Bass Strings For Metal - Punk
Being a musician, we all know what strings are for, and it would be odd to say that we are not familiar with this part of the stringed instrument.
When you go out to buy a guitar, what do you look out for in your instrument?
The pickup (humbucker single coil), the locking pins, the layout, structure, quality, color and may be many more things but the most significant thing you ought to look out for, are the strings.
Coz, that is what makes your guitar unique among rest.
The strings decide the tone and sound, it is the string that converts your emotion into a musical rhythm and coveys your feeling to the audience.
So, in a guitar the most essential part is the strings.
One can say, the strings are the life and blood of any stringed instruments or guitars.
As, they are the sole reason to produce vibration from guitar especially the bass guitar.
There lies no space between your fingers and the strings which means the strings will act how you want them to.
It will feel what you sense and will therefore, sounds what you want them to sound like.
These all minute but important details make the bass strings one of the most essential part of Guitars.
If not taken care of, the consequences would to terrible to bear.
Hence, this article will throw light on the crucial traits and features of a bass string and will provide you with all the necessary things that must be kept in mind while playing or buying them.
If you stay with us a little long, you will even be able to explore various types to bass stringed instruments and will be able to pick one of your likes.
So, without wasting any more time, lets get down to it.
Concept Of Bass String Guitars
The concept of bass guitar is unclear to most of you reading this article.
To ensure that we are on same page, first we need to understand the meaning of bass guitar.
Bass guitar, also known as electric bass guitar or electric bass or just bass is a fellow member of guitar family which is blessed with the lowest pitch ever in the race.
This plucked string instrument looks alike with the structure of an electric or an acoustic guitar but differs in the sense that they have longer neck and longer dimension of scale & have 4 to 6 strings or courses.
These 4 stringed bass sounds very similar to the double bass which is parallel to the pitches of one octave lower than the lowest pitched strings of four (E, A, D & G) of a guitar.
Ever since the mid-1950s the bass guitar has over thrown the double bass in relation to many popular music.
The most common way of playing this instrument is either directly with the use of fingers or thumb or by using a plectrum to pluck or strum the strings.
They feature the pickups which is required to be linked with an amplifier and speaker.
While choosing a set, there are few important factors and crucial trait of the strings that must be kept in mind.
One of those are the material and its quality.
When the market is dominating with nickel wrapped steel strings of guitar there lies few exemptions that do not have nickel.
To support this, there is a popular illustration of Slinky Cobalt Series strings of Ernie Ball, like the 2736 Cobalt Regular Slinky 5 string Electric bass strings designed for prolonged range bass guitars.
They are spreading all over the music industry and attracting many musicians toward them because of their elasticity, resistance to perspiration & dampness, and dynamic magnetic response that envision the strings to the pickup of the instrument.
But even if you want to stick to the vintage look of your guitar you can choose from the various classic nickel wound strings available, together with the Slinky Cobalt Series strings of Ernie Ball.
There’s another factor you need to remain vigilant or carefully watchful while deciding your bass strings is the coating.
The bass strings are mainly available in two coats that is uncoated and coated strings.
If you wish to enjoy the traditional feel of the bass, you can opt for uncoated strings.
These strings offer you a boundless response along with a bumpy feel beneath the tips of your fingers.
But if you wish to experience your strings for a long time without replacing it with other, the coated strings will gladly fulfil this dream of yours.
Though there’s a buzz in the market that coated strings limit itself with the sounds by making the string sounds softer but this is not the whole truth.
If we consider the example of Elixir, this nano web coating is created to make it fit perfectly on the string’s winding more like a ultra-thin tube, protecting the uncoated sound quality as it does not get inside the windings.
The only thing left for you to do is, select the material of your bass, select the coats (coating or no coating) for it and narrow down your options based on your favorite scales and strings essential for your instrument.
If you are done with sorting then you will be left with less alternatives to look on at and therefore less evaluation will be required.
So, from this point onwards, finding the best set for you will be a matter of time & will be very convenient.
Some Of The Well Known Guitar Strings Brands
Evolution of Bass Guitars
The very first electric guitar was designed in 1930 by the musician and creator Paul Tutmarc of Seattle, Washington.
