Rotosound

As you may have guessed by now - or by looking in the menu on the right, I am now a Rotosound endorsee. Here's the story....

I had been playing flats, halfs, grounds - just about any kind of 'wound' string there was, because round wounds were just too bright for me. I had tried all kinds of rounds, D'Addario, Ernie Balls, Fender, Elixirs, GHS - and they were all tirelessly bright. Irritatingly bright. I wanted something that had more of a mid-range bite, something that had some pronouncement, but that didn't sound like a fat guitar string. Something with some meat to it - something with some bass to it!!

I found Rotosounds because, well they've been around forever - first Round wound bass string - and are used by some of the top - and my favorite - bassists, Geddy Lee, Steve Harris, Billy Sheehan - some of the top names in the biz! I started out with the monel flats - and I loved 'em. They were flat-sounding - very thumpy - but they also had a certain brightness to them, and not a harsh bright - but you could slap them. So, I thought to myself, maybe I should try some of the others to see how different they sound. I started off with the half-wounds - and I didn't really like them. So then - since my gear hounding is near endless - I thought I should try the nickel rounds. That would be better - and less bright, to be sure. They were less bright - but had a great sound to them as well - almost exactly what I was looking for. . . almost. :) So then I bit the bullet and tried the Swing Bass 66's - the Stainless Steel Rounds - the originals.

I was blown away. They were brighter - to be sure - but that irritating harshness was not there. The mid-range bite was. I was thrilled!
I haven't used anything else since.

Now, in StrangeLand we decided to downtune - so that makes it a whole step, so I'm tuning D-G-C-F - and I thought about getting heavier guage strings to compensate. Now I'm using .50 - .110 guage 66's Swing Bass. Wow - they are think - but honestly, not that much thicker than the .45 - .105 that I have been using. I have my Euro Spector with the heavier, and my Euro LX with the Medium strings - tuned the default E-A-D-G. I use that bass with Jeremiah's Journey gigs. I love that bass. :)