Rotosound Swing 66 = RB45 Rotobass?

[chrisaxe]

Hello,

Just wondering if anyone knows the answer to this. I was looking at the Nickel Rotosound Swing 66 bass strings, and noticed that they also sold a cheaper Rotobass RB45 Nickel string. Is this the same string, just without the silk wrapping? Does this matter? Or is it just a cheaper, lower quality string?

Many thanks.

[discreet]

I use RB45s as my main roundwound. I used RS66 Swing Bass for decades, but latterly found the quality to be not great. I switched to RB45s and in my opinion they are like RS66 used to be. The fact that they're cheaper is a bonus, you can change them more often if new zingy rounds is your thing.

Edited May 4, 2016 by discreet

[mildmanofrock]

I switched to Rotobass and the quality seems the same. As far as I can tell, the only difference is that the Rotobass doesn't have the silk windings

[SingleMalt]

Same as the others have said here, I've not noticed any difference in quality, sound or lifetime of the strings.

[LayDownThaFunk]

Same string without the silk ends.

[chrisaxe]

Just emailed Rotosound and had this response:

The Swing 66 Nickel are pure nickel, and the standard Swing 66 are pure stainless, whereas the Rotobass are a stainless/nickel mixture. The price difference in the Rotobass is not as much leaving the silk off as a nickel/steel mixture is usually less expensive when purchasing string making material than pure steel of either nickel or stainless.

Now we know!

[LayDownThaFunk]

Swing Nickel aren't pure nickel though... It's NPS.

[paul_5]

The E and A strings are 0.005" thicker on the RB45 too; standard RS66 are 0.100" and 0.080" on the E and A strings, and the RB are 0.105" and 0.085". My preferred gauge, and cheaper too!

[inthedoghouse]

They seem exaclty the same to me apart from the silk