It is a fretted instrument which is created to be played horizontally.
This model, “Model 736 Bass Fiddle” was featured in the sales catalog of Tutmarc’s company Audiovox in the year 1935.
It is a solid body bass guitar with 4 strings, 30 ½ inch (775 mm) scale length and a single coil pickup.
Later on, the first mass produced electric guitar was designed by Leo Fender & George Fullerton.
This model featured the design of an unaligned slab body and single pickup which is alike with a telecaster.
In 1953, the famous bassist, Monk Montgomery became the 1st to use fender bass in Lionel Hampton’s postwar big band.
Also Gibson launched its first scale violin designed electric bass that featured a prolonged end pin so that it can be played vertically or horizontally by any bassist.
In 1960s, many companies emerged with the same concept of producing electric guitars like Yamaha, Teisco & Guyatone.
Hence, the evolution of this bass string guitar continuous so on providing the best to every bassist and proving it the best in the musical field.
In 2011, P-bass was launched by Fender with the re-introduction of the short scale Fender Jaguar Bass.
After a brief summary on the history of bass string guitar we move on to the most important section of the bass guitars.
They are – The Parts, the bass generally contains 3 sections namely, The neck, The body & The innards.
Each section is again divided into multiple elements. So, let’s have a fast look on them.
Structure of Common Bass Guitars
Importance Of Bass Strings
As stated earlier that a bass with no strings are worthless to have therefore, the strings of guitar makes a huge difference in the tone of your bass.
In order to have perfect bass sound, it is essential to have strings.
Today’s market is full of competitive level instruments that provides high level strings and makes the selection process unclear for you.
So, here lies the list that will enable you to examine the material, features and types of the strings.
String Gauges
String Gauge is an essential element in playing and tone generation of your bass that can make a huge difference in the sound.
Gauge means the thickness of the string.
This helps to know how heavy or light are your strings.
Normally, the thicker is your string, the more string tension will be created; the more is the string tension, it will be difficult to fret.
Frequently, changing the gauge will lead to more modifications to the neck of your bass because of the string tension.
Metal Guitar Bass String Construction
The strings in itself is not special rather all its individual elements that join together to generate the life force in your sound.
There is a metal wire in the middle of the strings.
The core wire is rooted to a brass ferrule or ball end & the ball ends clutches the strings towards the bridge.
Around the metal core wire there is another wrapping of wire which is that part on the neck that your finger tips come in contact with fingerboard.
All these elements go hand in hand and produces the sound that re different from other strings.
Core
Usually, the strings of bass are made up of steel.
The core is the epicenter of wire wrap string.
The wrapping goes across the core to generate larger, wound string.
There are 2 types of core: Round & Hex.
The round cores feature a heavier, traditional tone which is well-adjusted and more elastic.
Whereas the Hex cores are most common type of core that holds the wire wrap better giving you a livelier sound, more steady performance and harder tension.
Windings
The only difference between a bass strings and guitar strings is that the former is bigger than the latter one.
Bass strings are available in nickel steel or pure steel configuration & round wound and flat wound styles.
The Round Wound strings are the most popular ones that are used for anything from rock to jazz to country style.
The flat wound is most frequently found in the bass strings rather than the guitar strings.
They are used for fretless bases, as they cause less depreciation on the fingerboard.
Coated bass strings are also available just like acoustic & electric strings.
Round Wound – most popular type of core, they have ridges on the winding.
Half Round – they provide smoother feel and deep tone.
Flat Wound – they limit finger noise & are smooth to touch, and provides deep & rich sound.
Tape Wound – they offer the outer wrapping of nylon that provides shorter deterioration & more thud.
Materials
The materials used in the winding string are made from nickel or steel alloy OR pure stainless steel.
The string made from nickel or steel alloy has somewhat more submissive sound than the latter one.
They are used in the electric bass strings as the metals are ferromagnetic which implies that the vibration is perceived & conveyed by a magnetic pickup.
There are other more materials that are used in strings now a day, such as cobalt which apparently offer more productivity & clearness than any nickel/steel or pure steel strings.
Steel – offers extremely bright tone.
Nickel/Steel Alloy – offers bright tone
Pure Nickel– offers deeper and breaking sound
Coating
The strings of bass are either coated or uncoated.
