon wound strings are totally smoothe to the touch. You tend to see these string set up on stock fender frettless basses. They have a very dark sound that is a close approximation tone wise to the string used on a traditional upright bass. There is almost no fret noise produced when playing flats. I find that there is almost no harmonic content in the sound produced. Installing a set of flats you will notice that the stings have a lot of tension. Roger waters, Steve Harris and the great James Jamerson all played flats to get there tone. Ground wounds are essentially a hybrid with both flat and round qualities. I assume the name Ground refers to the fact that the rounded texture of the sting winding has been ground down to a flatter texture. These string are pretty cool. They sound darker than rounds but brighter than flats. I've used grounds on a recording where I was trying to get a classic motown sound on my bass.

The last string attribute affecting your tone is the condition of your strings. Dirty strings are going to lose brightness. Dirty strings sound dull and lack harmonics. They sound dead. Corroded strings have the same affect - get rid of them. Lastly, your strings beating against the frets can flatten out spots on your strings. These flat spots wil cause your strings begin to sound out of tune over time. Once this starts happening, it's a good time to get a new set. Simply wiping down your strings after you play will really improve the life of the strings.