The coated strings simply mean that an ultra-thin coat is used to the string in order to avoid rust from moisture and oils.
The strings that are coated normally tends to last much longer than the uncoated strings but are also very pricey.
Scale Length
The scale length is the relationship between the length & diameter or gauge of the strings & the pitches produced by them.
This means the distance between the bridge & nut and not the neck length, though they affect each other.
The most common reason for using short scale bass is the physical size.
The necks are short hence the distance between the frets are less.
The dimension is therefore compact. This bass is great for young players.
Short Scale à 30 – 31 inches
Medium Scale à 32 – 33 inches
Long Scale à 34 – 35 inches
Extra Long Scale à 35 – 36 plus inches
It’s time to have a sneak peek at the top best bass strings guitars that we have collected in regards to quality, operation, price, feedback and many more things.
This list will definitely help you to give a rest to your thought of choosing the best among the various alternatives available in the market.
This compact list of 10 guarantee for choice the choice you make.
Guitar Bass Strings For Metal and Punk
GHS Bass Boomer
The GHS Bass Boomer of the GHS strings holds the first place in our list.
The GHS was established in 1964 for wrapping the strings of guitar. they deal in manufacturing the strings of guitar as well as bass guitar.
They belong to the realm of artist & experts that embarks on custom to support the hunt for personal string design & sound.
They are in the market for around several years and hence have gained a solid reputation over their competitors.
The GHS Bass Boomer is their classic power string and is considered as one of the most widespread bass strings which is used and recommended by many famous bassists.
They come in many string gauges & scale lengths & are available in 5 to 6 string bass guitars.
The GHS Bass Boomer features a classic roundwound power string that comes with nickel plated steel winding on a supported core.
This offers a dense, high tone along with longer endurance.
The tenor, durability & endurance of these strings makes them more versatile.
The roundwound style makes them bright and punchy for metal and funk music but it is not overstated for any other genre.
When music is played via these strings, an amusing reverbed ring out deliberately which is crucial for songs with slow rhythm & offers an influential sound.
The GHS Bass Boomer can be found in many prominent players of bass instrument, the renowned example would be Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
The bright, well balanced sound and the longevity of GHS Bass Boomer strings is the main reason to select this over other.
Also, the strings are pretty tough to break and sounds great for an extended period of time provided consistent string-cleaning is done.
For rock and metal, the one with the thick gauge suits the best.
The GHS Bass Boomer features the air tight pack and is a roundwound nickel plated steel electric bass guitar.
It weighs 3.36 Oz and has light pickup arrangement.
Reasons To Buy
Reasons To Avoid
Ernie Ball Super Slinky Nickel Bass
The Ernie Ball Slinky Electric Guitar Strings are the leading electric bass string for more than 50 years and is favorite of most bassists across the world.
Ever since the Ernie Ball came to existence in early ‘60s it played a significant role in the development of guitar strings and bass strings.
The Slinky series of Ernie is an extremely famous series and might have heard about it in a plethora of records.
These Slinky Electric Guitar Strings are played for many genres and used by the musicians like The Eagles, Blink 182, The Tool, Maroon 5 and many more.
This is an evidence to their versatility and balanced sound.
The Slinky Electric Guitar Strings is one of the bestselling strings in the world with roundwound nickel plated bass string.
It has a custom gauge with lighter strings of 40, 60, 75, 95 gauge.
In the set of five strings there is an additional gauge of 125 and are simple to play as the strings are thin.
They are perfect for learners and players who are pro in playing intricate practical tunes & chords.
The nickel-plated steel is wrapped on a high carbon steel hex core.
Therefore, offering a rich & balanced tone with abundance of treble without sounding frail in the lower end.
The nickel surface is convenient for fingers as it eliminates the risk of damage to the fingerboard.
They are the most ideal choice for beginners & casual players because of its exceptional qualities and reasonable pricing.
The tone produced by Ernie Ball Slinky Electric Guitar Strings are crispier and punchy & the well-balanced sound enables the player to play it without producing any horrible, unclear rumble.
The package consists of a super low humidity environment with Element shield packaging of Ernie Ball. It weighs 3.2 Oz and is of medium scale length.
Reasons To Buy
Reasons To Avoid
Thomastik Infeld Jazz Flats
The third in our list is the Thomastik Infeld Jazz Flats bass strings which is an ideal bass string among students and professionals.
It is made up of the flatwound nickel alloy strings which has a silky-smooth plate.
The tightness is light & slinky when compared to other flatwounds.
The Thomastik Infeld Jazz Flats offers a unique tone which is warm and rich & brighter than most of the flats.
There is a reputation of these strings that as the time passes by and they age the tone gets more and more better & it resembles a more standard mellow flatwound vocal profile.
These bass strings are counted among some of the top-notch bass guitar strings for soul, RnB & anything old school.
The tone has more smooth, subtle & impressive sound to it.
They enable easy sliding & bending of notes.
It is not much preferred by the beginners because of its expensive rate but are of high quality which can be understood by those who knows about it.
The scale length of Thomastik Infeld Jazz Flats is available from 30 to 36 inches and the string gauge fluctuates depending on the length.
The version of long scale has a string gauge of 43 – 100.
They also have 5 to 6 sets of string where the lowest string is 136.
Irrespective of its immense diameter it is delicate & convenient to bend.
It weights about 4 Oz with a medium string gauge.
Reasons To Buy
Reasons To Avoid
Elixir Nickel Plated Nanoweb Electric Bass Strings
The next place is held by the Elixir strings which are known for their special and unique coating.
The nanoweb coating offers smoother texture to players who play fast & bright tone as well, but the most vital feature is that it prolongs the longevity of the strings.
As the dusts and rust cannot penetrate inside the strings, the crisper tone is thus protected and can retain for longer period of time.
Therefore, these strings won’t let you change them often because of its durability.
The strings of Elixir are a typical roundwound strings with a nickel-plated winding on a hex core.
The sound so produced by these strings are warm & bright that makes it sound more musical.
The tone has a clarity and power & is suited for all sorts of music but is more ideal for rock and country music.
It is played for a rich, rounded tone and has a heavy mid-range presence.
The nanoweb coating on the strings reduces the fret noise & hissing pieces at the time of playing.
It enhances the grip of the player & provides the smooth and nature feel.
When compared to a roundwound power string, the Elixir Nickel Plated Nanoweb Electric Bass Guitar Strings are quiet but when compared to a flatwound strings they are bright enough.
When the coating starts to break down, the sound turns out to be irregular and chaotic.
But to that to happen will surely take a long time more like one year or so.
It has a long scale string with super light gauge of .040, .060, .075 & .095 also there is an option of 5 strings.
Thus, these features make these strings the most versatile option available for the bassists.
It weighs about 2.88 Oz and ensures durability, brightness and value of money.
If you are against changing your strings often, these strings might fulfil your needs.
Reasons To Buy
Reasons To Avoid
D’Addario EXL 160 - Heavy Gauge Bass
The D’Addario EXL 160 is in the 5th place of our list.
Looking for some typical warm tone with heavy low end, this string is your turf.
These D’Addario EXL 160 strings are capable of producing round, booming bass rumble that you have loved to listen on famous records.
The D’Addario is the best-selling bass guitar strings and are world renowned as The Player’s Choice for all bass players for all kinds of music & style.
They acquire their heavy bass power from the roundwound nickel plated creation.
They are best suited for long scale bass string guitars and for blues and old school music.
It offers fat tone with a strong fundamental for medium gauge set.
The gauge set of 110 offers more blend of goodness and power but lacks in the brightness.
It has more rich vocal presence but it is more submissive than the Bass Boomers.
The digital winding of D’Addario EXL 160 strings provide finest pitch & steadiness.
The build quality & features make them an ideal choice for playing different style & genres.
These strings are easy on your fingers when compared to rest strings.
Therefore, is used by the rookie players or them who play long in concerts of long duration as the nickel wound strings are pretty convenient for them.
They are budget friendly and durable.
The tone produced is well balanced and versatile which is best suited for modern soundscape while still offering a classic sensation.
The strings gauge wound is of .050, .070, .085, .105. It weighs 4 oz with long scale length and heavy string gauge.
Reasons To Buy
Reasons To Avoid
Dean Markley Blue Steel
The next in our list is the Blue Steel Strings from the Dean Markley.
These blue steels are the world’s 1st & finest Cryogenic activated strings.
They are the total breakthrough in the field of string technology.
These Blue Strings are built up of pure stainless steel which has been cryogenically processed from frozen strings in order to increase the longevity & sound qualities of the strings.
The design of the core is shorter and more elastic than any other core wire of bass string enabling the players to play the strings easily.
These Dean Markley Blue Steel are the strings with compound winding, which means there are manifold sheets of winding wire of almost up to 4 sheets on the heaviest gauge and the sheets change direction.
This makes the top smoother.
Those strings that are smaller than .050 have ordinary single windings, bigger strings have extra sheets of wire winding.
At .090, another sheet of wire is wounded and from .120 and above they have 4 winding sheets of wire. 4 sets of string have gauges from extra light to extra medium whereas, 5 sets ranges from light to medium.
The Dean Markley Blue Steel strings are pretty durable in nature and not only this but it does sounds great.
The tone produced by this string are rich, bright and punchy.
While they are newly purchased, you might say that the brightness is very strong but soon that intensity is reduced to an attractive sparkling sound and remains for a long period of time.
This strings with such sparkling and shimmering tone is best suited for rock & metal style, and are ideal of slapping & popping because of their punchy tone.
They are not cheap but their durability and vivid sound makes them surreal for the value of your money.
It weighs 2.88 Oz with string gauges of .050, .070, .085, .105, .128.
Reasons To Buy
Reasons To Avoid
Rotosound Swing Bass 66
The Rotosound Swing Bass 66 secured the 7th place because of its rich metallic tone produced mainly due to its stainless-steel strings.
The Rotosound is a gold standard of electric bass string which is in this field since the past 50 years.
They are very popular among many top players like Geddy Lee, Billy Sheehan, John Paul Jones & more like them.
They did a good job in redefining the sound of rock & roll and highlighting the bass and bassists to the limelight of the musical world.
The tone of these strings is hard hitting, fluent and sparkling which enables them to pierce through the tight configurations.
The tone of Rotosound are very close to the tone of the piano but they are not so strict to the point where they cannot be controlled and restrained with the tone dials when they are to be used for long time duration.
The Rotosound Swing Bass 66 is not an ideal bass strings for the beginners.
But are great for professional bassists, as they require a lot of accuracy, finger strength & dense hard skin.
It is good in slapping & popping and offers thump & crisp that makes the mechanical playing sound loud & clear.
They are long lasting and have well balanced tone.
The Rotosound Swing Bass 66 has a medium string gauge of 45, 65, 80, 105 with the scale length of 34 ½ inch.
It weights about .32 oz. it comes with 5 to 6 string options.
A standard set of Rotosound Swing Bass 66 is within your means and has versatile sound quality.
Reasons To Buy
Reasons To Avoid
DR Strings Black Beauties
The DR Strings have been included in our list because of its smooth, sophisticated and classy black bass strings which features a round core wire & stainless-steel wire wrapped around it to enhance the brightness and the texture.
When the vintage craft meets the innovative essence, a modern design with beautiful bass strings are developed.
The DR Strings are well-known for their handmade craftmanship and have been in this field since the late ‘80s.
These strings are unique because of their special coating.
They have a coating of jet-black version of DR’s K3TM Ultra hard coating which grants durability, more projection, less undesirable connotations & exceptional clarity & eloquent.
Do not let the old reputation of coated strings cloud your judgement and restrain yourself from choosing this amazing product, Black Beauties.
This exceptional coating of K3 does not bland the sound rather improves it.
The bassists recommended these strings because of its loud and clean sound which is not even surely found is many uncoated strings.
Rather the coating enhances the life of the strings and eliminates the rough tones.
On top of this, the black coating gives your string classier & more elegant look.
The Black Beauties of DR Strings are available in light, medium & heavy gauges.
For the heavy gauge there is an option for selecting between taper and no taper.
The light gauge and heavy gauge sets come in 5 string sets and 6 string sets.
The nickel-plated strings help in well balanced tone of high quality which goes along with any sort of music.
Few famous and well-known musician who uses this bass guitar strings include Adam Clayton of U2, Geezer Butler of Black Sabbath, Alex Webster of Cannibal Corpse.
Therefore, it can be anything from mellow to aggressive, depending on your preference.
The coating of these strings is usually of thinner than average, that must be the reason that it does not influence the sound very much.
Still, they are sleek from any other uncoated strings and are alike to classic Elixir strings.
It weights 4 Oz and are suitable for music style like rock, blues, country, metal, pop & jazz.
The string gauge ranges from 45 to 105.
Reasons To Buy
Reasons To Avoid
Best Strings for Fender Jazz Bass - Fender Super Bass 7250
If it is a list of bass strings, it is incomplete if there is no Fender in it, as they were the very first company to evolve the bass strings and gave them a new look in the guitar realm.
The Fender Super Bass 7250 is an exceptional multipurpose bass string with a nickel-plated steel of roundwound bass.
These strings are versatile and particularly good sounding that work with music like rock, funk, and any style in which the bass needs to pierce into the bass strings.
There is no exaggerated decoration to it, just a great accomplishment of an eternal design.
It has crisp and punchy tone and lots of active output which is because of the nickel and steel.
The blend of nickel & steel provides the string with smooth and pleasant texture than any other pure steel strings and sustain the bright tones.
The Fender Super Bass 7250 strings are always complimentary with any Fender bass guitar.
Therefore, the tone produced by them seems to very impressive when related with other cheap strings on bass guitars.
The light string gauge ranges between 40 – 95 and the heavy gauge ranges between 58 – 115.
The lighter gauge provides high playability without forgoing much tone but can breakdown sooner than an average string, as reported by few players.
But the strings are quite cheap so the breakage won’t be an issue.
They are simple and convenient to play and are within your means. It measures about 1.6 Oz.
Reasons To Buy
Reasons To Avoid
Dunlop DBN 45105
And the last product in our list is the Dunlop DBN 45150.
Dunlop Manufacturing, Inc. was formed in 1965 as a small family owned company and is situated in Benicia, California.
This company mainly deal with producing leading electronic effects, pickups, capos, sliders, strings and other equipment related to musical instruments.
In the year 2005, they entered the business of strings and is a very reputable company since then.
There strings are built up of nickel and has well balanced and even tone that gives a perfect difference between the lowest notes.
They do have smooth and flat surface which is convenient for fret.
The strings of Dunlop DBN 45150 are equal in volume and harmonics & are comparatively reactive from other strings.
They are capable of producing different tone and output as the force and way of plucking the strings differ.
Because of the nickel-plated strings, the tone is warm and well balanced with strong fundamental.
Sufficient overtone is created that are able to cut through any soundscape without sounding particularly fierce.
The texture and feel of Dunlop DBN 45150 strings impresses many casual players who have delicate fingers because of the sleek nickel winding strings.
There is a total of six string gauge option available for you to choose from, the lightest is 45 – 100 & the heaviest is 60 – 120.
The weight of this strings is about 3.2 Oz.
Reasons To Buy
Reasons To Avoid
Final Words On Guitar Strings
From this, we came to the end of our list as well as article.
After having so much in-depth learning of bass strings we are sure you will be able to pick few of your likes.
The above list will provide you a great help in doing so.
However, if you are still a bit confused, you can look into our suggestion.
There’s no doubt in it that the above strings are versatile in their respective way but it is equally true that not all strings will help in creating the array of your bass strings.
So, to make it simple and convenient for you we came up with two ideas.
The 1st is, select the bass strings according to your taste, preference, skills, playing style and of course your budget.
Try playing all those strings and pick the one whose tone suits you the best.
The 2nd option is, the above list accumulates all the stunning strings available in the market so you can easily choose any one or two from there.
You can pick any in relation to your budget, style that is whether you are a rookie or professional or you can go for high quality sounds which might be expensive for some but some are ready to compromise their money for quality.
Personally, the Elixir Nickel Plated Nanoweb Electric Bass Guitar Strings fulfil most of your desires, but there is no hard and fast condition to follow our suggestion.
What you actually need to follow is the beats of the string that impresses your heart.
So, Go for it guys! The top-notch bass guitar strings are all yours.
